Maurizio Sarri has said he is looking for his Chelsea players to ‘react on the pitch’ after his stinging criticism of them at the weekend.
The Italian spoke in his native tongue on Saturday evening in order to send a clear message to his players, saying that they were ‘difficult to motivate‘ following their 2-0 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates.
With Chelsea set to face Spurs at Stamford Bridge on Thursday evening in the second-leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals, Sarri revealed that he has held discussions with his players about how they can improve their recent fortunes, saying that they need to react on the pitch.
“I think we need to react on the pitch. All the rest is nothing,” Sarri said at his pre-match press conference.
“We discussed with the players how to try to improve their approach, the motivation, the determination. We are trying to change some things in training. We all have to react on the pitch.”
Chelsea are a club that has seemingly developed a tradition of starting to play well for a new manager, before ultimately downing tools and getting the manager sacked. Asked if he feared a backlash over his comments, the Italian boss didn’t think it would be a problem, saying that they need to discuss their problems.
“No, why? I cannot understand why. We need to discuss our problems, the first step is to accept the mistake otherwise it is impossible to improve.โ He added.
“I know very well that the situation can change suddenly without a logical situation.
“It depends on the atmosphere, we have some players with the characteristics to be a leader. Azpi, Luiz, I think they can help all the other players to get the right mentality.”