Four Experiments...

Sarri could try before the end of the season!

Although our current form is teasing a title challenge IMO this is still a transitional season where Sarri is evaluating his squad seeing what adjustments will be necessary next season. We've already seen him playing with players in specific roles, e.g. Alonso as an inverted LB, giving Barkley plenty of game time, utilizing Giroud as a pivot for Hazard, etc... but these are four things I'd like to see trailed before the end of the season. Doesn't mean they'll work, but it's worth seeing if they do so we can go into next season with the best understanding of the squad possible.

(1) Hazard as a false 9

There's pros and cons to this, but one of the cons isn't this idea that Hazard can't play the role based off a few tries for Conte. Conte utilized Hazard more like a false target man, similar to Kane's role in the WC, for Sarri he'd be a more traditional false 9 - picking it up for deep with freedom to dribble, pass, shot, whatever he wants. One of the biggest drawbacks of Hazard's game (IMO) is his compulsive need to drop deep in a position where he should be playing higher up the pitch, and while Sarri has got improves out of him on that count, playing him as a false 9 caters to that part of his game and turns it into a strength.

My concern with this isn't Hazard's capacity to play it, it's the moving parts around it. Currently we only have Pedro, Barkley, RLC and Alonso (coming very high up) as players who could attack the spaces playing a false 9 can generate. It also unbalances SarriBall's natural bias towards the left side as we don't have a natural choice to replace Hazard on the LW which could be viewed as both a strength and weakness - good to erase predictability, bad toying with a principle of the entire playing philosophy.

But the pro is obvious. Our strikers aren't scoring. Morata's not doing what he should be doing and Giroud's fundamentally limited as a player, but we all know this. Even if Hazard had to pose the main goal threat himself I'm still confident he'd grab more goals playing centrally than either of those two.

(2) Giving Emerson a prolonged spell in the team

As effective as Alonso has been offensively his lack of pace leaves an enormous hole in behind him that so far only Arsenal & Liverpool have managed to penetrate but it's always there - I'm pretty sure Sarri played more conservatively in the second half vs. Pool just to plug that gap. All we really know about Emerson at this point is he has pace which could aid that situation. He also plays more like a proper WB which better reflects the role Sarri had with Ghoulam at Napoli which could address the issue of us sometimes appearing too narrow in attack when we have teams pinned.

Only real drawback here is Alonso's form so if it ain't broke, etc... but if we had a run of easier fixtures on the calendar it would be worth giving a go with Alonso on the bench if it isn't working.

(3) Playing Jorginho higher

Now this is risky, feels like a Europa experiment thing, but I've heard he has played higher with Verona and occasionally with Napoli for Benitez so it's not completely far fetched. The main reason for doing this here and there is we don't have a like for like replacement for his Regista role should he go down with an injury, Sarri is trying with Fabregas in Europa (which is good) but we need more assurance considering how important he is to the framework of the system. Even if it's just swapping positions with Kante so he assumes more of a Xavi role, which is easier to replace should he be unavailable, it's worth seeing.

(4) Incorporating a five at the back system

This is one I'm surprised he hasn't done yet. Defensively we're still a 5 at the back team with players like Christensen, Azpl, Zappa, Moses, etc... and the 433 naturally transitions into the same 343 Conte won the title with (which can be used as a defensive shape) and with the additions of Jorginho & Kovacic we have the potential to play the 352/3511 properly now. It's a subtle tweak in specific game scenarios that'll bring players like Kante & Azpl back into natural roles rather than feel like spare parts, and with the 352 specifically SarriBall can still work provided the WB's get very high in transition and the strikers are willing the drift wide (as they'll be the source of SarriBall's trademark sudden vertical pass).

Clearly 433 is the established shape and that shouldn't change, but it's worth having flexibility with shape as a possession based team and five at the back is our natural go-to backup with what we have.

That's just four of many things I'd like to see this season at some point.

Discuss

(P.S. please don't turn this article into a Mourinho debate if Erik comments, I'm genuinely curious as to what others might like to see lol)