Barkley relishing chance to play attacking football under Sarri

Chelsea midfielder Ross Barkley has admitted that he can’t wait to play attacking football under new Blues boss Maurizio Sarri.

Barkley made the move to Chelsea in January of this year for a transfer fee of £15 million with his contract at former club Everton expiring in six months.

Since moving to the capital, the talented attacking midfielder has only played in two league matches for the Stamford Bridge club due to a long-term hamstring problem which also ruled him out of any of Everton’s fixtures in his last season at the Toffees.

This summer has seen Barkley return to full fitness and the 22-cap England international has used pre-season to force himself into the Chelsea first-team, with new boss Sarri liking the look of the 24-year-old.

Speaking to reporters (via Goal), Barkley heaped praise upon his new coach and admitted that he is excited to play football under the Italian.

Barkley said: “His style of play… for any manager I’ll play any style of play, but for the manager, it’s my type of style. He’s an attacking manager, he wants exciting football, to be high up the pitch pressing, scoring goals and being exciting, scoring a lot of goals, team performances all round.

“Being on the side that lost [the Community Shield], it’s not really enjoyable. We can take a lot of positives out of the game. We’re still learning and getting to know the new manager’s way of playing. Day by day we’re getting used to it in training. We can look at today as how far we’re going to come from.

“Next week the season’s starting and we’re going to go into the season really strong. For me, I played 90 minutes for the first time for a long time today. I felt really good out there and game by game I’m going to be feeling much stronger going into the season.”

Barkley continued: “That’s a boost. With a new manager coming in, I’ve started every pre-season game and today’s game, so that’s a positive for me. I’m just going to keep doing what I can day by day in training, giving 100 per cent, and then on game day hoping to give him performances he wants and the team want.

“I’ve watched clips [of Napoli] just to see the way they played, out of possession and in possession. I’ve seen how they played last season, against Manchester City last season in the Champions League, a really exciting team, one-twos all over the pitch, one and two-touch football.

“Goals from all around the pitch, exciting football. They were unfortunate not to win the league last season. The manager, from how the manager comes across, he’s a winner.”

Barkely added: “It’s a big season for me. Last season I signed here. I had a few injuries and I signed off with a long-term injury. But that’s behind me now. I’m feeling really strong now and I’m sure when the season starts next week I’ll be ready to go.

“That’s down to what the manager thinks [whether I start or not]. I’ve done what I can in training and in the games. I’ll keep improving with more games. Today’s my first 90 minutes in more than a year. Just game by game I’ll be feeling strong and show what I can do.”

Chelsea’s first Premier League match of the season is against Huddersfield Town this Saturday.

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