Chelsea leaders must step up! Maurizio Sarri on 'difficuly' changing squad mentality

Vaishali Bhardwaj7 December 2018

Maurizio Sarri has called for his Chelsea players to step up like leaders against Manchester City as the Italian admitted changing the mentality of his squad has been a "difficult" task.

Chelsea trail league leaders City by 10 points after the Blues threw away a one-goal lead to lose 2-1 away to Wolves in midweek - the club's second consecutive defeat on the road following the international break.

Sarri admitted the loss to Wolves was down, in part, to his side failing to manage games because of a lack of determination from his players.

"I think we have a problem to manage the match at the moment, we have played well for 55 minutes but then in the first difficulty we had a blackout," Sarri told reporters at Cobham on Friday. "We were a little unlucky, because the opponents only had two on target. We were not able to react.

"I know that we started with 30 points of difference, we have to work to reduce the gap. I think we are improving, but they are improving also. I don’t know the difference at the moment.

"We started the season well, but we have had some difficulties in a new way of playing. It is normal, we have to work and solve it day by day and improve.

"It is not easy to answer, but I have seen in the last matches we didn’t react as a team or 11 players, so it is a big problem. We need a leader and a collective target can give us determination. In some matches we have lacked it, like in the last match."

City will be without striker Sergio Aguero and midfielder Kevin De Bruyne, who scored the only goal in this fixture last season, for the trip to Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola's side are still unbeaten in the Premier League in spite of the duo's recent absence through injury, and Sarri admitted City are better than Chelsea right now - although the Italian insisted "anything can happen" on Saturday.

"Against Guardiola I have lost every match, so you have to ask someone else," Sarri said when asked how City can be beaten.

"We need to have a collective target, we need determination, at the moment they are stronger than us, but our final target is to be the best in Europe. Anything can happen and we have to believe in it.

"When you are improving you have to pass these moments. I knew sooner or later we had to face difficulties. When you change the way of playing to need to change the way of mentality, of 25 minds. It is very difficult.

"As a result in Liverpool or Manchester, but then you can create something important. You cannot change the mentality in one day, it has to be day-by-day. We have to change the mentality, it is a long story."

He added: "Every story is different. I thought we had problems in the first part of the season but we had enthusiasm so we were able to win games with some problems. Now we have problems. In the first period we played well, I knew the problems would arrive in November and December."

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