CHELSEA legend Gianfranco Zola says star players Eden Hazard and Willian stagnated under Maurizio Sarri’s tactics.
Zola, assistant boss during Sarri’s 2018/19 reign, watched as things turned sour and admitted players were tired of the Italian’s methods.
Zola told beIn Sports: “They were following everything, but then as the weeks passed due to the repetition and the amount of games they were playing, the players got tired and they also got bored in a way.”
Sarri replaced fellow Italian Antonio Conte in May 2018 and won the Europa League in his one season at Stamford Bridge.
They beat London rivals Arsenal in the final.
Sarri is now Juventus manager, with ex-Blues legend Frank Lampard taking charge.
Zola revealed: “At the beginning the players were very much behind everything what we were saying, they were brilliant.
“They were following everything, but then as the weeks passed due to the repetition and the amount of games they were playing, the players got tired and they also got bored in a way.
“But boring is part of our job. Sometimes you need to get bored but when you get bored you persist in what you’re doing and you get better.
“I remember that when I was learning to play football, kicking a ball for example, I used to do it 300-400 times a day at least.”
“There were moments when I got tired but I needed to do it repeatedly because if I wanted it to become a part of me, this was the process I needed to go through.”
Sarri also guided the side to fourth in the table but fans had quickly grown frustrated with the former bank manager’s negative tactics.
Zola watched as dispirited Hazard wound down his Chelsea career ahead of the move to Real Madrid.
Willian is also out of contract in June and set to move to Spurs.
Zola, 53, who had a stunning Chelsea playing career which saw him play 229 games between 1996 and 2003, added: “They were talented players, like Hazard and Willian, players who know how to win games on their own, but they were suffering from the type of exercises and type of training we were doing – but it was necessary for the others.
“I’ll be honest, they were brilliant because they got bored, but they kept doing it throughout and that was the reason why when everyone was dropping we were going up towards the end.”
Source: thesun.co.uk