Alan Shearer attacks Chelsea’s Sarri-ball ‘myth’ after Southampton

Posted Friday, January 04, 2019 by 101 GREAT GOALS

Chelsea 0 - Southampton 0

There was little for Chelsea fans to enjoy against Southampton on Wednesday at Stamford Bridge.

This is a game which most Chelsea fans would have expected their side to win.

That could have happened had the linesman not wrongly waved for offside to chalk off an Alvaro Morata goal in the second half.

Yet in the end the Blues were held to a frustrating stalemate.

Alan Shearer attacks Chelsea's Sarri-ball myth

Alan Shearer was a guest on BBC 5 Live radio on Wednesday.

Shearer was asked for his thoughts on how Chelsea's Sarri-ball project is unfolding this year.

The Match of the Day pundit took the opportunity to dispel the myth that Sarri-ball is a thing:

Is Sarriball when they ask a midfielder to get on the ball and pass it around?

Hasn't that happened since football started, no? I was just wondering exactly what it was, giving the ball to a centre-half, who can then give it to a midfielder who can then try and control the game.

I don't think that's anything new to football, do you? Has no other team tried to play football through the middle of the park?

Listen to Alan Shearer's comments on the BBC 5 Live 'Football Daily' podcast.

Social media on Sarri-ball

Sarriball is truly football as designed by a corporate risk manager. Never over-committing the number of men in an attack. Never attempting to lure the opposition into an error through leaving a gap. Just a constant, swirling morass of pointless passing possession.
— Dan Levene (@danlevene) January 2, 2019

SarriBall looks boring right now because of the players, not because of the system.

He’s a Ferrari driver but he’s being forced to drive a station wagon.
— Alex Goldberg (@AlexGoldberg_) January 2, 2019

Using Chelsea’s current performances as a stick to beat ‘Sarriball’ with is pretty ridiculous. Napoli were so good to watch under Sarri that large swathes of Twitter renamed them ‘STOP IT NAPOLI!’

This, clearly, is not that. #cfc
— Liam Twomey (@liam_twomey) January 3, 2019