Maurizio Sarri hasn’t been wasting his time since landing in Perth. He’s scheduled two-a-day training sessions every day so far, and even though there’s a friendly match on Monday, they’ll practice again that very morning — that’s seven training session in total, if you’re counting — before immediately getting on a big iron bird to wing their way back home after the Perth Glory game’s final whistle.
Fans were allowed into the Saturday night session and a generous 3,500 happily endured a downpour to get a first look at Sarrismo. Reports trickling in describe general training drills (piggy in the middle, keepy-uppy) but also Sarri-specific drills. One involved practicing one-touch passing at the back until Sarri blew his whistle, at which point the players sprinted into new positions and the ball moved up the pitch at lightning speed, ending with a shot. It was rehearsed over and over, regardless of whether or not it resulted in a score.
The Mail’s Kieran Gill was there in person and fortunately for us, even wrote a report about it. You should read it.
Lucky enough to sit in on a Maurizio Sarri training session earlier in Perth. Here’s what happened... https://t.co/5ZysAktHG9
— Kieran Gill (@kierangill_DM) July 21, 2018
In addition, there are a couple videos making their way around Twitter from training, which gives us a lovely tease of what all that might look in real life. This drill involved the “defenders” taking a position but not moving. The attackers then one-touch passed their way all the way to a goal. Again, many repetitions were involved. The idea wasn’t to practice under real conditions. It was to make the passing pattern, the one-touch play and the player movement so implanted as to be instinctive.
Sarriball pic.twitter.com/uuh6PuXsxC
— Dami (@TheChelseaWay) July 21, 2018
Also, it’s a lot of fun to watch. Hello Sarrismo!
SarriBall being drilled into the players already, the premier league isn’t ready for our fast paced attacking football. ( Morata’s passing is shocking ) #CFC pic.twitter.com/vra5FANIqp
— - (@MaurizioIogy) July 21, 2018
Is it okay to get excited yet?