The Blues made "a lot of mistakes against the wrong opponents" in their 6-0 defeat at the Etihad Stadium, conceded the Italian boss
Maurizio Sarri defended his style of football after Chelsea were thrashed 6-0 by Manchester City but said his players were not fulfilling his intentions on the pitch.
Defeat at the Etihad Stadium was Chelsea's third in succession away from home in the Premier League, and the manner of the Blues' first-half capitulation, falling 4-0 behind inside 25 minutes, left Sarri unable to explain what went wrong.
The 60-year-old led Chelsea on a 12-game unbeaten run from the start of the season through to late November, but they have since lost six times.
Sarri's men are sixth in the table, outside the qualifying spots for the Champions League and 15 points behind leaders City, who romped to victory courtesy of Sergio Aguero's hat-trick, a brace for Raheem Sterling and a goal from Ilkay Gundogan.
When asked post-match if he had any doubts about whether his style of play could work at Stamford Bridge, Sarri responded: "No, because today I didn't see my football.
"At the beginning [of the season] it worked. So now we need only to understand the reasons why at the moment it isn't working.
"Something is changing. I am not able to see the reason but we have to work for this. My target is to play my football, not to change [to] another football because at the moment we are playing another football."
Sarri rebuffed questions over his future at the club and also dismissed suggestions that he refused to shake City boss Pep Guardiola's hand after the game, insisting he had not seen his counterpart.
He blamed Chelsea's defeat on a number of mistakes made during a crucial period of the game but said there was no issue with motivation among his players.
"My feeling today was really very good," said Sarri. "The area map was really good so I think the motivation was at the right level. We started well then we conceded the goal after four minutes in a stupid way.
"In that moment, we needed to stay in the match and we were not able to. They [City] played really fantastic football today."
bubcit
151
pls bring back Mourinho, Roman Abrahimovic. He is the only one who understands the philosophy of Chelsea. Chelsea do not play an open game. Conte did well in Chelsea because he used Mourinho's approach. Bring back mourinho and support him financially to build Chelsea. He is a fantastic coach. I believe he must have been advised on how to relate with modern players who always need to be pampered, cuddled and coddled. Mourinho is Chelsea; Chelsea is Mourinho!
Handsome Mike
107
This is why he hasn't won a glass cup in his life..Uptill now, he still hasn't figured out that teams stop Chelsea by man-marking Jorginho out of the game. To stop Chelsea, just stop Jorginho that's all!
timacdmnrs
97
Sarri is a very stubborn manager, it is clear that these group of players cannot play “sarriball” everyone can see it but he doesn’t switch up the tactics whatsoever. Everyone already knows how to play us since the Everton and Tottenham games yet he still hasn’t got any Plan B or doesn’t adjust formation, rotate players or change of tactics it’s shocking. The players also need to take stick as well as because a lot of individual mistakes cost us in yesterday’s game and Man City are a great team yes but we let them beat us within 25 mins it’s embarrassing how we got torn apart. I’m not even gonna begin name dropping because I’m sure we all know who the culprits are but then again yesterday there wasn’t even one single player that played good it was appalling. There’s no urgency, no good decision making in the final 3rd, lazy pressing and to make matters work these players give up anytime the opposition score first this isn’t the 1st time and it’s jus not good enough we need to see passion. Either the board start backing Sarri and letting him get the players he needs to play his type of attacking football or Sarri needs to find a way to make Sarri ball work because we all wanted to play attacking football and now that we’re doing it everyone is upset I agree that loss was unacceptable but we’re gonna have to try to give the manager time we can’t keep axing everyone and blaming the manager for everything when 5 of the goals yesterday was our players mistakes and sloppiness costing us. #Bluetodaend #KTBFFH
CEO222
81
Chelsea suddenly turned to a team that give fans heart attack. Board must fix this mess in no time, If kicking Sarri out would be the best solution please do that right away before killing all fans with heart attack.... VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!
EpaphrasDaniel
75
Please he should rename his style from Sarriball to StubbornBall. Never seen a manager as stubborn as Sarri. Even Mourinho is better at tweaking his style. Now he's about to lose Hazard and Hudson-Odoi to make matters worse. I don't see how he can destroy Chelsea further
Nicaeoprs
55
When Team plays wrong its the coach....Is it the coach that asked Pedro to make aimless runs?, is it the coach that stopped Kepa from holding on to gundogans goal?... Many Lapses from the players...Our midfield was collapsed thereby causing attackers not to get the usual service they are supposed to get...The board need to get rid of old players and replace them with new ones...Just lookat the way Azpilicueta was been out runned and the likes of Alonso not able to make good crosses...Sarriball is still going to work out with time...if everyone leaves the individual style of football and focus on teamwork....Lastly we need a natural led footer from the Flank and a midfield that can score goals.