Maurizio Sarri has admitted he may not be equipped to motivate his players after seeing Chelsea suffer the heaviest league defeat of Roman Abramovich’s ownership at Bournemouth.
Sarri, who endured chants of “You don’t know what you’re doing” from Chelsea fans, kept his team in the dressing room for around an hour after the final whistle in an effort to understand why a game that had been goalless at half-time had unravelled so spectacularly. The defeat led to Chelsea dropping out of the top four on goal difference and places Sarri’s position under scrutiny six months into a three-year contract.
“I think the players are good enough,” said Sarri of his Carabao Cup finalists. “Maybe we are not at the top of the Premier League at the moment but we are competitive. We cannot lose 4-0 against Bournemouth. I want to respect Bournemouth, and you know I like very much the coach Eddie [Howe] but it’s impossible to lose 4-0 here.”
Asked if he was good enough, he added: “Maybe it’s my fault, maybe I’m not able to motivate them. But the team is very strong, it is also able to win without the coach.”
Sarri had been critical of his players after the recent defeat by Arsenal in the hope to coax a positive reaction but, despite encouraging wins against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup semi-finals and Sheffield Wednesday in the fourth round of the FA Cup, this was a second successive league defeat.
“I feel frustrated, not under pressure,” said Sarri, who asked his coaching staff to leave the dressing room post-match. “I didn’t see the signal of my work. So I am frustrated. I wanted to understand, so I spoke with the players immediately but it’s very difficult for them to say why. So I have to try again tomorrow, because I need to solve this problem.
“I wanted to talk with them alone, without anybody else. It’s impossible to play in such a different way between the first and second half. I don’t understand why. I don’t know exactly.
“We have only to say sorry to our fans. We can lose, of course, in every match but not in this way. We need to solve the problem. We need to understand where the problem is.”