Football

Gianfranco Zola names two players that suffered under Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea


Maurizio Sarri had just one year as Chelsea boss before returning to Italy (Picture: Getty Images)

Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola has picked out Eden Hazard and Willian as players that really suffered under Maurizio Sarri’s management, due to his tedious training methods.

Zola worked as Sarri’s assistant for the one season that he was manager of the Blues. A season which ended with Europa League triumph and a top four finish in the Premier League, but also saw Sarri depart for Juventus.

It was an up-and-down campaign for the Italian duo, which saw plenty of fan unrest but ultimately was unquestionably successful in terms of results.

Sure to be his only season in management in England, Sarri finished with a perfectly respectable win ratio of 61.9% and a trophy in his cabinet.

However, his repetitive and tedious training techniques did stifle some creativity at Chelsea, with Zola himself admitting that their game-changing talents were quelled.

‘They were talented players, like Hazard and Willian, players who know how to win games on their own, but they were suffering from the type of exercises and type of training we were doing – but it was necessary for the others,’ Zola told beIN Sports.

‘I’ll be honest, they were brilliant because they got bored, but they kept doing it throughout and that was the reason why when everyone was dropping we were going up towards the end.’

Zola explains that boredom was a problem under Sarri as he tried to drill his way of playing into his side, but they were not taking it on board.

‘At the beginning the players were very much behind everything that we were saying, they were brilliant,’ he continued.

‘hey were following everything, but then as the weeks passed due to the repetition and the amount of games they were playing, the players got tired and they also got bored in a way.

‘But boring is part of our job. Sometimes you need to get bored but when you get bored you persist in what you’re doing and you get better.

‘I remember that when I was learning to play football, kicking a ball for example, I used to do it 300-400 times a day at least.

‘There were moments when I got tired but I needed to do it repeatedly because if I wanted it to become a part of me, this was the process I needed to go through.’

Hazard left at the end of the campaign for Real Madrid while Sarri looks on course to win Serie A with Juventus when the Italian season resumes in June.

Chelsea are battling for a top four spot again under Frank Lampard, who midfielder Matteo Kovacic has praised this season for eradicating Sarri’s tedious training regime.

Kovacic told FourFourTwo: ‘I came to Chelsea under Sarri, but I must say that Lampard is an exceptional manager. He has kept the character he had as a player in his personality as a coach, which has inspired all of us.

‘He commits himself with everything he’s got. Training is always challenging and different from last season.

‘That’s probably the main difference between Lampard and Sarri, who made the concept of training quite monotonous. There were a lot of similar training sessions with a focus on tactical preparation.’

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