“You need leaders”- Gus Poyet sends clear message to Chelsea’s Graham Potter

Former Chelsea star Gus Poyet believes the club need more leaders in the squad

Speaking to WhatAcca.com (h/t Football.London), former Chelsea star Gus Poyet believes the club need more leaders in the squad to turn the season around.

The Blues are currently sitting 10th in the league table, a long way away from the top-four spots and out of both the domestic cup competitions.

While there are more than half of the league games still to be played, the current form does not induce any confidence for what is to come. Winning the Champions League can only be labelled as a dream at the moment.

Talking about this situation and why the squad needs more leaders, here’s Poyet (h/t Football.London):

“It’s been very difficult even if the changes the other day, it didn’t look great. So it’s a mix of getting the right group of players to keep a clean sheet from a defensive point-of-view and also be able to be strong offensively.

“Right now, it’s not an easy moment for Graham or Chelsea. This is when you need character. You need leaders. People to stand up and show themselves. One of the only things I liked about Chelsea (when losing 4-0 at Manchester City) was the way in which Thiago Silva was helping his team from the bench.”

Right now, if we look through the squad, there are only three leaders – Thiago Silva, Cesar Azpilicueta and Jorginho. Kalidou Koulibaly and Mateo Kovacic are senior pros but not very vocal on and off the field.

So, Poyet is right about Chelsea needing characters and leaders in the dressing room to show themselves up and help the team around. The issue is there are not a lot of them. To add to that, Jorginho may well leave the club in the summer after his contract expiry, while Silva’s contract is also expiring and he hasn’t signed an extension yet.

The manager Graham Potter, although experienced, hasn’t faced such a situation at a big club before. So, he may also be struggling to get his team to perform at a high level when the chips are down.

How can we turn things around then? Start with the basics. Being solid, compact and hard to beat would be a good base to work from. Getting the performance levels up, irrespective of the final result can induce confidence in the squad.

More Chelsea News:

• Chelsea looking increasingly unlikely to land Benfica midfielder Enzo Fernandez
• Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku labelled as embarrassing by Inter Milan legend
• Chelsea target Wilfried Zaha could only leave Crystal Palace in the summer

The manager and a handful of leaders have to earn their bucks in the next few months with their vocality on and off the field.