Graham Potter slammed for playing Reece James out of position for Chelsea vs Aston Villa
Tim Sherwood chastised Graham Potter for starting Reece James in centre defence following Chelsea’s 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa.
Chelsea’s prospects of qualifying for the Champions League for the upcoming season have totally vanished after their loss to Villans, which saw them fall from the 10th to the 11th position. Ruben Loftus-Cheek played as the right-back in Potter’s 3-4-3 system, while James started as the centre-back.
And Sherwood believes Potter should not have tested the player’s role and that the choice was indicative of Chelsea’s subpar performance.
Despite having Trevoh Chalobah and Benoit Badiashile available for the defence, Potter opted to use Marc Cucurella, Kalidou Koulibaly, and James as a back three.
After the final whistle blew, Potter was jeered by the crowd, and since then, pressure has increased as fans call for his dismissal.
Speaking to the Metro, (h/t Evening Standard), Sherwood believes Potter’s decision to play James as centre-back despite having two other centre-backs available was a huge gamble.
“I cannot understand why Reece James is not playing as a right wing-back. You’ve got Badiashile on the bench; why’s he not playing? Because it makes it more solid. They look like a threat on the counter, Aston Villa.
That was undoubtedly a significant gamble on Potter’s part; we would have won if the 47-year-old had not moved James to a different position given how important he is to the attack from right-back. And it was clearly shown during the match with Cucurella, James and Koulibaly failing to combine with each other or stay on the same wavelength.
And Potter did pay the price for England’s international positioning tinkering. He ought to have started Cucurella, Badiashile, and Koulibaly at the back given that Badiashile has shown promising performances. It would have been more logical to use Ben Chilwell and James as fullbacks.
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That was undoubtedly a terrible mistake, one he may well have paid for with his job. It is a bit extreme to think one change made all the difference, but in the Premier League, it is all about fine margins. The club has sacked the English manager and one can only imagine if the situation would have been the same had he not lost against the Villans.