While most were excited at the prospect of Maurizio Sarri’s arrival at Chelsea, not many could have expected the Blues to start off so well under their new manager.
After eight games in the Premier League, the Blues are joint-top of the table with 20 points alongside Manchester City and Liverpool, still unbeaten across all competitions – excluding the Community Shield.
Chelsea are playing expansive attacking football with Eden Hazard particularly catching the eye of neutral fans, currently sitting as Premier League top scorer on seven goals – while also recording three assists.
While Sarri’s style of football, Sarrismo, was not an unknown quantity before his move to Chelsea, the Italian has refined it somewhat in the Premier League.
But how can you mimic Sarrismo in FIFA 19, with your Ultimate Teams? Read on below to find out.
What is Sarrismo?
Despite the re-emergence of a three-man central defence as a popular formation, Sarri utilises a more standard 4-3-3 with a deep-lying midfielder who does drop slightly deeper to pick up the ball and becomes the transition between the defence and midfield.
Sarri also heavily pushes his attacking play down the left side of the pitch with his players on that flank seeing a lot of the ball while the right-sided players are reliant on their movement and making an impact with fewer touches.
While most teams may look to impose their attacking play when closer to the goal, Sarrismo had Napoli entice opposition defenders with their slick passing into congested areas, forcing the defence to move towards the ball, opening up spaces for more attacking players to move into an punish.
Formation
At Napoli, Sarri turned former wide-man Dries Mertens into a centre-forward and utilised him as a false nine. But at Chelsea the Italian has no such choice, instead opting for a more traditional 4-3-3 with one holding midfielder and a striker.
In FIFA 19 terms this is the 4-3-3 holding, or 4-3-3 (2) when searching for it on Ultimate Team. At its simplest, it will allow you more attacking width to provide support for the sole striker while also making sure there is a midfielder available to both help defending and be the transition between phases.
But that is just a basic FIFA 19 formation, un-Sarrismo-like as yet.
Tactics
Defensive
Starting off from the back, Sarri’s teams like to apply constant pressure to their opponents across the pitch. Crowding around certain attacking players, the aim is to almost suck the ball away from their feet, ensuring it bounces to one of your team-mates rather than an opponent. This does come at a risk, however, as it will cause your players to tire earlier, leaving you stretched as the game goes on. Though that can be combatted by making the right substitutions at the right time.
Then, a balanced defensive width would do well, pushing to 6/10, ensuring the team is neither too wide or too narrow. Though the settings may result in more one-on-one situations occurring when defending.
Once your width is sorted it’s time to work out the depth of your defence, in other words, how high or deep it will be.
As seen with Chelsea this season, there are times when the Blues’ defenders are sitting in the opposition half to help put pressure on. In FIFA terms, moving the depth to 8/10 will do this sufficiently but does cause vulnerability to a long ball behind – so ensure you have fast centre-backs.
Offensive
Sarrismo is all about possession, so it’s apt there is a FIFA offensive style named just that. With the players moving around the pitch to where the ball is, you can ping it about quickly to get past opposition players, rather than the more direct route of using your wingers’ pace. It may take a bit longer to get to the goal, but if you use it right, you can frustrate opponents into making silly mistakes and punish them in more than one way.
Offensively, Sarrismo has width, with the left-sided players in particular all hugging the touchline at times. For FIFA 19, an 8/10 width should do this to provide suitable options out wide, though it will limit the options you have in the middle of the pitch should things go wrong.
Setting up your attack in FIFA 19 brings out more options with the ability to alter how many players you have in the box in certain situations.
For Sarrismo in open play, it’s only useful to have some players making the runs into the penalty area at the right time (4/10) as you’ll need the options to pass close-by as a result of the possession style of play.
But when it comes to set pieces, you can have a bit more of an offensive approach (4/5), ensuring your best centre-backs and tallest players are inside the box.
Player instructions
Now you’ve got your formation and tactics sorted, but there’s still one more set of instructions to sort out – the players’.
Defence
As a result of Sarri favouring his left-hand side for attacks, you need to make sure your full-backs have slightly differing instructions.
The left-back should be joining the attack, under the section attacking runs, with normal interceptions and making overlapping runs, similar to the way Marcos Alonso joins Eden Hazard and Mateo Kovacic in getting up the pitch.
While, as a slight difference, the right-back should be more balanced in attack while also making normal interceptions and overlapping runs.
For the centre-backs, there isn’t too much to play around with, just making sure they stay back while attacking and making normal interceptions as the high depth will already see them naturally far up the pitch.
Midfield
The biggest thing for the midfield section is making sure you get your version of Jorginho right, in the holding role. Jorginho is the glue which holds Sarrismo together, dropping deeper in line with the defence when on the ball and hovering further forward as the play advances.
In FUT, a balanced attack for your defensive midfielder would be as close to Jorginho as possible, ensuring he cuts passing lanes and covers the centre of the pitch – as opposed to the wing which other midfielders will do.
Then, the two slightly further forward midfield roles have different instructions, again following the form of Sarri’s left-favoured side.
Though N’Golo Kante can be seen getting forward more often than usual, this is normally off the ball, so a balanced attack with free roam movement will be the best option. Like your CDM, the right-sided midfielder should cover the centre of the pitch.
Meanwhile the left-sided central midfielder should get forward, free roaming, but cover the wings when defending. Normal interceptions for all three midfielders will make sure your system is not undone.
Attack
And finally, the attack.
Like with the rest of the team, Sarrismo requires more from the left winger than the right, with Eden Hazard vital to Chelsea this season.
It is imperative, therefore, that your left-winger is allowed to roam freely, giving basic defensive support, balanced width on supporting runs and stays on the edge of the box for crosses.
In contrast, the right-winger will cut inside from the wing, while also getting into the box for crosses and providing basic defensive support and balanced width on supporting runs.
While at Napoli, Mertens was used as a false nine, with Chelsea Sarri is currently using Olivier Giroud as a target man to link up with Eden Hazard.
So applying your striker as a target man, with balanced width for his supporting runs and basic defensive support will allow you to mimic Chelsea’s system perfectly.
You have the formation, tactics and player instructions, now you just need to get out there and find the right players on Ultimate Team – or others offline – and build your own Sarrismo machine.
The post How to play like Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea on FIFA 19 Ultimate Team appeared first on Squawka News.
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