Maurizio Sarri in no mood to change his approach even as Chelsea’s appetite for change begins to grow

It would be far easier for Sarri to meet the fans halfway. But the prospects of Sarri doing this, rejecting his life’s work, like Prospero breaking his staff, are next to zero

No matter how bad it gets for Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea, he will not change his approach. That has been his message throughout his time at Stamford Bridge but only now, as results stutter and the fans start to turn, is it being tested.

It would be far easier for Sarri to meet the fans halfway. To restore Ngolo Kante to holding midfield. To get the ball forward quicker. To go back into the boot room at Stamford Bridge, dust off the old tactical plans and put ‘Sarriball’ to one side, at least for a bit. If he did that, or even said that he would, it would at least buy him some time and some goodwill. He is currently draining his stocks of both.

But the prospects of Sarri doing this, rejecting his life’s work, like Prospero breaking his staff, are next to zero. To do that would be to go against everything he has ever done, to betray all of his work. He knows that he has set himself an almost impossible task, trying to transform the football culture at Chelsea, away from what the players and fans are used to, dragging it in his own direction, and doing all this with an ageing squad and boardroom pressures for short-term results. And yet despite all of that, he is not going to do anything to make the challenge less hard.

Sarri would rather try and fail his way than reach any sort of compromised result. “I want to remain the same man,” said Sarri, when asked if his dreams were realistic. “If I am a dreamer, I am a dreamer.”

Chelsea collapsed at Bournemouth and lost 4-0. They have lost three of their last seven league games. If they lose at home to Huddersfield on Saturday then the mood would turn even harder against Sarri and his football. And yet there is literally no set of results or circumstances that would convince Sarri that maybe he should change how he works. “I don’t think so, at the moment,” he said when asked if he could envisage anything to alter his ethos. “I can change my mind in the future, I don't know. I changed in the past. But, at the moment, no. If I believe that the organisation in a team is everything, I cannot change my mind.”

That point will always be a point of pride to Sarri. He looks at the best teams in the country – Pep Guardiola’s City, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs – and sees them as an inspiration. If only he is given the same backing and patience, he hopes to achieve the same results. And even the best team of the modern era, Guardiola’s Barcelona, is invoked on his behalf.

When Sarri is asked about the wisdom of pursuing Plan A to the cliff-edge, instead of ever compromising, he points to Guardiola’s refusal to compromise at both Barcelona and City. For him, the success of Guardiola’s Barcelona is the story of one man with a clear idea implementing it to its maximal effect. “Everybody, 10 years ago, knew very well Barcelona, and Barcelona won everything because they played their football very well. So, first of all, I want to play very well my football. Then I can change.”

And that, in a sentence, is the whole debate. It is better to perfect Plan A than it is to have a Plan B. He was asked whether his team was predictable and argued that predictability is a price worth paying in the pursuit of perfection. “Barca were predictable, but they won.” And when the fact of Lionel Messi was put to him, the greatest player of all time who made Barca work, Sarri argued that was not the whole story. Because Guardiola’s Barcelona had what he is trying to give Chelsea: organisation. “They were organised. With fantastic players, of course, otherwise it would have been impossible to win everything. But they were really very organised.”

Whatever you think about Sarri’s football, he is an engaging man with clear, consistent ideas. The argument he makes on behalf of himself and his plan is compelling. And he is certainly aiming high, trying to pull off almost an impossible task. But aiming to emulate Guardiola’s Barcelona or even Guardiola’s City is a high bar. Especially when his team have just lost 4-0 to Bournemouth.