Graham Potter Thread

[Johnnyeye 7,501]

4 hours ago, Vesper said:

1 win, 6 losses

FA Cup

League Cup

 

if only we had competent finishers we would have won many of them😢

[robsblubot 3,595]

4 hours ago, Superblue said:

Unless we nosedived into a relegation scrap, there's no chance he is being sacked this season. Given the investment made for him and the vibes they have given out that this is very much now a longer term approach to things compared to the boom and bust nature of the Abramovich years, they will not bite the bullet anytime soon.

Personally I think he'll be given this season and next in order to show and prove that the club is on an upward trajectory. 

In fairness the squad has needed a balanced approach to a rebuild for years, and at the very least the players we have been looking to move for fill me with confidence that this could be done over time. The issue is us fans haven't been used to a project like this for 20+ years and that's what Potter is fighting I think more than anything. 

What I was most concerned about when we hired Potter remains the same: I am not sure the players are running for him. He's a bit too small a fish in this pond, and will get eaten by bigger egos and pay checks.

The level of commitment I see today is very similar to the what I was seeing in the final seasons with Tuchel. Thought sacking him was a mistake before, because it empowers this group of players, and it may be a mistake now too, but the players are not delivering the level of commitment needed at this level. The high press in particular (more like it the lack thereof) is a fucking joke atm.

[Blue Armour 4,436]

1 hour ago, robsblubot said:

What I was most concerned about when we hired Potter remains the same: I am not sure the players are running for him. He's a bit too small a fish in this pond, and will get eaten by bigger egos and pay checks.

The level of commitment I see today is very similar to the what I was seeing in the final seasons with Tuchel. Thought sacking him was a mistake before, because it empowers this group of players, and it may be a mistake now too, but the players are not delivering the level of commitment needed at this level. The high press in particular (more like it the lack thereof) is a fucking joke atm.

Strongly agree with this.

I worry about this, and the only way that it's going change is if he reshapes the squad over the years, like Arteta did. Weeding out players like Aubemayang and Ozil. But that was a long and painful process.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Blue Armour

[HEREIAM 83]

Hi everyone

i was in favour of Potter being given a chance, it started well until we went to Brighton and since then the wheels have come off.

He was playing attacking football for the first few games, but then it was like a switch had been turned off and the players decided they would rather go back to their old habits and start passing the ball around rather then get the ball forward and attack.

compare us to Arsenal, Newcastle, Liverpool and City as soon as the other team loses the ball, they all attack in numbers, their wide players all want to beat their man and either shoot or pass it into a dangerous area, compare that to Pulisic, Ziych and others, they get the ball and slow everything down. If Potter wants to keep his job he needs to lay the law down and tell them to get the ball forward at every opportunity and stop messing around with 1 pass forward and 2 passes sideways or back.If the players refuse to do as instructed then pull them off straight away, Jose wasn't scared to sub players who didn't follow orders.

[Laylabelle 9,534]

9 hours ago, YorkshireBlue said:

That's always been Chelsea problem short term, and we moaned about that, now we are moaning because the club is taking a new direction! So we miss out on CL for a season, shit happens, I for one would rather see this club fix it's self properly over getting top 4, am not saying potter is the man or isn't, but regardless, short term will never do.

No and although its brought results before the whole sacking when things go wrong it also has led to problems when a new manager comes in and is left with players who fitted the old managers system or vison which may be completely different.

I'm happy to be patient it's just the way we play that's a concern. No urgency and you don't get goals going backwards to Kepa!

[Vegetable 830]

9 hours ago, YorkshireBlue said:

That's always been Chelsea problem short term, and we moaned about that, now we are moaning because the club is taking a new direction! So we miss out on CL for a season, shit happens, I for one would rather see this club fix it's self properly over getting top 4, am not saying potter is the man or isn't, but regardless, short term will never do.

Nah nah nah. The club needs massive overhaul in all the structures, that's true, but it's not the reason people are upset. People are upset, because throwing away who we are and suddenly starting to think of ourselves as lower-mid-table team and proving it with handing the wheel to amateur manager + transfer policy in form of buying the same type of random, uninspiring players but thrice the price is not the way to go.

No problem with missing out on CL with Lampard and transfer ban, but missing out on CL because we are being managed by whoever he is, enforced with Everton-level transfer intake is, indeed, a disgrace.

Serious question: What, in particular, is the aim of process aka "new direction" Boehly is trying to pull off? Hire shitty, sub par personnel, spend 3-4 years mid table to mold this pack into top 4 contenders? Same thing could be achived (or rather, stamped, as top4 was less uncertain under TT anyway) in a whim, just by getting Tuchel players he wanted and/or hiring sporting director (not someone Boehly found behind dumpster and liked his "vision"). Rebuild is supposed to let us step up, not go down to come back to exact same spot, just with extra steps, suffering and money.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Vegetable

[Mhsc 1,093]

Personally think he deserves until January in a year's time, getting this transfer window + summer + a full preseason under his belt with the club signing excellent players not specifically for him but because they are excellent players any manager will be happy with. If he can't get us firing by then it will be time to move on, imo. Personally I don't see that another coach could have got much out of this squad different to what we are seeing, Tuchel also struggled in the end after all.

I do think you have to be patient and give manager's a chance because otherwise we'd also have fired people like Klopp and Pep and never got to see them deliver us to a high level.

[Blues11 213]

We really seem like the least threatening team in the prem atm. The attack is really that bad...

We play with no pace, no aggression, and we always get bullied into back passes. There is no strengths I can think of for this squad.

Absolutely no one is worried about our midfield which to me is still our biggest problem. None of them can advance the ball themselves except maybe Kova on his day but even then he always lacks the final product. 

Any team willing to press us for the majority of the game will most likely get a result. We don't have a proper striker to hold up the ball or at least run into channels to open things up for others... Sterling and Pulisic can take players on but both have been holding onto the ball too much leading to nothing. Havertz and Mount still don't know what their best position is and disappear far too often to be considered elite. Just a bunch of back passing merchants on this team...

Bad roster combined with a bunch of poor signings that didn't make much sense has gotten us in this mess. Cucu for 60m? 

I was critical of Tuchel but here we are still so reliant on wingbacks. 

Potter will most likely get the rest of the season to see how this plays out but so far it doesn't look good. 

 

[Laylabelle 9,534]

21 minutes ago, Blues11 said:

We really seem like the least threatening team in the prem atm. The attack is really that bad...

We play with no pace, no aggression, and we always get bullied into back passes. There is no strengths I can think of for this squad.

Absolutely no one is worried about our midfield which to me is still our biggest problem. None of them can advance the ball themselves except maybe Kova on his day but even then he always lacks the final product. 

Any team willing to press us for the majority of the game will most likely get a result. We don't have a proper striker to hold up the ball or at least run into channels to open things up for others... Sterling and Pulisic can take players on but both have been holding onto the ball too much leading to nothing. Havertz and Mount still don't know what their best position is and disappear far too often to be considered elite. Just a bunch of back passing merchants on this team...

Bad roster combined with a bunch of poor signings that didn't make much sense has gotten us in this mess. Cucu for 60m? 

I was critical of Tuchel but here we are still so reliant on wingbacks. 

Potter will most likely get the rest of the season to see how this plays out but so far it doesn't look good. 

 

There's about 8 or so teams who have scored less then us in the league...and 2 of them are only one behind on goals scored. Its dire! One player has scored more then our entire team

[YorkshireBlue 3,264]

26 minutes ago, Vegetable said:

Nah nah nah. The club needs massive overhaul in all the structures, that's true, but it's not the reason people are upset. People are upset, because throwing away who we are and suddenly starting to think of ourselves as lower-mid-table team and proving it with handing the wheel to amateur manager + transfer policy in form of buying the same type of random, uninspiring players but thrice the price is not the way to go.

No problem with missing out on CL with Lampard and transfer ban, but missing out on CL because we are being managed by whoever he is, enforced with Everton-level transfer intake is, indeed, a disgrace.

Serious question: What, in particular, is the aim of process aka "new direction" Boehly is trying to pull off? Hire shitty, sub par personnel, spend 3-4 years mid table to mold this pack into top 4 contenders? Same thing could be achived (or rather, stamped, as top4 was less uncertain under TT anyway) in a whim, just by getting Tuchel players he wanted and/or hiring sporting director (not someone Boehly found behind dumpster and liked his "vision"). Rebuild is supposed to let us step up, not go down to come back to exact same spot, just with extra steps, suffering and money.

When you have mid table players, you will be a mid table club, point the blame at potter or TB all you want TT asked for KK sterling auba, fofana still to judge, azi jorgi cuca Puli havertz Gallagher RLC Chaloba Mendy are mid table at nest, are best player is 38 ffs, we have only bought two RBs in 13 years but in the last couple have spent 100m on LBs who have both mid table, this isn't something that's happened overnight! This club is a shambles and it's easy to sit and blame potter and TB, but in reality this is down to the old regime. Sooner you realise, we won't be a top team for the next few years the better, this happend to UTD and to arsenal recently, it happens to every team.

 

[YorkshireBlue 3,264]

11 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

There's about 8 or so teams who have scored less then us in the league...and 2 of them are only one behind on goals scored. Its dire! One player has scored more then our entire team

You can't play creative attacking football when your midfield cant create or pass forward. It's like asking a plumber to re wire a house, it will not work. So 2 options, you either sack the manager and get on another pragmatic manager, or you pick manager and you build with that, problem is potter football ATM is shocking agreed, but let's atleast se what he can do with a midfield that can do what he's asking.

[Vegetable 830]

27 minutes ago, YorkshireBlue said:

When you have mid table players, you will be a mid table club, point the blame at potter or TB all you want TT asked for KK sterling auba, fofana still to judge, azi jorgi cuca Puli havertz Gallagher RLC Chaloba Mendy are mid table at nest, are best player is 38 ffs, we have only bought two RBs in 13 years but in the last couple have spent 100m on LBs who have both mid table, this isn't something that's happened overnight! This club is a shambles and it's easy to sit and blame potter and TB, but in reality this is down to the old regime. Sooner you realise, we won't be a top team for the next few years the better, this happend to UTD and to arsenal recently, it happens to every team.

 

Yeah, the everlasting lack of sporting director, who would keep some general idea of squad synergy and balance over what current, short-living manager wants was known problem and pretty much lead to what it is now. On the other hand I'm bit tired of how, since at least Conte, people here make this squad far worse than it really is - those players (and some even worse than what we have now) won UCL, EL and super cup + did not bad in PL and we tend to portray them as they were some freaking Mansfield Town (with all due respect), thrown to PL by UFO. It needs smart and radical overhauling, yes, but what Boehly did was buying like fifth best thing to who we actually needed, so it's like more of the same we've had. And I don't care what he burns his money on, but all stupid transfers for high prices are hindering us long-term via FFP.

Okay, so we are settling for being mid-table. Again, what's the point? If we are looking for building long-term cohesion, why under manager who has yet a ton to learn himself? Why not hire top staff and give them time and money? This is only hurting the club. Instead of creating an exciting project, that would organically build it's power and be attractive for players and fans TB somehow decided to degenerate us? And what players are we supposed to build this great Boehly/Potter opus magnum on? Cucurella? Letting our youngsters on for 4 minutes isn't exactly a turn to grassroots development anyway. Getting rid of our best asset in form of TT invalidates all Boehly's bs on long-term project and giving time to develop anything for me.

Decline of Arsenal and especially UTD were only caused by shitshow by their executives, not squad becoming too old and lacking synergy or decision by owner to drop down few places just because. I can "realise, we won't be a top team for the next few years the better", but I don't really see the point of it. Somehow City could be managed in sensible way to the top, so did Pool - neither they exactly bought the success nor decided to drop down to bottom of table just for shits. 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Vegetable

[DDA 9,924]

We are all secretly hoping to wake up in yeaes time and Potter has somehow completely revolutionised the team with us playing everyone off the park just like Arteta has. 

After everything I've read in here and on the Internet in general, I think it's fair to say Potter needs more time. He definitely needs time to rid of the pathetic wankers who are bleeding this club dry and to bring in his own players with the new recruitment team. 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,801]

Our twitter fan base can be vile. Glory hunters, not club fans.

 

[Superblue 6,372]

8 hours ago, robsblubot said:

What I was most concerned about when we hired Potter remains the same: I am not sure the players are running for him. He's a bit too small a fish in this pond, and will get eaten by bigger egos and pay checks.

The level of commitment I see today is very similar to the what I was seeing in the final seasons with Tuchel. Thought sacking him was a mistake before, because it empowers this group of players, and it may be a mistake now too, but the players are not delivering the level of commitment needed at this level. The high press in particular (more like it the lack thereof) is a fucking joke atm.

I think in this situation it will require a rough patch like this to be navigated with the club still backing Potter.

Arsenal went through the same with Arteta when they were clamouring for him to be sacked, but the time and backing that he was given will almost certainly have given him the confidence to truly enforce his methods and ideas on the side or else they'd be shipped off. He was able to weed out the players that he didn't want or that he felt didn't suit him regardless of their status at the club.

It may require similar circumstances here for us. It's easy to point out that there are new owners and they want to show a longer term plan but ultimately this is a club that for the last 20 years has done things with only short term in mind, and a fanbase that is used to this. Add to that the ownership showed quite a ruthless streak themselves by sacking Tuchel so early and I could understand if there are some doubts in Potter's mind just to how much 'time' he'll be afforded, and that could very easily impact his own decisions he makes in a long term vs short term approach.