Of course Graham Potter had to take the Chelsea job… damn right he did.
But I get why people are saying he should be wary of joining a club where there are clearly attachment issues to managers, where there seems to be major dysfunction in the board and dressing rooms. C’mon though. This is football. Don’t go to Chelsea because you may get sacked after two years? You’d never take any job as a manager if you thought like that.
It was only just a year ago, towards the end of the delayed 2020-21 season that Brighton fans were calling for his head after they won only four of their last 16 matches. I remember driving somewhere one night, and a radio phone in was full of people saying he should be sacked. That’s football. That’s a manager’s life. And you have to accept it, otherwise it’s pointless being in the game. It’s pointless having any ambition.
Potter may have an archetypal English name and seem typically polite, but believe me he’ll have serious ambition too. You can see that in his career. You could see it at Ostersund, where he took them from the fourth tier of Swedish football all the way into the group stages of the Europa League, and a famous win over Arsenal. That’s ambition, the same ambition he’s shown in taking Brighton into the top four.
Players are desperate to compete in the Champions League, why not managers? Chelsea is that chance for him, and undoubtedly he’ll have the belief in himself to buck the trend at Stamford Bridge. You can’t hide the fact that he’s walking into a troubled club at the minute. I don’t think the new owners have covered themselves in glory the way they got rid of Thomas Tuchel and you wonder if they don’t understand football.
The dressing room looks a mess as well. Maybe that’s Tuchel’s fault, maybe not. There are a lot of big egos in there, and some of them seem to be butting up against each other. I didn’t like the body language of that free kick exchange between Reece James and Hakim Ziyech, which spoke volumes on the issues Potter will be inheriting.
Do you agree with Robbie Fowler? Let us know in the comments below!
I’ve already heard questions about whether he’ll be able to handle those big egos, and win over players who seem to have the power at that club to get managers sacked. Yeah, maybe players of that level can accept a manager with the aura of a big name from his playing days more easily… initially. Yeah, maybe he doesn’t come with a track record that makes them immediately sit up and take notice.
But again, in the end it’s never about the past in football employment. It’s always about what you can achieve in the future, and Potter will know that. Any big name player can walk into a dressing room and say they’re a manager, but players see through that bravado after a couple of months.
They know if you’ve got it as a coach. They know if you’re going to make them better, fulfil their own ambitions. As long as a manager actually knows what he is doing, they’ll buy into it. Believe me, I’ve seen it in my own career… we can sniff a fraud pretty quickly.
He’s shown at Brighton he can improve players massively, and he’s also shown he knows the game, has refreshing ideas and is astute technically and tactically. How does he deal with a split dressing room though? The answer is to go in there without preconceptions…REALLY starting afresh. Loads of new managers say they do that, but they don’t. They make assumptions based on team selections and biases from the previous regime.
I know it’s a different level, but when I went into Brisbane as manager, I really tried to make it a clean sheet, and find out why players weren’t in the team, understand them and give them a real chance. Only then did I weed out what I thought were the problems.
I genuinely hope he succeeds - there’s no doubt it’s quite a big appointment for all young English managers, because in the Premier League, there is an obvious tendency to overlook the technical merits of our own coaches. I also hope he’s given time. He’s going to work with some of the best players in the world, yet who seem to currently lack an identity as a team. It doesn’t happen overnight, as even Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp will testify.
Klopp needs time
IT looks like Liverpool have some real problems, there’s no doubt about that, and no hiding from it either.
In the insane parallel universe of social media it’s ‘obviously’ down to the end of a era, the disintegration of the Klopp empire, the collapse of his team as a force, or whatever. In real life, IT DOESN’T HAPPEN IN SEVEN GAMES. I thought I’d cap that up for the hard of thinking. Nine games ago, Liverpool were on the verge of an historic quadruple and the undisputed title of the greatest team of all time.
They were a few minutes away from the title, until Villa collapsed at the Etihad. They were by far the better team in the Champions League final, against a Real Madrid side who were clearly fearful of Liverpool, and astonished that they had won. Now, seven games into a new season they’re finished as a force? It doesn’t happen like that. Great teams do decline, but it’s over years, not days.
So you have to look at other issues, and the chief amongst them is injuries. I’m not saying having four midfielders injured is an excuse, I’m saying Liverpool made an error in not planning for those injuries. They made the big mistake of thinking numbers meant quality, but that’s not always the case when you look at the profile of those making up the numbers. Jurgen Klopp said nine was enough in his midfield and it was last season.
But was it this time when you have players in Oxlade-Chamberlain, Naby Keita and Thiago with a history of injuries, and then Jordan Henderson and James Milner who have suffered fairly regular muscle injuries over the past couple of years? That leaves them with three kids and Fabinho for his midfield, which isn’t enough. All three kids are good players, but they’re not yet elite players.
I’d also say that applies to Darwin Nunez too, who is still young, and still developing, so it’s unfair to say he has to be an instant replacement for Sadio Mane. But that still doesn’t explain the total lack of structure against Napoli, of shape and discipline. I’ve never seen a Klopp team that was so open, that wasn’t compact in any way in the defensive transition.
This may sound so simple that it seems I’m just talking nonsense, but the whole idea of staying as compact as possible in defence is one of the principles of play, it is one of the fundamental building blocks of football. If you don’t have it, you don’t win. What’s the opposite of compact? Whatever it is, that’s what Liverpool have been so often this season. Why? Well it seemed as though Klopp didn’t know on Wednesday.
But the clue seems to be in their running stats. Less distance covered than every opponent so far this season, less intense runs, less sprints. Why? It’s not that they suddenly can’t run, that’s far too simplistic. Maybe Klopp has decided to try and control games, run less to see them through a ridiculous season with a bloody World Cup in the middle. But that isn’t working because he doesn’t have his midfield controllers in Thiago, Naby Keita and Curtis Jones.
Maybe it’s even simpler than that. Maybe it’s the shortened summer and the training periods they had after a long season. Perhaps they tried to do too much fitness in too short a space of time, or even not enough. That would explain the injuries either way.
It could also explain the lack of intensity, which then leads to a load of other small problems, which all came home to roost in Naples. The good news though, that’s a temporary problem.
With players back he can rotate, get in fresher legs, rest older players and the injury prone, take younger players out to allow them to develop at a better pace, allow Nunez the chance to settle properly into the team, and most importantly, rediscover their shape and intensity.
As I say. Simple! What is actually simple though, is when these bad moments come, you ensure you’re hard to beat. Liverpool haven’t been that, and Klopp now has to deliver that as a minimum by going back to his basics.
Thank you, Your Majesty
As the nation enters a period of mourning over the death of the Queen, I realise that not everyone shares the same views over the experience. I know there are people who are bemused that football has been cancelled wholesale with even kids games called off… and I’d sympathise because it does seem a bit of an overreaction given that children won’t understand why.
I would say though, that a family has lost a cherished grandmother, a loved mother, and many people are feeling that loss as their own. So I will extend my respects for that, and offer my condolences to the family of the Queen, and respect their loss. And I’d hope that all football fans will show that respect at what is undoubtedly a sad time for many.
