Chelsea defender David Luiz has slammed the British media in defence of under-fire manager Maurizio Sarri.
Sarri looks to have successfully turned it around at Stamford Bridge. He will have been feeling the pressure as the negative results piled up, with Chelsea’s number one priority of securing Champions League qualification hanging in the balance.
It’s unclear whether those behind the scenes at Cobham were seriously considering dismissing our manager, or rather the media made the assumption as a result of Roman Abramovich’s long history of swinging the axe.
On February 13th, the Telegraph claimed that the next two weeks could prove pivotal in Sarri’s Chelsea career. He has got through them unscathed, perhaps better equipped to succeed as he was before.
Sarri will be hoping that our upturn in form will put an end to speculation over his future, as is defender David Luiz, who was named as captain for our win over Dynamo Kiev midweek. He has showcased the characteristics of a true leader by rushing to the defence of his manager.
Luiz is quoted by the Daily Mail tearing into the media and the bizarre nature of their reporting on matters relating to Chelsea this season:
“The media has to have some answers every single day. So the beginning of the season was, ‘Oh, my God, Chelsea is learning very quickly his philosophy, the philosophy of the manager, it’s amazing’.”
‘Then after a few months, ‘Oh, Chelsea didn’t learn anything yet, Sarri-ball is not good enough and that’s it’. Tomorrow it’s going to be what the media wants to do.”
“For many years, the media was not happy because Chelsea were winning without playing very good football and now Chelsea is playing very good football and sometimes we don’t win so people are not happy.”
Luiz has hit the nail on the head here. No matter what football you are producing, you will always have your critics. What’s important from a Chelsea perspective is proving them wrong – and we have an opportunity to do it in the business end of the season.
