The Graham Potter at Chelsea era is underway and, although it is obvious that he will need time to bring about long-lasting improvements, the initial signs are looking positive and shows a foundation that Potter can build upon for long term success.
Contrast this to the frequent attacking frustrations that were expressed toward the end of the Tuchel era, and the difference is remarkable. As a team, Chelsea at long last look dangerous and energised in attack, and are playing some eye-catching football while they do it.
As an attacking unit under Potter, there is a real sense of a clear blueprint in place regarding the ways in which Chelsea seek to attack and cause problems for their opposition. Where before the passing in possession would be lethargic and uninspired, it is now precise, progressive and full of conviction.
To put it simply, it has become a joy to watch Chelsea play again, with their play in possession looking bright, lively and full of energy, in which players are given roles in which they can thrive and excel, rather than being shoe-horned into an unforgiving system that was a huge problem under Tuchel.
At the other end of the pitch, Potter’s instant impact can be viewed and felt just as significantly. No one more so has been a beneficiary of this than Kepa Arrizabalaga, who has gained the trust of Potter and looks set to get his number one spot back.
Potter’s consequently got Chelsea playing as a cohesive unit, with his tactical approach being one of flexibility and constant changing of system between games and even during games.
This not only makes Chelsea a very difficult team to prepare for and also play against during a match, but it also highlights another key strength of new boss Potter’s management.
And that is the fact that even though Chelsea over these last five games have gone in with different personnel, systems and approaches as set out by the gaffer, they have never once looked devoid of a plan or a sense of purpose. Every single game in which Potter has overseen proceedings so far, Chelsea have looked thoroughly prepared and briefed to a tee – ready to execute the game plan whatever it may be.
Tactically, the improvement has been instantly recognisable. And it begs the question: if this is the results after a mere five games in charge, then what is Chelsea going to look like if Potter is allowed to completely build a squad tailored to his needs?
We’ll return to this later, but before I do so I think it’s very important to address Potter’s remarkable and unusual nature as a football coach, and the advantage this gives him in his man-management and handling of the squad in general as people, not just in a purely tactical sense.
His methods in terms of forming personal relationships with his players and showing a genuine care in their lives as human beings, not just footballers, is what makes Potter so unique and is one of his big points of strength.
This human, empathetic and considerate side to him leads to the players individually resonating more naturally with his ideas and subsequently becoming more connected to the manager, and just overall feeling more valued rather than being seen as a simple footballing asset.
Now, I really don’t want to compare this too much with Tuchel’s time at the club, but in this case I think it is crucial to understand just how important this side to Potter is more than anything. And this is with all respect to Tuchel, who after all was hugely successful in his limited time, and would’ve no doubt seen more joy if it were not for personal and external circumstances.
What was this like under Tuchel?
There were essentially two ‘halves’ to the Tuchel era at Chelsea;
Tuchel was someone who demanded and sought out perfection, and his ways of conveying this to the players during the first half of his tenure was very commendable indeed.
However, it was clear that when bad form struck, some of the players did not respond well to Tuchel’s touchline habits, which admittedly came from a desire to help the club. This may have built up a fear factor surrounding the managers way of dealing with the players in match, which would have inevitably led to a deterioration in relationships between the coach and several of the playing squad – stemming from this aura of ‘fear’.
It’s a commonly known fact that different players respond better to different methods of feedback, with some responding well to this barking criticism, while some are better aligned to a more private, encouraging talk on the sideline during a break of play.
Some players just need an arm round them. And the squad needs a sense of unity and harmony in their ranks. Graham Potter knows this better than most.
What can we expect under Potter then?
Potter employs a more measured approach when engaging with his players, which is particularly noticeable during a match – where he can be seen to encourage and deal with issues in a less ‘volatile’ manner I guess you could say.
Chelsea fans can expect the new coach to strive absolutely to instil a ‘feel-good factor’ in the club, which we are already seeing so early on. This squad unity and harmony will be the absolute crux of his managerial approach as it will see them through both high and low spells as a collective.
Now on a more individual level, and this is where Potter really sets himself apart, not only in creating this fantastic club atmosphere, but also in helping the players themselves feel understood as people first and foremost.
In placing this immense emphasis on truly connecting with his players and understanding them on a human level, Potter is able to extract the best levels from these players. This is largely by simply knowing the best way to encourage and instruct his players to, once again, feel valued and important to the club.
For more insight into Potter’s uniqueness as a coach and his start at Chelsea, I found this article from The Guardian very useful.
With all these exciting qualities, all he needs now is a project to dig his teeth into. This is where Chelsea’s new ownership group comes in, headed by Todd Boehly.
Graham Potter at Chelsea – The Project:
The harsh sacking of Thomas Tuchel by Todd Boehly looked to many from the outside as a continuation of the hire and fire manager merry-go-round of Abramovich’s era.
But to Chelsea fans, and those more invested in the club, it was instead not a rash, reckless decision however harsh it may have seemed for super TT, but one of calculation and a desire for a change of culture.
Chelsea and Todd Boehly want to build something different here, they want to commit to a long-term project with Potter at the helm to build a team like the Liverpools and Citys, rather than the system which sees players from all different managers’, of all different philosophies, time at the club in the squad.
The first steps have been encouraging, the owners are changing and revamping the club operations from top-to-bottom, with the building of a new recruitment team being very publicly underway, and the complete restructuring of the internal parts of the club being centred in a spirit of collaboration.
Potter has multiple key things here for his Chelsea project, which makes the future a very exciting prospect:
1. He has time
This is probably the most crucial bit for Potter, the players, and for the fans. He’s going to get time to build a team tailored to his philosophies and ideas, where so many coaches before him did not.
Potter has a playstyle, just like any other manager, and with this he needs a group of players suited to this style.
The two areas of the pitch that I’m going to focus on in this sense is central midfield and the wingback positions. Both require a certain skill set and attributes to be able to be used to the most effect in Potter’s system.
We’ll start with the wingbacks; and for this you just have to look at the impact of Reece James’ injury on Chelsea. Yes Azpilicueta is a solid experienced player who has been incredible for the club over the years, but he simply doesn’t offer the same dynamism and physicality in both defence and attack that James does.
The wing-backs of Chelsea are an essential component of Potter’s attacking play, and they have to be all round superb in order to get the best results. They have to defend, they have to attack, recover, pass etc.
He therefore needs players that fit this bill, and Azpi simply doesn’t. That’s not to say he’s a bad player, but even he said himself that he struggles in that role.
When Chelsea can get Potter the players and backups he needs, then we will see the impact of an injury to a player like James start to lessen, as a player of a similar mould will be able to step in and keep the levels in the system high.
Another important area for Potter’s Chelsea team is central midfield, where players like Loftus-Cheek and Kovacic have been shining in recent weeks under the new head coach.
It’s a given that Potter’s midfield have to be able to facilitate the progressive, attractive and expansive football that his teams endeavour to play, which is why having the right personnel in this area can make or break the system.
This is probably the reason why we’re not seeing Zakaria get any time on the pitch, because his attributes simply do not fit the system that Potter is using, which makes Potter wary of using him. Zakaria is a physical player who specialises in his ball-winning, industrious qualities in the middle of the park, but his technical side is likely what’s holding him back from substantial minutes in the team.
It won’t therefore be built overnight, but Potter has this time to reshape the squad and tailor the personnel to his requirements as a coach, which is precisely the reason to be excited over his project considering the initial success we’ve already seen.
2. Ambitious New Owners
The new owners of Chelsea have been in the news a lot recently, especially over the summer and early stages of the season with all the transfer activity and changes to the club’s structure.
This complete reshuffle of the club, and a newly appointed coach in Potter, gives the new ownership a chance to break with the old era of Chelsea and build a new one centred around different philosophies and ideas.
Take Boehly’s ambition to build a multi club network, similar to City, as an example. This will inevitably provide, as he envisions, the young players coming through the academy ranks the chance to develop at a club in a competitive league that’s basically managed by Chelsea. This gets them valuable minutes on the pitch in a competitive setting, with their development still being in the hands of Chelsea – something you don’t get with a traditional loan move.
This should, all going well, result in more of the young stars at Chelsea eventually making the step to the real deal and playing for the Chelsea first team. The possibilities of where this model can take Chelsea are really endless, with the club long having had one of the best academies in the world, so this will be something Potter much appreciates in his project.
Another, more standard thing to mention is the high ambitions of the new ownership, both in terms of creating sustainable success on the pitch, and being excellently run off it.
We’ll tackle the second part of this first: this means Potter is going to get some of the best infrastructure to work with, both in the human sense and regarding facilities.
The prospect of Potter’s footballing ideas combined with a world leading, smart recruitment team around him is something that every Chelsea fan can get excited about. This is especially true when you remember the success that he’s already had on much lower budgets – you only have to look at the results he got at Ostersunds and Brighton, and the adept way he and his team were able to find talent and nurture it.
Some players that spring to mind from Brighton are Caceido, Cucurella and Lamptey. But let’s not get too carried away – if we are going to see a similar thing at Chelsea, we must be prepared for a transitional process before we get there.
Moving back to the idea of conventional, on-the-pitch success, it is obvious that this ultimately means, as we have already seen, that the new owners are prepared to spend big.
Now, while in the summer it was a ‘scattergun’ approach as coined by Gary Neville, when you come back to the desire to put in place a recruitment department that knows what they’re doing, everything in this vision starts to tie up nicely. And it would be wise to assume that the recruitment will only improve as time passes, especially if a collaborative culture between them and Potter is formed.
Basically, and to finalise, be excited about this new project and vision. The idea of Graham Potter at Chelsea, both accomplished in the tactical and man-management areas of his profession, being handed a war chest with which to build a long-term squad tailored to his liking is one that excites me as a Chelsea fan. I’m sure that, given the patience, the times at Chelsea might well be changing. Let’s see how he goes.
