What Graham Potter must do to rejig a frenzied Chelsea side
“We’ve got Super Tommy Tuchel, he knows exactly what we need,” gasped a section of close to 8,000 Chelsea fans while their side was being toyed around by a team that currently represents everything they aren’t.
The only positive Chelsea can take from their 4-0 drubbing against Manchester City – an understatement in all honesty – is this crowd of 8000 supporters that sang away in pride; something the players failed to wear while playing for the royal blue club of London.
“Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance,” reads a famous quote on reminiscence from the great Beryl Markham.
The Blues needn’t roll back too many years to find refuge. Befuddled by the manner their beloved players chased shadows; they probably ran out of hymns, and eventually discovered an escape route by harking back to the legend of Roman Abramovich and Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea.
Five defeats in seven. Just one domestic win since mid-October. Fighting just for the Champions League, or best to say, about to learn their fate soon in the UCL. Three goals scored in their last seven matches. No goals against Manchester City, despite having renewed hostilities with them thrice. None against Arsenal or Newcastle either. A first FA Cup third round setback in 25 years.
Chelsea Football Club is in a state of emotional, tactical, and transitional turmoil. Wait, have we heard that before?
While Tuchel beat Pep Guardiola, among other celebrated coaches in world football, thrice in his first four months in charge of Chelsea, Potter has managed to pull off the opposite. Three losses, no goals, more questions, less answers.
Chelsea’s legendary German coach was sacked, in the words of co-owner Todd Boehly, for not having an ‘aligned’ vision, or a ‘collaborative’ approach. That was after he was allowed to splurge almost £273 million.
That solely contradicts Boehly’s ideas on a long-term project. For a professional who boldly came out as the spokesperson of the club when sanctions were imposed by the UK government, for a tactician who shepherded the club to six finals, and for a caretaker who turned Chelsea into one of the meanest defences in Europe, it’s a tad unfair to receive a sacking 100 days into change of ownership.
That said, sacking Potter would recreate a vicious cycle of calamites. Another manager will have to come into what Chelsea supporters, many a time, bill as a ‘circus.’ They’d have to reassemble lost pieces, get the team playing their brand of football and win over an insipid squad that is losing confidence as the matches continue to come in thick and fast.
Trust. That is something Potter will have to earn. Or manufacture.
Having to bear the brunt of burgeoning vitriol every time Chelsea drop points, Potter has been highly protective and reassuring, only to learn that they will let him down the game after.
Manchester City made light work of the Blues. It was far from a high-voltage encounter expected from a rivalry that has brewed over the past decade. Riyad Mahrez’s stunning opener, straight from a free kick, had Chelsea shoulders dropping. Julian Alvarez’s penalty had them collapsing into the corridor of defeat, almost as if they readily burst through it. Phil Foden’s goal in the 38th minute exacerbated not just the score line but Chelsea’s performance after. And by the team Mahrez burnished the performance with the sweetest cherry on top, half the travelling support was out of the Etihad.
With each goal, the resistance to fight back harrowingly reduced. Potter must stop being the gentleman and bring an old stick out of his pocket. Because there was no communication between defenders. There was no rhythm in passing, or the energy to simply break between the lines like an ever-willing Alvarez.
We can call it baffling, alarming, and use many more superlatives, but this Chelsea XI looked like a bunch of university children unprepared for games, ready to surrender to anything slightly better than what they tried.
And on that very note, it’s imperative for Potter to foster trust. Either make the players believe in his methods and project, or at the very least, ensure those and only those who truly fight for either the management, or the club, start for Chelsea.
Fresh reports also indicate that the Blues are set to rope in the talented Joao Felix from Atletico Madrid on an initial loan deal. Again, what’s the plan with him? Surely, he can’t be the only signing that joins the long line of auxiliary number nines at Chelsea. There are just over three weeks for the January window to conclude but constructing a team that can bind itself together – a cohesive unit that thrills the audience – is the need of the hour at Stamford Bridge.
As such, Potter’s teams are known for playing dynamic football, characterised by shifting formations and overloading to form gaps on the inside channels. Felix will have to be accompanied by a mobile forward, or a co-creator, to prevent this signing from being part of a broken orchestra.
Potter is meant to be Chelsea’s deep-rooted recruit in management. If that remains the case, then why does this phase feel so dry and disjointed?
It’s because his side fails to show up for a fight against teams that are or strive to be their rivals on the PL table most often.
Undoubtedly, Chelsea fans starve for silverware. Surely, we couldn’t have expected Potter to fight for a place in the top two or three. But he must give something to the fans. Something they can feel grateful for after having spent their valuable resources to watch their team play.
If Potter can’t prepare teams to win, he should prepare teams to fight. Because that is what the Chelsea DNA is composed of.
-Akarshak Roy
Twitter: @RoyAkarshak
Photo: James Boyes. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.