Chelsea News: The last time Chelsea were in the Champions League you had Thomas Tuchel as manager. But they lost in the UCL week 1 game to Zagreb. After that defeat the bells rang at Chelsea. New Chelsea owner Todd Boehly sacked Thomas Tuchel the next day.
After Tuchel was sacked, Chelsea were looking for a new manager and their search ended with the former Brighton man. Chelsea announced Graham Potter as its new head coach in the coming days. With Potter’s appointment, there was a lot of excitement and enthusiasm among the Chelsea supporters.
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Potter’s first game in charge was in the Premier League, but the games were postponed due to the Queen’s death in the UK. Thus, the first game in charge of Grahm Potter came in the Champions League.
The first game of Graham Potter’s tenure as Chelsea manager ended in a draw, leaving the Blues’ prospects of advancing through the Champions League group stage in the balance. Two defeats have seen them bottom of Group E, and their next opponent is a Milan club that includes a number of former teammates who may seek revenge.
The first game of the Graham Potter era at Chelsea ended in a draw. Let’s see what changes Graham Potter made at Chelsea.
Chelsea News: Changes made by Graham Potter at Chelsea
The system
Within days of taking charge of Chelsea, Graham Potter made no big changes to the team. Potter adopted a simple system that sometimes looked like 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. But the ball system looked completely different.
It was 3 a system of defenders with Silva, Azpilicueta and Cucurella being the third left-handed centre-back. James and Sterling played as wingers who had to run down the wing a lot.
Another tweak entered the system in which Jorginho was deployed as the sole holding midfielder. Kovacic and Mount were ahead of him showing muscle and creativity in midfield. Kai Havertz and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were deployed as two forwards in Potter’s lineup.
Chelsea News: Sterling shines
Raheem Sterling was signed by Manchester City for a whopping 50 million. Under Tuchel, Sterling seemed a little confused at his new formation. Sterling was unable to perform in the front line of Tuchel, which was flexible with Mount Sterling and Havertz operating there.
But with the arrival of Potter, we saw a change in the system and in Sterling’s role. Sterling was deployed at left back against Salzburg by Potter. Sterling was given the responsibility of running the entire Chelsea left flank on both occasions, whether in attack or defence.
However, Sterling was Chelsea’s best player on the night. He dictated the play at times from that left back role. He even scored Chelsea’s only goal of the night.
In a post-match interview, Potter explained why he decided to play Sterling in an unusual role at left back.
“Against Salzburg, they block the middle very well, it’s not easy to play through the middle, so we thought about using Raheem and Reece in the wide areas, Azpi and Marc to support that. More bodies are central in the field with Kai, Mason and Mateo. It worked well, but not well enough. I thought we got Sterling into one-on-one situations quite often, dangerous situations in the box, they blocked well. The goal was a good result of that.”
Chelsea News: Potter on the touchline
Potter was calmer and more collected on the touchline than his predecessor Tuchel. The new manager is still demonstrative, choosing to clap nice moves with his hands above his head, and plenty of instructions were given.
But Potter is not an overly enthusiastic character on the sidelines. He is not the one who would kick the ball and show his emotions in advance like Tuchel does. Sometimes the new boss would take a backseat and let his assistant take over.
We saw Anthony Barry coming off the bench and instructing his players. Potter is much calmer on the touchline, which is perhaps a good thing for Chelsea as they look to build something long-term.
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