Graham Potter Thread

[Blue Armour 4,448]

8 hours ago, Superblue_1986 said:

Based on some of those on your lists in the wide and attacking positions I definitely think Sterling enters that same conversation but on the grander scheme you're right. Compare that to 12-15 years ago when we probably had bare minimum 8 - 10 players that would have been bracketed like that.

I don't even want to be paying big money for some of those players anyway. Most of our big buys end up complete busts anyway. I'd much rather start seeing more considered and measured signings in the future. I'm not necessarily against any of the players we signed this summer but besides Sterling, we've probably overpaid on the rest. It was a difficult situation this summer and I can understand what we've done and why we've done it but moving forward it's completely unsustainable dropping a couple of hundred million each summer. We've got some good components within the squad but are missing in a couple of key areas that could really transform us from struggling to make top 4 currently, to comfortably making it which should be the first aim before we have aspirations of catching City. I just hope we get things in place as soon as possible to support the new manager moving forward.

If he's given time, great but he also needs the right support too and that's not just in transfer budgets.

Players like Drogba, Hazard, Kante, Essien, even Fabregas, Costa, were not terribly expensive buys.

Whenever we obtained gems in the transfer market, it's always been because of fast, smart recruitment.

Four of those names I mentioned above happened with Mourinho, and Kante happened under Conte.

Having the manager work closely with the club in identifying targets early on can really set us up strong. 

This is one area where I hope Potter can do better than Tuchel. If the past transfer windows were an indication, it would seem that Tuchel either did not care much for this, or his ideas were all over the place including chasing unrealistic targets.

[Blue Armour 4,448]

Plenty of bright spots in his first game in charge:

Just need the all important win in the next game to get us going again.

[Reddish-Blue 2,510]

16 hours ago, Superblue_1986 said:

Based on some of those on your lists in the wide and attacking positions I definitely think Sterling enters that same conversation but on the grander scheme you're right. Compare that to 12-15 years ago when we probably had bare minimum 8 - 10 players that would have been bracketed like that.

I don't even want to be paying big money for some of those players anyway. Most of our big buys end up complete busts anyway. I'd much rather start seeing more considered and measured signings in the future. I'm not necessarily against any of the players we signed this summer but besides Sterling, we've probably overpaid on the rest. It was a difficult situation this summer and I can understand what we've done and why we've done it but moving forward it's completely unsustainable dropping a couple of hundred million each summer. We've got some good components within the squad but are missing in a couple of key areas that could really transform us from struggling to make top 4 currently, to comfortably making it which should be the first aim before we have aspirations of catching City. I just hope we get things in place as soon as possible to support the new manager moving forward.

If he's given time, great but he also needs the right support too and that's not just in transfer budgets.

The most concerning was the CB transfers.  Like how do you wait until close to deadline day to sort out the CB situation when the club knew from basically June 30 that we would be minus two of our starting quality CB's? 

It's like the owners were trying to play football manager or something, oh, let's try and get Ake back to the club (oh wait, City want 50 million, forget it), let's try and get De Ligt (oh wait, he preferred Bayern Munich), oh we failed with both, let's give it a go with Kounde and see if he's still keen (oh wait, Kounde purposely goes and joins Sevilla in their portugal camp even though the club asked him not to go there).....and then we pay 25-30 million extra on young Fofana. 

You're telling me there wasn't any other CB's out there that we could have gotten under 40 million from another league?    Azpi, Zouma, Ivanovic cost about 40 million all up...and now we're going crazy splashing 75 million on a young talent. 

[Reddish-Blue 2,510]

7 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

Players like Drogba, Hazard, Kante, Essien, even Fabregas, Costa, were not terribly expensive buys.

Whenever we obtained gems in the transfer market, it's always been because of fast, smart recruitment.

Four of those names I mentioned above happened with Mourinho, and Kante happened under Conte.

Having the manager work closely with the club in identifying targets early on can really set us up strong. 

This is one area where I hope Potter can do better than Tuchel. If the past transfer windows were an indication, it would seem that Tuchel either did not care much for this, or his ideas were all over the place including chasing unrealistic targets.

Tuchel didn't really have to deal with transfers at his previous clubs as Dortmund and PSG have Football Directors who handle that.    

The only knock on Tuchel which people mentioned was that he didn't really have a Plan B or Plan C in the transfer market in case his main target ended up not joining the club (e.g. he wanted Dembele/Raphinha badly and we had zero alternatives for the right flank). 

[YorkshireBlue 3,279]

42 minutes ago, Reddish-Blue said:

The most concerning was the CB transfers.  Like how do you wait until close to deadline day to sort out the CB situation when the club knew from basically June 30 that we would be minus two of our starting quality CB's? 

It's like the owners were trying to play football manager or something, oh, let's try and get Ake back to the club (oh wait, City want 50 million, forget it), let's try and get De Ligt (oh wait, he preferred Bayern Munich), oh we failed with both, let's give it a go with Kounde and see if he's still keen (oh wait, Kounde purposely goes and joins Sevilla in their portugal camp even though the club asked him not to go there).....and then we pay 25-30 million extra on young Fofana. 

You're telling me there wasn't any other CB's out there that we could have gotten under 40 million from another league?    Azpi, Zouma, Ivanovic cost about 40 million all up...and now we're going crazy splashing 75 million on a young talent. 

Think you forgetting the price increase since the days of azi and Ivanovic, 40 mill is mid table club prices now, and I don't no how many times this needs explaining but we just switch owners when the transfer market opened we got rid of half the staff, targets change transfers would have been put in hold due to restrictions, transfers can take months to work on, there just simply wasn't the time, some of you think u can just throw money at players and clubs and that's enough, you couldn't be more wrong.

Edited September 16, 2022 by YorkshireBlue

[Superblue 6,372]

4 hours ago, Reddish-Blue said:

The most concerning was the CB transfers.  Like how do you wait until close to deadline day to sort out the CB situation when the club knew from basically June 30 that we would be minus two of our starting quality CB's? 

It's like the owners were trying to play football manager or something, oh, let's try and get Ake back to the club (oh wait, City want 50 million, forget it), let's try and get De Ligt (oh wait, he preferred Bayern Munich), oh we failed with both, let's give it a go with Kounde and see if he's still keen (oh wait, Kounde purposely goes and joins Sevilla in their portugal camp even though the club asked him not to go there).....and then we pay 25-30 million extra on young Fofana. 

You're telling me there wasn't any other CB's out there that we could have gotten under 40 million from another league?    Azpi, Zouma, Ivanovic cost about 40 million all up...and now we're going crazy splashing 75 million on a young talent. 

Can't really blame the owners for what appeared to be chaos just enquiring about huge numbers of players. A lot of this work is done over months of preparation and discussions outside of the transfer window. 

Boehly/Clearlake are coming in with none of this and so those levels of enquiries, bids made in discretion, etc are being done very much in the public picture at a time where clubs, agents, etc love to stir the pot and get the rumour mill working to their own benefits.

We moved on Koulibaly pretty quickly to be honest, it was only really the Fofana move that took time but then again it was the most expensive transfer and Leicester seem to have climbed down on their initial price (original talk was closer to £100m) so I can understand the time spent negotiating that deal. I think the situation with Fofana is probably a similar one to what we may have had enquiring about Rice, he was a longer-term target considered out of reach currently. As the summer unfolded and Leicester's financial situation became apparent, a window opened slightly and the club then decided to pursue that, rightly in my opinion.

We can all debate our own thoughts on Fofana, but if he was one of the club's big long term targets to bring in and we could get him now it was worth pursuing at the cost of walking away from someone like Kounde which seems to be what we did, albeit at a huge price.

Those days of picking up a deal like you mentioned are few and far between now. As an example, Zouma was more experienced, despite being not too dissimilar in age when we bought him from Saint Etienne, compared to Saliba and Fofana when they were both sold for 3 times the price. That inflation in the market just in the last 3 - 5 years has been quite insane. 

Targets that were once snips at £10-20m are now in the £25-40m bracket now. It poses a much bigger issue on the grander scale but ultimately anyone that we're probably picking up now that is under £20-30m and can perform probably needs viewing in the same way we look back at the likes of Azpi and Ivanovic signings from the past.

[Tomo 21,751]

Am I the only one finding the situation a bit surreal?

I mean, in the past it didn't take me long to adapt to the likes of Pedro, Oli and Cesc as Chelsea players but I'm finding Sterling and Auba here with Potter as manager so odd.

Not in a bad way, I love Sterling so far, have nothing against Auba and Potter was my first pick once I heard Tuchel was gone but seeing all three of them on the highlights of the last game felt like an outer body experience, just can't get use to it. Maybe the fact I've been travelling since 3 days after the Spurs game being unable to watch the games live (good timing on my part) has contributed to it.

[lucio 5,418]

38 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Am I the only one finding the situation a bit surreal?

I mean, in the past it didn't take me long to adapt to the likes of Pedro, Oli and Cesc as Chelsea players but I'm finding Sterling and Auba here with Potter as manager so odd.

Not in a bad way, I love Sterling so far, have nothing against Auba and Potter was my first pick once I heard Tuchel was gone but seeing all three of them on the highlights of the last game felt like an outer body experience, just can't get use to it. Maybe the fact I've been travelling since 3 days after the Spurs game being unable to watch the games live (good timing on my part) has contributed to it.

Me too. I think because of the ownership change also. Everything just seems random and directionless. I can’t watch many games live because of the time zone so I will probably just zone out for a year or so.

[Clockwork 1,794]

I don’t know if Potter is the solution, but I knew Tuchel was not for a while. 

Give Potter some time, I like the fact he is not rigid as Tuchel. 
 

 

[Vesper 30,224]

 

[dimmas 131]

I heard one of Potters specialty is coaching attacking movement. How much is that true actually?

And how about other aspect like potter capability to actually improve players fundamental ability? Such improve better decision making, making player having better composure on the ball, etc

Edited September 21, 2022 by dimmas

[Vesper 30,224]

Chelsea lack Jose Mourinho’s ‘untouchables’ of old – this squad needs to step up

https://theathletic.com/3622357/2022/09/24/Chelsea-lack-untouchable-performances/

Lost amid his last press conference as Chelsea manager earlier this month, Thomas Tuchel was asked how many of the senior players are playing at their best level.

“Not a lot at the moment,” he replied. “Obviously they are underperforming individually. A lack of determination, a lack of hunger and a lack of intensity to actually do the things that we need at the highest level. We are clearly not where we want to be.”

Like all the Chelsea coaches before him, Tuchel paid the price for the disappointing displays on the pitch by losing his job, although there were many factors behind that decision.

It is up to Graham Potter to spark a quick improvement, a task not made easier by an international break leaving him with a small number of players to work with at the club’s training ground.

Tuchel’s answer brought back memories of Jose Mourinho when he talked about the number of untouchables in his first team at Stamford Bridge. He named nine during a press conference in December 2006. On that esteemed list were John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Claude Makelele, Michael Ballack, Michael Essien, Ashley Cole, Ricardo Carvalho and Petr Cech. The only positions the Portuguese manager said he wouldn’t include were right-back (the role was shared) and, notably, striker, despite the £30.8million ($34.1m) signing of Andriy Shevchenko.

It got one thinking. Based on Chelsea’s start to the 2022-23 campaign, how many of this squad could be granted the same status as its predecessors? This is a more challenging task than it seems because it is hard to ignore the performances and contributions people have made for the club in previous years. But it is a struggle to pick more than four names right now.

It is remarkable just how reliant Chelsea have become on Thiago Silva in defence, albeit he did make a rare mistake in the 1-1 draw with Red Bull Salzburg in the build-up to the equaliser. But the centre-back, who turned 38 on Thursday, has started every Premier League game so far and for good reason.

Similarly, Reece James, who was recently rewarded with a long-term deal, has played at a very high level. His crosses from right wing-back have been one of the main reasons Chelsea have carried any attacking threat.

Perhaps it’s silly to add N’Golo Kante to the shortlist. He has played just two matches due to a hamstring injury. But look at what happened in those fixtures. Chelsea controlled the opening game at Everton to secure a 1-0 win. A week later, they put in what was their only impressive display, against Tottenham Hotspur, though they were unfortunate to draw 2-2. The France international was superb and Potter has to be hoping he will be available again soon.

And finally Raheem Sterling. He joined from Manchester City this summer for £47.5million under a lot of scrutiny and even though there is more to come from the England international, he has got off to a good start with four goals from eight appearances.

It is very early days and there is plenty of time for others to be included. For example, Mason Mount is clearly an untouchable in normal circumstances. Every manager he has played under has made him a regular in their team — even when it took him some time to impress Henk Fraser on loan at Vitesse Arnhem as a teenager, he eventually won their player of the year award in 2018. Mount will be the first to admit his form hasn’t been at the usual standard, but it is surely temporary.

The same could be said for Mateo Kovacic, who hasn’t reached full fitness yet due to a knee problem sustained in pre-season, and Ben Chilwell, who was always going to have to take things slowly following the knee ligament injury that kept him out for six months.

Other new signings should be given the benefit of the doubt as they settle in. Marc Cucurella has shown some positive glimpses of what he can do. Since making a bright start, Kalidou Koulibaly has struggled a little. Wesley Fofana and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have made just a couple of appearances each. Carney Chukwuemeka and Denis Zakaria are still waiting to make their debuts.

That still leaves 11 players to talk about, many of whom have been underwhelming. Take goalkeeper Edouard Mendy. A minor knee injury hasn’t helped but his confidence levels have dipped, especially with the ball at his feet. Backup Kepa Arrizabalaga has put in two good displays in a row but clearly can’t be considered undroppable.

Captain Cesar Azpilicueta has been useful in his leadership role but has yet to find his consistency defensively. Trevoh Chalobah will hope a change of coach will lead to a change of fortune given that Tuchel started him just 10 times since the turn of the year and only one of those came this season.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek should be encouraged that he has played in every Premier League game this season. Is he doing enough, though, to be a permanent feature? He needs to reach a higher level of consistency if he wants to be considered more than just a handy squad player.

Another academy graduate, Armando Broja, is also a source of positivity. He has shown enough in six substitute appearances to warrant a start. Yet you can’t say the 21-year-old is a must to lead the line every week. That would be unfair pressure to put him under anyway.

Conor Gallagher is an example of what impact too much expectation can have on a youth product. After returning from a great loan at Crystal Palace, it has been a tough seven weeks for the midfielder, including being sent off against Leicester. However, he is so talented that it would be foolish to write him off. If anything, he’s been guilty of trying too hard to make an impact.

That leaves more than £200million of talent in Jorginho, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech. Pulisic and Ziyech might complain that a lack of minutes hasn’t helped their cause but they’ve hardly made a statement in the time they’ve been on the pitch.

Jorginho has looked slow in midfield and opponents are finding it too easy to play around him, as we saw in defeats at Leeds United and Southampton. Apart from his late winner against West Ham, Havertz has provided little end product up front. As the second-most expensive player in Chelsea’s history, the fans should expect a lot more. The decisive strike in the 2021 Champions League final is not enough to live off.

This appraisal reflects a return of three wins in eight games. A run of 13 fixtures in six weeks before the World Cup will give others the chance to become untouchable. Potter will be hoping they do just that.

[Fernando 6,585]

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]

Potter on being sexy 😅

 

[Fernando 6,585]

I thought that was interesting move by potter.

It was really bad that we was being overwhelmed, and putting kovacic was a very wise decision. 

[Milan 17,959]

Approaching big matches like this is an absolute no-go, sorry.

[lucio 5,418]

He was always going to be completely out of his depth. He will get a lot of support from the fans because he’s English but really his job at Brighton was  only decent , they didn’t finish above anyone of note. 

[Milan 17,959]

Long term contract or not, you just know he won't last long.

[Blue Armour 4,448]

18 minutes ago, Milan said:

Approaching big matches like this is an absolute no-go, sorry.

What were you expecting to be different? Just genuinely curious about what upset you in this game.