After the defeat against Arsenal yesterday, a lot of people have been quick to point out the passiveness of the squad. I stumbled upon Jonathan Wilson’s post-match write-up in the Guardian.

Wilson makes a fine point about the mismatch of the squad of players and the manager. Some of it is a little lazy I think – declaring that David Luiz and Azpilicueta are emphatically 3-at-the-back players is a bit of an easy point to make in hindsight, when only one manager has ever played either of them in such a system – but a lot of Chelsea’s players do seem better suited to a 3-4-3, and it is certainly the case that Chelsea have been performing poorly for far too long now.

Sarri-ball is thrilling to watch when well-implemented, but the constant changes in managers – and, more importantly, mangers’ playing style – at Chelsea make it difficult to assemble a squad that can carry a playing style out. As Wilson says, ‘Chelsea’s squad has actually over the years proved remarkably accommodating to change, at times seems almost to have thrived on chaos’, but it seems it may have finally started to buckle.

I like Sarri’s style, and I hope he can get Chelsea playing that way. But if he’s having a hard time motivating this group of players, maybe he should have a look at his available alternatives.

I am dumbfounded of the international media’s obsession with Danish football club FC Midtjylland. The latest is a story in The Set Pieces about defensive midfielder Tim Sparv, but previously The Guardian, De Correspondent and Outside of the Boot have also covered them.

I mean, sure, Midtjylland have an owner – Matthew Benham – whose Smartodds system is apparently a revolutionary way to assess football players. But Benham is English and owns Championship club Brentford too; surely they would make more sense to write about, and easier to get to too, at least for the English media?

And it’s not as though Midtjylland’s approach has been an out-and-out success. Aside from the aforementioned Sparv and a few others, their signings have been unimpressive since Benham’s takeover, and an amusingly large portion of them have grown up in the peninsula of Jutland, where Midtjylland are based. They signed a clearly over-the-hill Rafael van der Vaart, who has been ineffective in the few games he’s been picked this season. They did win the championship – the first in their history – in Benham’s first season (2014/15), but the season before that they finished second (and were top for a long time) and in the seasons since they haven’t really been in contention, finishing 3rd and 4th, 12 and a whopping 30 points after champions FC Copenhagen respectively.

None of this is too damning; Copenhagen have been magnificent, especially in this season, and they have a far larger budget than the rest of the league, so finishing behind them is to be expected.

As far as signing local players goes, it is certainly admirable, and every club in the world signs players who don’t work out. It is also a common tendency for sports directors in clubs in smaller footballing nations to sign players who on paper are impressive signings (like van der Vaart), but who are only available because they’re very much past their best.

But the promise of Midtjylland’s system is they would be insulated from such shortcomings, finding players who actually perform, from all over Europe, not just well-performing players from smaller clubs in nearby leagues or fringe players from bigger clubs.

And in light of all of this, I continue to be amazed at why media outside Denmark care. Midtjylland talk a big talk, but they’re a football club with the same problems as any other club in their position, and they certainly haven’t found the holy grail with their analytical approach.