• Midfielder told in August he was not suited to Sarri’s system • Player has not travelled with Chelsea for Europa League game

Maurizio Sarri has confirmed Danny Drinkwater has no future at Chelsea under the current regime and that the three-time England midfielder was told in August he would not be able to adapt his game to fit the head coach’s preferred style of play.

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Drinkwater, a £35m signing from Leicester City at the start of last season, played half an hour in the Community Shield defeat by Manchester City but has otherwise not featured for Sarri this term. The 29‑year‑old was charged this week with drink-driving after a one‑vehicle car crash in Cheshire – two women and a man were treated at the scene for minor injuries – and was released on unconditional bail to appear at Stockport magistrates court next month.

Drinkwater, who earns more than £100,000 a week and is contracted until 2022, trained at Cobham on Wednesday but did not travel with Chelsea to the Czech Republic, where they take on Slavia Prague in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final on Thursday.

“As he knows very well, he has never played because, in my opinion, he is not suitable to my system, to my way of playing,” Sarri said. “I told him everything in August. He appreciated it but he decided to remain. And so he knew very well the situation.

“Maybe I am wrong, but it’s my opinion. I try [to be honest with the players]. Of course, sometimes, you have to say something different. But in 99% of cases, I try to be honest. I spoke with him in August, when the market was still open, and said he should look for something different because he wouldn’t play. And I told him the reasons, my reasons.”

Interested parties were quoted loan fees of around £10m for Drinkwater last summer, with his salary package also proving onerous, and a mooted mid-season move to West Ham never materialised. “I don’t know [why he decided to stay],” Sarri said. “Probably he hoped we could change the system. But I have a very good relationship with him because, in my opinion, he’s a good boy. He’s a good player and he’s able to play in a 4‑4‑2 or a 4‑2‑3‑1 very well. But he’s not suitable for me.

“I cannot do anything [for him]. A player usually wants only to play, so I cannot do anything. I can only have with him a very good relationship, no more. At the moment, I am not able to satisfy him as a player. So it’s very difficult, but he knew.”

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The Italian will make “five or six changes” against Slavia, who have had three sections of the Sinobo stadium closed by Uefa for the game after crowd disturbances at their home draw with Genk in the round of 32, reducing the capacity of a 20,000-capacity arena by around 2,000. The governing body, which also imposed a fine of €32,000 euros on the Czech club, issued sanctions for the use of pyrotechnics in the ground, crowd trouble, the blocking of stairways and the throwing of objects on to the pitch.

The Slavia president, Jaroslav Tvrdík, suggested the objects had included “paper cups and batteries”, and urged the club’s supporters to behave and show the world “we have excellent players, and excellent fans, too”.

Jindrich Trpisovský’s team managed only four goals while emerging from their group but have scored four at Genk and at home to Sevilla in the knockout phase. “They are dangerous, so it won’t be easy,” said Sarri, who is expected to rest Eden Hazard with Sunday’s Premier League game at Liverpool in mind. The Italian will apparently not be seeking updates before kick-off on the progress of Chelsea’s appeal to Fifa over a two-window transfer ban, a process which will begin in Zurich on Thursday morning.