Sarri shows transfer worries, highlights Willian’s importance

Chelsea started off pretty well in their clash with Newcastle today, with David Luiz finding Pedro with a no-look pass from our half to open the scoreline in the 9th minute of the game. But soon after that, the laid-back form of Sarri-ball took over to give Newcastle the tying goal the match with a Ciaran Clark header via corner kick.

Thanks to a moment of brilliance from attackers Eden Hazard and Willian, Chelsea got back ahead in the second half. Still, the decrease in application by the Blues after taking the lead in the first half is worrisome. It is a problem that most certainly worries coach Maurizio Sarri.

“I am very happy with the result. I was happy with the performance at Tottenham. We started well. When we scored we felt like it may be easy, [but] it wasn’t.”

“After the goal something happened, we stopped playing. It was important for points and the goals.”

“It is difficult to understand why we stopped. In the last 5 matches it was hard to score, today we did after nine minutes. We stopped to play and then we had problems.”

For Sarri, the burden was all on Chelsea as they made the match difficult for them. He believes that the problem is our mentality, which is something he already highlighted in previous matches where Chelsea did not play as well as expected.

“We were not able to react to the difficulty; but today shouldn’t have had a difficulty, we didn’t face that.”

“Against Watford we reacted well. Apart from the result at Tottenham we reacted well.”

“I think that we need to improve our mentality in total.”

Another source of worry for Sarri midfielder was the individual performance of midfielder Jorginho. His showings continue to be erratic; and since he is central to Sarri’s system, a bad game from him can lead to a bad performance from the team as a whole.

The problem worsens when you consider that his immediate — and from the looks of it, only — substitute Cesc Fàbregas left Chelsea for French club AS Monaco yesterday, with no player brought yet to fill in the Spaniard’s shoes. That does not bode well for Sarri, who is still waiting for that new name to arrive.

“As you have seen Jorginho was in trouble, but I didn’t have a player for that position. I have no idea [when it will get sorted].”

“The club knows very well my opinion. I need a player there. It depends on the club decision. I cannot do anything more.”

On the opposite side of the spectrum, there is one of the goalscorers today, Brazilian attacker Willian. He was the subject earlier this week to a bid from Barcelona who were looking to exchange him for money plus fellow countryman Malcom in a package amounting to £50 million. Hours after the report, the bid was rejected by the club.

Even though many Chelsea fans were left baffled by the club board’s decision not to sell a 30-year-old with 18 months left in his contract, they have a supporter in the first-team manager for their decision. He sees Willian as a key player, and one the team cannot afford to lose at the moment.

“You know very well that Willian is a very important player. In my opinion Willian has to stay with us.”

The same goes for his teammates Pedro and Callum Hudson-Odoi. As the “Eden Hazard as centre-forward” solution persists, they have become even more important to the team.

“[Willian] is a really very important player, like Pedro. Odoi for us is becoming a very important player.”

“With the solution of today, with Eden like a striker, we need wingers. We need Pedro, Odoi, Willian of course. For us he is a fundamental player.”

-Maurizio Sarri; Source: football.london

Last, but not least, a message from the fans to ‘very important player’ CHO: