Graham Potter Thread

[Vesper 29,475]

Analysing Chelsea’s most complete performance under Graham Potter

https://theathletic.com/4287248/2023/03/08/Chelsea-dortmund-best-graham-potter/

Chelsea are Champions League quarter-finalists.

The fact this is a significant achievement shows how quickly football can change. Chelsea won this competition two seasons ago under Thomas Tuchel, and their second-leg performance against Borussia Dortmund was — at last — reminiscent of some of those European nights under the German during 2020-21.

Before last night, Chelsea had only won two of their 12 games in 2023, but managed to beat a Dortmund side who had won all 10 of their games since resuming after the World Cup.

Here’s how Graham Potter’s ‘box’ midfield kept Chelsea in the Champions League.

Against Leeds United on Saturday, Potter switched from a 4-2-3-1 setup to a 3-4-2-1, which raised eyebrows. However, a lack of goals meant they needed to try something different. The tweaks helped overwhelm Leeds’ midfield, with left wing-back Ben Chilwell finding space in behind.

GO DEEPER

Graham Potter, Ben Chilwell, Swan Lake and improving Chelsea's left-side problem

Tuchel’s success at Chelsea was underpinned by a similar 3-4-2-1, which is also the same shape Potter started the season with at Brighton & Hove Albion. It uses a box midfield (shown as white dots on the screengrab) below, with two defensive midfielders behind two No 10s. The wing-backs provide the width.

Potter used it in his first Chelsea game, a group-stage draw at home to Red Bull Salzburg, with Raheem Sterling at left wing-back. Almost six months later, Sterling was at No 9, with Kai Havertz as a No 10 alongside Joao Felix.

“I thought Raheem alongside Kai was excellent,” said Potter.

“Raheem played a slightly different role but he was really effective, and caused their back line a lot of problems.”

Sterling (15) had the fewest touches of any starting Chelsea player, half as many as goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga (30) and almost three times as few as Havertz (44).

The England international’s job was to pin Dortmund’s defensive line and be an outlet. He offered Chelsea a focal point up front, freeing up Havertz — who has been asked to play as a No 9 recently — to roam deeper and operate in the half-spaces.

Below, as Dortmund press from their 4-1-4-1 mid-block, Chelsea bypass their midfield with a simple passing pattern. Their box midfield outnumbers Dortmund’s triangle, which leaves Emre Can (defensive midfielder) trying to mark two Chelsea players.

Enzo Fernandez receives the ball, which entices Salih Ozcan towards him.

The Chelsea man plays an easy pass across to Mateo Kovacic, who then finds Havertz with one touch…

… Havertz plays into Sterling but he fails to pick out Reece James’ run in behind. Note the high positioning of Dortmund’s left-back, Raphael Guerreiro, and the aggressive, attacking runs of Chelsea’s wing-backs, James and Chilwell.

The roles are even clearer for Havertz’s first-half offside goal — one of six Chelsea offsides, their most in a game under Potter.

For Dortmund, Can regularly drops between the centre-backs to make a back five, particularly when defending deeper, but here they use that tactic to try to press Chelsea. Can’s deeper positioning allows right-back Marius Wolf to press Chilwell, which leaves Niklas Sule — all 6ft 4in (193cm) of him — up against Joao Felix.

Below, Marc Cucurella receives the ball from Chilwell…

… and plays a line-breaking to Joao Felix. Potter felt the Spaniard put in a “top performance” at left centre-back, a role he played at Brighton under the same head coach, offering “balance in the back three”.

Joao Felix spins centre-back Sule, but Sterling is marginally offside. Once more, Dortmund only have three defenders back.

For the opening goal, Havertz ends up out on the left wing. Chelsea built up from deep, with Havertz receiving the ball and dribbling towards the touchline. One-v-two, he backheels to Kovacic, who tries to dribble through rather than find wing-back Chilwell, who had underlapped…

… Sule tackles Kovacic but the ball drops to Chilwell, who cuts the ball back…

… Sterling mistimes his left-foot swing, gets lucky with the ricochet, and scores emphatically with his right.

Chelsea’s directness and speed of attack were notable. They recorded their lowest possession share (39 per cent) under Potter. This is partly explained by Chelsea going on the defensive in the second half to protect their lead — but they only had 44 per cent possession in the first 45 minutes too.

Potter’s side played more than 15 per cent of passes long, their second-highest share under him (after 16.4 per cent against Arsenal at home), and Kepa ‘launched’ passes — kicked at least 40 yards — at his highest rate (40.9 per cent) in a game this calendar year.

It’s possible Potter had seen RB Leipzig’s failure to unpick Dortmund’s 5-4-1 low block on Friday, so to find more space behind their defence, the Chelsea head coach opted to 1) play more a more direct style and 2) flood the midfield to win turnovers.

Chelsea’s back three provided cover for Kalidou Koulibaly to step out with Dortmund No 9 Sebastien Haller. Koulibaly won the battle — he was successful with all three of his tackles, made two interceptions and won four of eight aerial duels.

From a Dortmund throw-in, Koulibaly follows Haller and tackles him. The ball runs through to Sterling (out of shot behind the defenders, which are marked with yellow dots)…

… who sets it back to Joao Felix. He finds Havertz’s run in behind.

This time, Can does enough to get back and nudge Havertz off balance.

The penalty is another example of Chelsea’s effective transitions.

Fernandez tackles Ozcan out wide after James had stepped out to pressure Jude Bellingham. Chelsea’s front three stay high.

Dortmund have committed numbers forward — see Guerreiro and Bellingham’s runs — so are vulnerable to counter-attacks.

James plays forward to Havertz…

… and James underlaps Havertz, as the German playmaker passes to Sterling. (Havertz’s 10 progressive passes were the most of any player and his highest this season.)

With right-back Wolf pulled inside to cover Joao Felix, Sterling switches play to spare man Chilwell, who runs from deep.

Cucurella and James sprint to get into the box, but Wolf blocks the cross with his hand, conceding a penalty.

Chelsea had not scored more than once for 13 games (since Bournemouth at home in late December) but almost scored a third against Dortmund. Once more, the flat back five provided the foundations to counter-attack.

Helped by Havertz, Fernandez dispossesses Jamie Bynoe-Gittens as he looks to dribble through midfield.

And Sterling is once again marginally offside as Kovacic tries to release him — substitute Conor Gallagher ends up with a tap-in, running between left-back Guerreiro and centre-back Nico Schlotterbeck.

Similarly to the Leeds game, at 2-0, Chelsea sat back into an increasingly lower block, introducing defensive midfielders Gallagher and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The shape became a 5-3-2.

It might have been a different game without an injury to Dortmund top-scorer Julian Brandt inside the first five minutes. However, Chelsea will feel they have suffered enough from injuries themselves recently.

In what was described as a season-defining week for Chelsea, and a career-defining period for Potter, two crucial wins (and good performances) can be seen as hugely significant.

GO DEEPER

Graham Potter and Chelsea's crowd have bonded - and he has bought himself time

Potter is just the second English manager to win five Champions League games in one season after Bobby Robson with Newcastle in 2002-03.

Potter described reaching the last eight as “up there” in his career achievements.

Never one to over-celebrate a win, is he?

Liam Tharme is one of The Athletic’s Football Tactics Writers, primarily covering Premier League and European football. Prior to joining, he studied for degrees in Football Coaching & Management at UCFB Wembley (Undergraduate), and Sports Performance Analysis at the University of Chichester (Postgraduate). Hailing from Cambridge, Liam spent last season as an academy Performance Analyst at a Premier League club, and will look to deliver detailed technical, tactical, and data-informed analysis. Follow Liam on Twitter @LiamTharmeCoach

 

[robsblubot 3,595]

  On 08/03/2023 at 15:47, Vesper said:

Potter described reaching the last eight as “up there” in his career achievements.

Expand  

That's precisely what makes him a pretty wild bet at this level.

[Strike 7,317]

Got it right in both legs vs Dortmund. They had one counter attack - that's about it. 

[Blue Armour 4,376]

  On 08/03/2023 at 11:06, Vegetable said:

Sure, my point is it's quite shocking how reactionist the crowd can be. It was actually relatively exciting to watch the team doing good job yesterday, but better not to get carried away with it - we are not over the slump yet and actually far from it.

Not even mentioning Havertz, Sterling and Mudryk (lol) being supposedly top players now, even though they were shit and 100% onto transfer list 6 hours before.

This kind of short sighted perception of things and talking about "building for future" at the same time seems quite funny <;

Expand  

That's a fair point.

I'll admit that I'm pleased with what I saw in the last game, but doubts still very much linger regarding his approach.

I will say this though. He has had 2 wins back to back, and it will be interesting to see if he can leverage this in anyway.

If the next two games end up being a shitshow repeat, rightfully he needs to be questioned. But for now, he has earned some time IMO.

[milka 3,377]

 

[Vegetable 830]

  On 09/03/2023 at 08:25, Blue Armour said:

I will say this though. He has had 2 wins back to back, and it will be interesting to see if he can leverage this in anyway.

If the next two games end up being a shitshow repeat, rightfully he needs to be questioned. But for now, he has earned some time IMO.

Expand  

Very much this. I'd see upcoming 3 games much more "make or break" than previous two. Getting job done is a must, but if there is a momentum and improvement on the pitch, it means something finally budged and we can reevaluate Potter in the summer perhaps. If not - what is due long time ago is due.

And still I would not forget the fact that missing on Europe is a criminal offence on Chelsea level, especially given a lot of corporate and squad issues were fixed or are being fixed after the takeover. 

[Blue Armour 4,376]

Potter using the form book well. It's looking like all all his team needed was a win to have lift off. 3 wins out of 3.

Hopefully they can carry this form into more games against the top half of the table. 

[NikkiCFC 8,126]

Sir Potter cooking. 

[Gundalf 804]

100% win percentage with 3atb 😂 

 

I just hope that Potter doesnt switch back to back 4 just bc we have some momentum now. 

 

[NikkiCFC 8,126]

  On 11/03/2023 at 18:01, Gundalf said:

100% win percentage with 3atb 😂 

 

I just hope that Potter doesnt switch back to back 4 just bc we have some momentum now. 

 

Expand  

He did today last 20 mins. 

[Costa19 858]

3 weeks ago we would have lost this game after going 1-0 up and then hit the post only to concede afterwards. 
 
Today the players kept playing and instead of heads down they went on winning.

Great mentality and you can see how big difference a small portion of confidence does.

[OneMoSalah 8,841]

Need more consistency in performances and results now. 3 games is 3 games, Everton & Villa next another 2 winnable games. Then Liverpool squashed in after them before we play Wolves & Brighton, who again, we should be looking to beat. If we can build up some momentum and promising performances people, including myself, may be a bit more optimistic about next season but again, the managers nowhere near out of the woods yet for me - needs to finish strongly this season. Still been a very poor season collectively and I don’t think how he’s handled things has been entirely convincing. 

Edited March 11, 2023 by OneMoSalah

[Blue Armour 4,376]

  On 11/03/2023 at 22:31, OneMoSalah said:

Need more consistency in performances and results now. 3 games is 3 games, Everton & Villa next another 2 winnable games. Then Liverpool squashed in after them before we play Wolves & Brighton, who again, we should be looking to beat. If we can build up some momentum and promising performances people, including myself, may be a bit more optimistic about next season but again, the managers nowhere near out of the woods yet for me - needs to finish strongly this season. Still been a very poor season collectively and I don’t think how he’s handled things has been entirely convincing. 

Expand  

The biggest issue he still needs to sort out is how the team presses when they don't have the ball.

The organized press is still lacking and that results in our defense being put under pressure more often than needed.

[TheHulk 2,051]

Wish we changed to 5 at the back a few games before this run, would challenge for the Top 4 right now need miracle..

[kellzfresh 7,229]

The 6 keys to our recent form are because: 

1. Potter has gone to a 3-4-3 formation which the players already are used to, helps cover the half spaces in defense, provides enough cover defensively to prevent counterattacks

2. Most importantly he is finally playing the same group of players, who have formed some chemistry and understanding of each others game. 

3. He has removed Havertz from the striker position and he is playing as a free role attacking forward now.

4. Kovacic-Enzo is a great midfield pairing as Enzo is a massive upgrade to Jorginho.

5. Ben Chillwell making runs from the wingback has provided us with a massive outlet to switch balls to the flanks and play long balls in behind defenses. 

6. Lastly Potter is now making tactical switches in the second half to adapt and react to the opposition changes and secure our wins. Against Leeds he put in Gallagher, Zakaria to shore up the midfielder and secure the win. Against Dortmund he put in Gallagher again to shore up the midfield and secure the win. Against Leicester he noticed that they were going through the middle and Felix wasn't pressing so he removed Felix and put Gallagher to make some tackles and block the midfield from being overrun

[Clockwork 1,794]

Need to have a great finish to the season imo to justify Potter staying. 

[Fernando 6,537]

  On 12/03/2023 at 10:05, kellzfresh said:

The 6 keys to our recent form are because: 

1. Potter has gone to a 3-4-3 formation which the players already are used to, helps cover the half spaces in defense, provides enough cover defensively to prevent counterattacks

2. Most importantly he is finally playing the same group of players, who have formed some chemistry and understanding of each others game. 

3. He has removed Havertz from the striker position and he is playing as a free role attacking forward now.

4. Kovacic-Enzo is a great midfield pairing as Enzo is a massive upgrade to Jorginho.

5. Ben Chillwell making runs from the wingback has provided us with a massive outlet to switch balls to the flanks and play long balls in behind defenses. 

6. Lastly Potter is now making tactical switches in the second half to adapt and react to the opposition changes and secure our wins. Against Leeds he put in Gallagher, Zakaria to shore up the midfielder and secure the win. Against Dortmund he put in Gallagher again to shore up the midfield and secure the win. Against Leicester he noticed that they were going through the middle and Felix wasn't pressing so he removed Felix and put Gallagher to make some tackles and block the midfield from being overrun

Expand  

Awesome analysis. 

That part of Felix for Gallagher I wasn't aware of it but makes sense. 

I'm sure Mount would have been better but too bad he wants to leave. So i guess potter will use Gallagher, which I'm fine, I rather give Gallagher a chance like the way we did with Mount. To me, Gallagher desires to be here, Mount does not care. He can go! 

 

[Strike 7,317]

  On 11/03/2023 at 22:31, OneMoSalah said:

Need more consistency in performances and results now. 3 games is 3 games, Everton & Villa next another 2 winnable games. Then Liverpool squashed in after them before we play Wolves & Brighton, who again, we should be looking to beat. If we can build up some momentum and promising performances people, including myself, may be a bit more optimistic about next season but again, the managers nowhere near out of the woods yet for me - needs to finish strongly this season. Still been a very poor season collectively and I don’t think how he’s handled things has been entirely convincing. 

Expand  

There is still the Champions League. Get a fit Kante alongside Enzo and we could be competitive against any of the remaining teams