Pizy

Good Lord, it feels like I haven’t seen Chelsea play in 2 months! I don’t know whether to be excited that our squad could be refreshed and sharper now that Potter has worked with them for a few weeks or nervous that we’ll be extremely rusty having not played together for so long.

Ziyech is so poor now that I’ve come to actually dislike him. And it’s compounded by his piss poor body language. Looks like he isn’t bothered a bit. Potter needs to refresh the side by the time we next play. Start Broja, start Zakaria, start giving Carney some minutes. Stop trying to make Havertz, Mount, Azpi etc play themselves into form. It’s clearly not working.

We could hardly have hand picked an easier group and unless we win all of the remaining games we will be humiliated and knocked out. With one of the most expensively assembled teams in history. Horrendous lack of composure in the box + one or two guaranteed dreadful defensive lapses per match and this is the result. We can control and dominate almost every game but these two tendencies will always hold us back. Chance after chance after chance (including repeatedly from like a couple of yards out) and we can’t finish. And then our opponents pounce on one or two mistakes we make and score. That’s the Chelsea story.

Thought it was most,y fine with the exception of two players: Havertz and Mount. The same two who have been dreadful all season so far. Both have had nearly zero impact in the final third. Get both of those out of the team for a few matches until they wake the fuck up. Play Broja together with Auba or something. Thought overall we totally controlled the match and weren’t in danger at all. Created plenty of half chances that fizzled out at the final pass. At least we didn’t look all over the shop like we have recently.

Not only with the two oldest members of our squad in a formation they haven’t been playing much, but also Jorginho who has been woeful so far this season in front of them. This could either be a brilliant gamble or blow up in a big way.

Azpi & Thiago Silva in a back 4? In a must win CL match where you want to make a positive first impression in your managerial debut? I want to be positive about Potter, but…🫣

I have no clue how good or bad Salzburg is so I therefore have no clue what to expect.

I’d be fine keeping Kante around and using him as a situational player who doesn’t have to play every match. Jorginho absolutely must go, though. Unless he has some sort of major resurgence in a new way of playing that Potter develops, I suppose.

Damn, man. He was genuinely shocked it looks like. He definitely figured he’d have considerably longer to turn things around.

Still no photos or videos from training or interviews with him or a presser?

So weird how we’ve appointed a new manager with all this commotion and not even going to see him presented or have him do a presser for days? And his first match is going to be thrown in to a must win CL game.

Least I can watch the F1 race live now 😅

If indeed next weekend’s matches are postponed as well due to the funeral, that’s insanely good luck for us and Potter. Couple of weeks to implement his methods.

I could see it. Though, I wonder how the squad would take it. Mendy seems very popular and with 3 French speakers as our starting CB’s I wonder how they’d feel or if it even makes a difference.

Would be hugely beneficial to Potter if the weekend’s match is postponed. As long as training still carries on, that is.

Paying £21m to get him, giving him a 5 years contract, letting him bring in his most trusted assistants, and bringing in a transfer/recruitment guy that will surely act as a direct link between manager and board tells you that Potter will be given every opportunity to build something. He will be given an extremely long leash. I see a lot of oppo fans saying “lol, he’ll be out of a job in less than a season.” Nah, unless there is an open mutiny from half the squad he’s going to be given at least 2 seasons, think.

Who are the attackers he’s had access to to score goals? Haven’t Welbeck and Maupay been their main strikers for the last 2 years? Not exactly top class players. I remember last season they went on some insanely long streak of just not being able to score even when playing fantastic football. I don’t put that in Potter. It was a personnel issue. We must hope and pray that if Potter is able to implement that same way of playing, Auba/Havertz/Mount/Broja etc will thrive.

Playing against low blocks I’m not as worried about. Playing against teams like Leeds and many others who simply up their intensity and get physical with us is what we need to learn how to deal with. Seeing us get bullied by small teams repeatedly was the most infuriating aspect of Tuchel’s reign. Perhaps if Potter has us playing more fluid, quicker football teams won’t be able to press us as effectively.

If there’s any bounce it’ll have to be down to the players being embarrassed about getting Tuchel sacked and wanting to make an impression for the new guy. Because unfortunately Potter won’t have any time at all to really implement anything in 1 training session. Sadly, I expect this to be another almighty struggle against a vastly inferior opponent.

Again, I’m not really all that worried about any of the actual coaching with Potter. The whole “he doesn’t have experience at the top level” stuff is overblown. You see with the way his team performs against all the big PL sides that he does the scouting work and puts together a great tactical plan to have a small club like Brighton going toe to toe with teams far beyond their financial standing. What we have to be concerned about is whether all of these star players embrace him and respect him.

Would be amazing if Potter already has ideas about 2-3 things he can instantly install in the two training sessions he’ll have before Fulham that will give us a bounce. Something he does with his Brighton team that he has spotted our lads don’t do. Another thing that makes this sacking so risky is that it has happened literally right as the fixture list starts getting super congested. So a new manager starts on the back foot with very limited time on the training pitch.

The only plausible explanation is that Boehly is terrified of us missing out on top 4 and made a crazy decision super early rather than waiting until it’s too late. All these reporters saying the Dinamo result didn’t play into this but I disagree. I think it was the final straw for Boehly who was in attendance and watched the shitshow we also saw. After 6 out of 7 of the matches we’ve played were abysmal, to lose to a side we should have dominated in pathetic fashion was the death blow. The problems started in preseason and just continued. So Todd probably thought he needed to do something drastic. I don’t buy this “there has always been tension and unease in the relationship” stuff. Tuchel has always praised Boehly and as recently as a few days ago was over the moon with gratitude that he was provided with Auba and Fofana. This was Boehly thinking to himself “oh shit, I just spent £270m and we could miss out on CL revenue. We have to stop the rot ASAP.”

This is what gives me pause. If these players buy in and give their all to Potter he can transform us. We have the talent in our squad. But if some of these big name, big reputation players think they’re “above” him, this could blow up and crash down in flames. If he can get a couple of early positive results it could go a long way.

Mount in particular needs a massive kick up the ass. Seems like he has been more concerned with becoming a model, brand spokesman, and celebrity than a footballer this summer. He’s been woeful in every appearance so far this season.

Wonder where Tuchel lands btw. Fortunately for us there aren’t going to be any openings at the top PL clubs any time soon so this sacking won’t haunt us directly within our league. Real Madrid to succeed Ancelotti when he probably retires after this season?