CHELSEA star N’Golo Kante has revealed that Maurizio Sarri has told the players to stop acting complacent against smaller teams.
The Blues have lost games against Wolves, Leicester and Bournemouth this season, conceding seven goals to them in the process.
They’ve also dropped points against Everton and West Ham this term, as a looming few weeks of big games approach.
The former Napoli man criticised his players publicly after their 2-0 loss to Arsenal last month.
The players, however, responded by knocking Tottenham out of the Carabao Cup and advancing to the final.
Sarri did the same following Chelsea’s thrashing on the south coast against Bournemouth and the player duly responded by thumping Huddersfield 5-0.
And Kante, who many consider to be one of the best defensive midfielders in the world, has said that Sarri wants the team to focus on a big month ahead.
“The post-match discussion in midweek? It was just to make a point about our performance and the way we want to go for the next game,” he said.
“It was a good discussion, important for everyone and we showed it was important for us to make a point.”
Chelsea face Man City in the Premier League this weekend at the Etihad in a game they have to play well in if they want to keep up hopes of finishing in the top four.
The Blues also come up against City in the Carabao Cup final near the end of the month and they have to play Manchester United in the FA Cup fifth round too.
The fixtures don’t slow down there, though, as Sarri’s men have two legs against Swedish outfit Malmo to contend with in the Europa League.
Sarri spoke about his midfield options ahead of what’s going to be a congested month of games in which he’s likely to rotate his squad.
One potentially using midfielders in a central position in place of Jorginho, Sarri had this to say: “We are trying during the training with two players – the first is Ampadu and the second is Kovacic.
“Maybe for the characteristics, Kovacic is more suitable for this team. As you know, Ampadu is more defensive, but Kovacic is really close to Jorginho at moving the ball very fast at one touch.
“So, I think in the future he will be able to do this position well.
“Kovacic could be a very good option, but then we need to recover completely Ruben Loftus-Cheek after the back problem.
“Then we can play sometimes with Kovacic as a central midfielder and Jorginho will be able to rest.”