The Italian suffered the heaviest defeat of his tenure at Stamford Bridge and was left frustrated by his side’s failure to adapt their game plan
Maurizio Sarri admitted Chelsea’s performance was “a disaster” as he was caught out by Tottenham’s tactics in a bruising 3-1 defeat at Wembley on Saturday.
Spurs were rampant for much of the Premier League clash, with Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Son Heung-min all notching to get on the scoresheet before Olivier Giroud netted a late consolation for the Blues.
The visitors were unable to keep possession against a free-flowing attack from the hosts and Sarri, handed the largest defeat of his tenure at Stamford Bridge so far, admitted that his side failed to adapt accordingly to the game.
“After five minutes, the situation was very clear,” the Italian told his post-match press conference. “We lost a lot of balls and, against Tottenham, it’s very dangerous to lose the ball in your half.
“In short counter-attacks, they are one of the strongest teams in Europe. It was a disaster and, after 20 minutes, 2-0 was the minimum.
“I am disappointed because we played very badly. I think we played very badly in all directions — physically, mentally, technically and tactically.
“Today I didn’t like anybody.”
Alli and Son in particular combined effectively to foil Chelsea midfielder Jorginho, effectively neutralising the orchestrator of the Blues’ fine form across the opening half of the season.
Sarri identified that ploy as key to the midfield battle that was evidently won by Tottenham, and offered no softened criticism of his team’s performance.
“It was clear after five minutes of the match that it was very difficult to use Jorginho as usual,” the 59-year-old stated.
“We had to get the ball from the centre-backs to the opposite full-backs, that was the only way to have one or two seconds of playing the ball.
“We were surprised because they normally play with a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, but they played 4-3-1-2.”
However, opposite number Mauricio Pochettino was a little bemused by Sarri’s analysis, insisting his side consistently alters its shape in each match.
“The plan was to win the game and we won,” said the Argentine.
“We don’t use a fixed formation. If you follow us in all the games we play in the Champions League, cup and Premier League, we don’t talk about formation, we talk about tactics or animation.
“We talk about how we play in a different way with possession in the opposite half, how we organise the team in a defensive situation when we don’t have the ball.”
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