Chelsea’s starting eleven to face Leicester City this afternoon has proven just how much Maurizio Sarri has learnt during his debut season as our manager.
Though he achieved plenty at Napoli, one of Sarri’s frequent criticisms was that he didn’t rotate his side as often as he should. We fast came to see for ourselves that this was a trait of the Italian.
It came as no surprise to Chelsea supporters to see the squad burn out and suffer a dip in form after the turn of the year. Sarri forced the team into pushing themselves to the very limit.
He has, however, fielded a highly rotated side to take on Leicester this afternoon, despite the fact that Chelsea have something to play for in the automatic group stage qualification third place provides.
This, to us, shows he’s learned.
Earlier in the season Sarri would have entrusted his players to get the job done, no matter how tired they were. Today, he’s showed compassion and understanding, giving a few of them the day off.
This is only going to help Sarri in his second season. We’re not going to be playing as many games next year, and have a manager better equipped to deal with the treacherous nature of an English campaign.
This is only good news for us.
