Sarri hoping January brings balance to his Chelsea squad

Chelsea continue to be steadily linked with attacking players as our current options outside of Eden Hazard continue to be inconsistent and underwhelming — that’s putting it mildly in some cases — but that’s not among the first two priorities for Sarri this January.

While rumors claim he’s “asking” for a striker like Higuain or Icardi (not exactly going out on a limb with that sort of speculation!), what he’s actually looking for is a bit of trimming and a bit of balancing. Just like the rest of the western world crammed into gyms to fulfill new year’s resolutions, Sarri’s hoping his squad can lose a bit of extra baggage around the midsection. It’s only after all the fat is gone that the muscles can become visible.

“I think at the moment we have too many players. We have 28 players and it is impossible to use all of them. I think 25 is the right number. We have a lot of offensive midfielders and we have only Kante as a defensive midfielder. It is not easy to have the right balance in our midfield.”

-Maurizio Sarri; source: Chelsea FC

But a more streamlined midfield, including a backup to Kante, who plays the only position without a direct backup at the moment, is only part of what needs to happen in the next month. Chelsea also need to find consistency as a team, and stop panicking whenever we do concede a goal.

“Of course we have to do everything just in order to avoid the same problem [as in the Leicester match] in the future. The [Watford] match is difficult, we know very well. We have to study very well these kinds of opponents.

”I think now the most important thing is our reaction after the match. In the match, the reaction was not in the right way. Now we have to think about the reaction after the match, just in order to prepare in the right way the next match.”

-Maurizio Sarri; source: Sky

Chelsea make the short journey to Watford on Wednesday, but that result could go a long way towards setting expectations for the rest of the season.