Chelsea currently sits in underwhelming tenth place, nine points behind Manchester United and Newcastle United in fourth place respectively. The Blues play Fulham in a London derby that was already going to be difficult, but now has the added pressure of being a must win game because of the situation Graham Potter’s men find themselves in.
CFC sacked Thomas Tuchel a week after the summer transfer window closed, and since then, Potter has picked up 15 points in 11 games, winning four and drawing three games. The four loses were against Brighton & Hove Albion, Newcastle, Arsenal and Manchester City. The last three aren’t particularly surprising, but the Brighton loss and the manner of it stood out because they hadn’t won a match in six.
Potter has not had it easy since becoming boss. He had a one week break before his first game as Chelsea head coach, and then had a two-week break after that, presiding over his first league game after weeks of being appointed. Usually three weeks with your players undisturbed is invaluable for any manager, talk less of a new manager. This seemed to be the case, as he won his first three league games and picked up 11 points from his first five games. It has long since fallen apart though.
Time to train his players has been in short supply for most managers this season as they were required to play a certain number of games before the winter World Cup break, meaning that almost every team was playing at least two matches in a seven-day period and teams in European competitions played more games in the same period often.
Injuries haven’t helped the Englishman either, as his players had been dropping like flies even before the World Cup. Reece James and Wesley Fofana got long term injuries before the World Cup, with Ben Chilwell also getting injured and needing surgery. James and Fofana seemed to be recovering well in the dying weeks of the World Cup, but Fofana got injured again before the World Cup break was over, and James couldn’t play more than 54 minutes in his first game back from injury, and has been out since then.
James is one of the Blues best and most consistent players, and Fofana is a very exciting and aggressive centerback that was in very good form before he got injured. These players would have been expected to be integral to how Potter wanted to play, so their absence would definitely be felt.
He has also being saddled with many players he didn’t pick, including popularly known injury prone centerback Wesley Fofana, and highly-paid centerback Kalidou Koulibaly. None of the signings brought through the door during the summer transfer window were brought in while Potter was in charge, and it speaks to Todd Boehly’s planning and erratic method that he brought in many players on high wages and sacked the manager a week later.
These things aren’t Potter’s fault and are just circumstances he found himself in, however, Chelsea’s current state cannot just be explained away by these points. Potter knew very well what he was getting into when he took the job, and he was aware of the players he would be managing. He knew the contracts of the players in his care, and would have maybe known some of their limitations.
Having players he didn’t particularly choose, isn’t strange and unfair to him. CFC are in the situation they’re in now because they’ve often been open in games, going as far back as his third league game as manager against Aston Villa, where the Blues allowed four big chances but conceded zero goals. The hallmark of a good team structurally is not one that doesn’t concede many goals, but one that doesn’t concede many good chances and one that doesn’t concede many shots on target regularly.
Chelsea has been far from that, in fact the goalkeepers have been the Blues’ best players this season, especially Kepa Arrizabalaga, which is the most telling thing about Chelsea structurally. This is Potter’s responsibility and he should do something about it.
The other thing Potter cannot hide from is the fact that it’s still unclear what he’s trying to do. No two managerial appointments or situations are the same and pretending they are would be dishonest. Many fans shout “long term project” from the rooftops and insist impatient fans should trust some arbitrary process. These points are difficult to make when there’s no visible process. Even some of Potter’s biggest supporters don’t know what he’s trying to do or what the plan is.
All these fans say is to give him time, which is not outrageous to ask for, but time to do what? “Jurgen Klopp finished 8th and was still given time. Now see.”, but even non-Liverpool fans say that they saw the style of play Klopp was trying to implement from game one, even before he had all the pieces. “But Pep!”, Pep finished 3rd in his first season and won the league in literal record breaking fashion in his second season.
The Spaniard also had David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, and a certain Argentine striker which helped some. “Mikel Arteta got time!! Why shouldn’t Potter?” He should, but Arteta also developed and prepared players to execute winning game plans against the Reds, Man City and Chelsea en route to winning the FA Cup in his first season.
Stop mentioning names to defend Potter with, he’s not Arteta, he’s not Klopp and he’s certainly not Pep Guardiola. Other managers getting time is not reason he should, he should be able to show he deserves more time on his own merit. Chelsea looking lackluster and underwhelming against Nottingham Forest and embarrassingly uncompetitive against a second string Manchester City side is bad, and doesn’t prove why he should be given time.
Fans can get behind a project, even Chelsea fans, but there has to be something they can see. It’s not realistic for anyone to wait for injured players to return before the team starts playing decently again. Every manager is affected by injuries to key players, but not every manager falls down the table as hard as CFC has.
It is still too early to make the decision on whether Potter is the right man for the job. Chelsea is in a transfer window now, and some players have come in that fans can assume Potter approves of. Benoit Badiashile, Davis Fofana, Andrey Santos and Christopher Nkunku have been signed by the club, with the latter joining six months from now.
Potter does need to be allowed to try and build what he has in mind with the players he feels are a fit for the playing style. Whether Potter should be sacked for a loss tonight does not have a clear cut answer. What I, or anyone else thinks about Potter as a coach or as a person is irrelevant, but what we can all see on the pitch is not good.
So no, Potter shouldn’t be sacked for losing to Fulham, but things definitely have to start improving very quickly. He has to develop game plans that make the west London outfit competitive, and maybe try to move towards his preferred style of play as the players become available. Things must improve, because Chelsea cannot look this way for much longer. Injuries and “they are not his players!” excuses would not hold for much longer.