Graham Potter Chelsea’s saviour?
Graham Potter’ s appointment as Chelsea manager completes a miraculous rise in football for the Englishman. After studying the sport while working with the Leeds Metropolitan University team, he went from being a technical d ire ctor for the Ghana national women’ s football side to cutting his teeth in the Swedish fourth division. His time in Scandinavia proved pivotal as, after seven years, he would re turn to the United Kingdom to first manage Swansea and then Brighton& Hove Albion. A transformation of the Seagulls’ style of play and for tunes coincided with the Solihull native being catapulted into one of the most volatile manage rial positions in world football. This week, Soccer Laduma international football write r Kamoge lo Mote cwane looks at how Potter and Chelsea could be a marriage that works in the short-and long-term.
Potter’s profile
It is safe to say that Graham Potter has massive shoes to fill at Stamford Bridge as he succeeds only the second manager to lead Chelsea to a UEFA Champions League title in Thomas Tuchel. Potter is not a popular hire among the Blues’ fanbase either, with many believing the German should have been given more time to work with the 282 million (R4.9 billion) squad he assembled in the past transfer window. However, according to club chairman Todd Boehly, he and Tuchel’s visions for the team were not in alignment, thus the decision to fire the ex-Paris Saint-Germain boss.
So, in steps Potter. The 47-year-old comes to west London with a growing reputation given the way he elevated the Brighton & Hove Albion side he inherited from Chris Hughton. “We were in front of the best English manager right now,” Pep Guardiola once said after a game against Potter’s south coast team. High praise from one of the game’s all-time great managers. While the former Ostersunds head coach has been lauded, the Chelsea hotseat can be a poisoned chalice, notorious for the lack of patience that comes with being able to cherry-pick the best players in the world. Boehly has insisted that the appointment of the Englishman is one with a view for the long-term, but Potter will not want to leave anything to chance.
His selection as the Blues’ latest manager is one that veers away from the typical A-list profiles that were appointed under the previous regime. Think Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Antonio Conte and Tuchel. Potter’s ascendence to the top of football management can be compared to the playing career of somebody like Jamie Vardy or N’Golo Kante. Starting in the most obscure league and with the most obscure team to find success and make your way all the way to the top. It is because of his journey that Chelsea will undoubtedly be the best pool of talent that Potter has inherited. The Englishman will, for the first time, have to deal with big egos in the dressing room, and that may be something to factor in when judging his first few months in the job, but, given his deep-rooted
conviction and belief in his style of play, his confidence could translate and resonate with the decorated change room at his disposal. Unlike Andre Villas-Boas, who arrived under similar circumstances as a relatively unknown entity coming into a change room with gargantuan egos, he will not have to contend with an ageing core that has been the bedrock at Stamford Bridge for many years and reigns over the rest of the players.
On the contrary, the best footballers at Chelsea have either recently arrived or are academy products, so Potter will more than likely have the time to stamp his authority on the team. And it will likely be the Blues’ academy that the new manager will be most keen on utilising. Arguably one of the best youth systems in world football, the ex-Swansea boss even brought two Cobham graduates to the Amex Stadium in the past transfer window in Levi Colwill and Billy Gilmour. His new team is littered with Cobham alumni, with the likes of Mason Mount, Reece James, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Conor Gallagher and Armando Broja all now in the clutches of a renowned developer of talent. The aforementioned players need to look no further than their new teammate Marc Cucurella as an example of the type of player they can become under the new gaffer. The Spaniard arrived on the south coast of England from LaLiga side Getafe for just 18 million (R318 million) and left for the English capital a season later for 65.30 million (R1.1 billion). Cucurella was also voted Brighton’s Player of the Season and earned his first call-up to the Spanish national team while a Seagull.
Immediate needs for Chelsea
In the long-term, Chelsea seem like the perfect fit for a manager like Potter, but he needs to be able to see his vision through and the only way he can do that is if he starts winning right away. Potter will only be able to win if he can remedy some of the ailments that were plaguing the club and contributed to Tuchel’s demise. The most important, arguably, would be the acquisition of a sporting director. Michael Emenalo and Marina Granovskaia were integral to the success the club sustained through the 2010s as elite players came and left west London with regularity. The new Blues boss will need somebody to play a similar role. Potter was successful at Brighton in part due to his tactical nous but also because of then-club sporting director Dan Ashworth. He even said in his first Chelsea press conference that he is a head coach first and foremost. Under Ashworth, the Seagulls brought in Cucurella, Zambian international Enock Mwepu, Moises Caicedo and Ghana international Tariq Lamptey, to name just a few. Another part of the team that needs immediate attention is its midfield. The two-time European champions have a deficiency in the centre of the park as far as their creativity is concerned. Mateo Kovacic is injured a lot and their only other source of balls into the final third is their wingbacks. The importance of their wide defenders can be seen from how their season panned out during the 2021/22 campaign. Once James and Ben Chilwell were ruled out due to injury around December, the team plateaued, and Liverpool and Manchester City ran out in front to challenge for the Premier League title.
Potter’s playing style
The fortunate thing about Potter’s appoint ment is that the transition from one coach to the next will likely be seamless. Both Tuchel and his successor prefer a 3-4-3 formation, but it could be argued that Potter is a more attack-minded coach. In his first game in charge of the Blues against Red Bull Salzburg in the UEFA Champions League, the Englishman deployed Sterling as a left-wingback and Marc Cucurella as the left-sided centre-b ack in his back three. While it might seem incomprehensible as to why a coach would play Sterling in such a position, it is because he wants a smoother transition when he plays out from the back. He did something similar with the Seagulls and Leandro Trossard. The highly-revered coa ch also played the Belgian attacker in the left wingback position, but does this because he wants to create a numerical advantage when his team wants to build play up.
In an attempt to overload the wings when they approach the opposition third, the build-up needs to first work. They do this by having a back four when the goalkeeper (either Kepa Arrizabalaga or Edouard Mendy) is in possession. Cucurella and James go really wide while the two centre-backs are either side of the keeper. Once the ball is received by the Spanish fullback, in this instance, one of the midfielders will approach the ball to create an overload (triangle) with Cucurella and Sterling until they play their way out and pin the opposition back. Because Salzburg were playing so narrow, and with Chelsea’s lack of creativity in the middle of the park, the only outlet Potter’s men had was to create more overloads in the wide positions. Cucurella and James made a lot of overlapping runs either side of Sterling and Havertz.
Potter’s formations don’t ever seem to be set. As with every good coach, they are fluid and adaptable depending on the game situation. Potter’s hugely impressive Brighton team received the recognition they deserved, and it is no surprise to see him finally given a chance at one of the Premier League’s top clubs. The biggest task for the new Chelsea boss may well be getting his philosophy across to a star-studded squad, which will be a unique challenge for him. Time will tell if he can be a success at the top end of the Premier League and Europe, but all the early signs seem positive, not only from Potter but from the club’s top brass as well.