Eden Hazard, Mateo Kovacic in line to start for Chelsea at Newcastle

Eden Hazard and Mateo Kovacic could make their first Chelsea starts against Newcastle on Sunday, head coach Maurizio Sarri confirmed.
Both men came off the substitutes' bench to make a decisive impact as Chelsea beat Arsenal 3-2 at Stamford Bridge last Saturday, with Hazard creating the winning goal for Marcos Alonso and Kovacic completing all of his 43 attempted passes in an energetic cameo.
Asked if Hazard will start against Newcastle, Sarri said: "I don't know. I think that Eden is ready for 50-60 minutes. I don't know for 90 minutes, but he can start.
"I am happy with him. He wants to play. I think it's the right way to think for him. But I have to think for everybody.
"I think Mateo and Eden played very well in the last 30 minutes, but I think also that, in that moment, the intensity of the match was going down. But I think, like Eden, Mateo is ready to play for 60 or 65 minutes."
Sarri also reiterated that there is no chance of Hazard leaving Stamford Bridge for Real Madrid before the close of the Spanish transfer window on Aug. 31.
"I am the coach of a very good team," he said. "I am the coach of a very great club. And so I think that such an important club cannot sell a very important player without the possibility of buying another very important player at the same level. So I think that Eden will stay with us for all the season."
Kovacic's inclusion in the Chelsea matchday squad against Arsenal came at the expense of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, prompting fresh speculation that the academy graduate could leave Stamford Bridge on loan in search of more regular first-team opportunities this month.
"I have spoken with him twice this week, after I spoke with the club," Sarri said. "So I think that Loftus-Cheek will remain with us. We can speak again about his situation, but I think only in December."
Sarri has taken six points from his first two Premier League matches, despite his team exhibiting startling defensive flaws and conceding two goals in what their head coach described as a "horrible" 15-minute spell late in the first half against Arsenal.
These defensive lapses have not been enough to dull Sarri's optimism that his players will adapt to his ideas, though he warned he will not be able to change his system in the manner that predecessor Antonio Conte did when he made a spectacularly successful shift to a 3-4-3 formation two years ago and won the Premier League title.
"My feeling is that, in this team, I have very intelligent players," he said. "So they can improve in one month, I think. I think they will be able to do it very well in one or two months. No more.
"I am not able to play with five defenders, because we are trying to defend by looking only at the ball. In this way, if I defend with five defenders, I lose immediately metres on the pitch. I am not able. I tried five years ago, but it's not my way."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas tragedy.... Governor dies just few days after being sworn into office in an air crash

Image
The governor of Mexico's central Puebla state, Martha Erika Alonso, has died in an air crash, just days after being sworn into office. Her husband, Senator Rafael Moreno Valle, was also killed. Reports from Mexico say the accident happened shortly after the aircraft took off from the city of Puebla. Ms Alonso, 45, became the first female governor of Puebla after hotly contested elections. She was member of the centre-right PAN party. The deaths were confirmed by Mexico's new President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. In a tweet (in Spanish), President López Obrador expressed "deepest condolences" the relatives of the two politicians. He said an investigation would be launched to establish "the truth" about what caused the crash. En lo personal, mi más profundo pésame a los familiares del senador Rafael Moreno Valle y de su esposa, la gobernadora de Puebla Martha Érika Alonso. Como autoridad, asumo el compromiso de investigar las causas; decir la...
Read more

See A First Trailer for ‘Lord of the Rings

Image
The first teaser trailer has been released for Lord of the Rings: Gollum, a stealth action game set in the Lord of the Rings universe, which was announced last year The trailer shows Gollum crawling through the caverns of Mordor before emerging onto a rocky opening to see Mount Doom in the opening. Though early reports have confirmed that the game will follow a brand-new narrative, the trailer suggests that it will be set during the same time period as the original LotR books. IGN reports that the game will be a ‘Prince of Persia-like stealth action’ title, that will mix “stealth with vertical climbing parkour.” Like many recent titles – most recently the PS4 release Ghost of Tsushima – the game will emphasize non-combat options, forcing the player to rely on cunning and misdirection to progress. The games’ developers have also confirmed that familiar characters from the stories will reappear in the, with some available as “allies” that the player will be able to play alongside. So f...
Read more

Manchester United's Paul Pogba thanks Jose Mourinho for making him better

Image
Paul Pogba says Jose Mourinho improved him as a player and a person and thanked the former Manchester United manager for the success they shared at Old Trafford. The Frenchman stopped to make a statement in the mixed zone following the 5-1 win over Cardiff City on Saturday after taking criticism for what some supporters have perceived to be a role in Mourinho's sacking. "I know you're waiting for something about Jose, about the result today," Pogba told reporters at the Cardiff City Stadium. "Obviously, we are very happy with the result. We played well, the performance of the team was great and I know you want to ask me but, 'Oh yeah with Jose.' "With Jose, we won trophies and I want to thank him for that. Not everything worked well but things went well, we won trophies. "Winning trophies makes you improve as a person as well and that's it. That's the past. I want to thank him for that. "I'm sure all the players a...
Read more