They sucked under him. Fans were pissed. The team lacks cohesion and a plan most matches. Why keep running it back. Cut bait and see if they can salvage some player value with a new manager bump. Lots of reasons to move, what a disaster.
We’re Back! Match Thread April 1- April 5
- Thread starter pedro1918
- Start date
Oh yeah! That’s the game you were at! Wow you picked a good one for sure. The atmosphere looked and sounded even better than usual. That place can kind of suck you in, huh? So glad you were there for that. Now we just have to get you supporting Palace against the Reds
Did you stop at any of the local pubs nearby? Oh and where did you sit?
I was thinking the exact same thing. And i reckon Chelsea will trump Spurs cos...trophies.
Edit: and better squad.
As a fellow Chelsea supporter, is this entirely true? I don’t get to watch every match, but the ones I’ve seen don’t really scream out managerial malpractice to me. They very often play beautiful football: creating many chances against packed in defenses, incisive passing all over the pitch, lightning fast counters, etc. But….. they simply don’t have a true striker. There’s no end product. And how much does coaching really have to do with that? How can you fault Potter for inconsistent (at best) finishing?
They’ve scored 29 league goals which is simply anemic - but they’re certainly creating enough good chances to be well above that. I can’t really speak to tactics, but their leading scorer is Havertz at 7 goals and then Sterling at 4. I don’t know, perhaps Potter isn’t putting them in the best position to win games consistently, but he also isn’t the one whiffing chances in front of goal that would net us 3 points. Give them a true focal point for all their creativity and that’s gotta be worth a few extra wins this season, putting them in the thick of CL spots. And for all their league troubles, they are still in the CL QFs.
I’m not necessarily defending Potter, I don’t know if he’s the answer as manager. But I also don’t think he’s the main reason for their struggles: no true fulcrum on the attacking end, an incoherent (if not extravagant) transfer policy, and too many talented players that don’t necessarily complement each other. New owner and same policies. It’s like Roman is still pulling the strings.
I remember when Tottenham was thinking about Potter and they talked about how his Brighton team punched above their weight and how Potter's tactics created a lot of chances, but were undone by poor finishing and how that would translate to Spurs--create those chances and have guys like Kane and Son finishing.
It's interesting to me that his tactics are apparently still creating chances, but there's still no finishing, even with the step up (in theory) from Brighton to Chelsea.
Some days it seemed like they were creating some good chances based on good play, but other times (more often, I’d say, unscientifically) it seemed like the chances came almost accidentally based on talent from the players in spite of no seeming cohesive plan or style of play. This past game against Villa was the epitome of the latter; players made runs into dangerous areas and no one even looked to pass, players made crosses into the box and no one was remotely close to being on the end of it. Chilwell was a one man wrecking crew on the left and got no support at critical times. Emery has been in charge of Villa for less time than Potter had at Chelsea and one side looked much more composed and in sync.
There’s also been some odd squad selection and substitutions (leaving Badiashile on the bench against Villa was a head scratcher that left them with only one true center back on the pitch; quelle surprise when 5’ 8’’ Cucurella botched a header clearance that lead directly to the first goal, with 6’ 4’’ Badiashile just watching from the touchline).
Potter seems like a decent guy, you can argue they’ve struggled with injuries and have had too many new players to work in, and it’s possible it could have worked out given enough time, and this season was already a lost cause anyways, but at some point you’d expect to see something more than they’ve shown.
I do wonder if this is something that could have been solved by Chelsea ponying up for someone like Kane, not Kane obviously but say Vlahovic who can lead the line, is always looking to get on the end of crosses and is, when healthy, a truly deadly finisher. I do feel like Potter was undone by the crazy choices made in the summer transfer window.
There’s certainly an argument that if they had brought in, say, Gabriel Jesus, perhaps instead of a winger like Sterling for similar money, they’d be in a much better place in the goals scoring department (though I think Sterling has been solid when fit). There’s a reason they splashed the pot bringing back Lukaku last year, having a true number 9 was something of a missing piece (especially with Giroud going to Milan), and you could make the case they didn’t replace him when he went on loan to Inter.
But I’m not sure that’s the difference between last year and this year. Last year they scored 76 goals in league play, an even 2 per game. This year they have 29 goals in 28 games, barely over half of last year’s per-game output. Even if you removed Lukaku’s 8 goals in league play from last year’s results, it was still a lot more successful scoring team.
I’d say they’ve looked best this year under Potter when they’ve committed to playing Havertz in a false 9 role, dropping deep to link up and then coming up to finish chances. I didn’t see much of that on Saturday. Part of that is probably personnel related; having, say, James fit enough to play right back allows for more overlapping play and for the wingers to drift centrally and occupy defenders and free up Havertz to do his thing with space, and with James playing out of position at RCB and RLC playing right back, that setup doesn’t work and there really wasn’t much generated other than by players winning individual battles or through turnovers by Villa. But the lack of a plan B, or even a cohesive plan A a lot of times, is probably what sunk Potter more than a lack of a true 9, at least as I saw it.
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Doucore is an idiot for giving Kane the chance to fall to the ground like a snipers victim. I hope Kane somehow gets a second yellow soon.
Unfortunately as someone that has watched too much of this team as my wife laughs at my misfortune, yes, he's been outcoached, and let down by finishing. The problem, becomes if you know you can't finish, you have to be pragmatic, look at how Villa was able to slice through the team. If you don't have a top team in attack (for half a billion that's another discussion) you can't let yourself be countered and give up late goals. In league the last clean sheet was Leeds, then before that Fulham. If you're destined to win with one goal you have to set up to do that, or you end up 12th. Maybe it's a bit reactionary, but I don't think he was managing the situation the injuries gave him all that well and he didn't really pivot to a system that protected a backline when there was no midfielders healthy in front. Then again not as dumb a move as Doucoure.
This game is all you need to know about Douc: excellent hustle, right place right time for a great chance, sent it to row z, then did that dumb thing
Any time you can kick a center back dribbling away from goal in the penalty box, you've gotta do it.
View: https://twitter.com/BBCMOTD/status/1642988759451934723?s=20
well....Doucoure got a lot of nose there
well....Doucoure got a lot of nose there
I was halfway through typing a complaint until the replay happened, complaint retracted, that was very high.
