Graham Potter gave his thoughts on first two months in charge of Chelsea
Speaking in the press conference (h/t Football.London), Chelsea manager Graham Potter offered his thoughts on completing two months in charge of the club as the team prepares to face Arsenal on Sunday.
Potter took over the management of the team from Thomas Tuchel on September 7. Since then, the schedule of games has been intense, to say the least. In spite of that, the Blues have looked better under the Englishman despite a bad defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion last Saturday.
The manager has been tactically flexible, with injuries to key players not helping him to put out his best team on the field every single time.
Talking about his time at Stamford Bridge so far, here’s Potter (h/t Football.London):
“Objectively it’s been seven wins, two draws and a defeat. There’s been a lot of games in a short space of time, so actual training time has been very limited. We’re getting to know the players all the time and I’m really happy with the response of the group. Performance wise we can do more and improve, that’s exciting. But at the same time, when you look at the mess of the fixtures and the injuries, we’ve done ok. But there is room to improve.”
For a manager who did not have the pre-season with this group of players, it would always have been a challenge to come in the middle of a season and make the team play better, especially when there are games every three to four days every week.
Keeping that and injuries in mind, Potter has done well so far. Although the defeat against his former club Brighton would hurt, sometimes a loss can ignite a far better response from a team than the manager can envisage.
He would hope for that to happen when Chelsea face league leaders Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Sunday at noon. It is an important game not just for bragging rights purposes, but to close the gap between them and the Gunners, which is ten points at the moment.
More Chelsea News:
- Paul Parker tips Chelsea to sign a wing-back as Ben Chilwell and Marc Cucurella “not good enough” for Graham Potter
- Real Madrid eyeing Chelsea target Moises Caicedo as Luka Modric’s replacement
- Ally McCoist urges Chelsea to sign Wilfried Zaha and believes the winger would walk into the team
With regards to judging the manager’s reign so far, it is probably a bit too early to give definite opinions. He had to come in difficult circumstances and steady the ship somewhat till the World Cup break. He has done that and would hope to be backed in the coming transfer windows to buy players of his own choice.