In the 21st minute of Graham Potter’s first game as Chelsea manager, his new fans began a chant honouring the man who was in charge of them little more than a week earlier, Thomas Tuchel.
The German coach said he was devastated to have been sacked and Potter will have a considerable task to match the achievements of a predecessor who guided Chelsea to Champions League glory during his dramatic time in charge.
Suited and watching intently from the technical area he will now tread most, Potter saw the players he inherited miss out on a first victory of their 2022-23 European campaign as they were held to a 1-1 draw against RB Salzburg.
Has Potterball arrived at Stamford Bridge? Which players performed for Potter in the first game of the post-Tuchel era? The Sporting News surveys the scene.
Jorginho: Potter’s plotter on the pitch?
In between Potter’s most urgent moments of guidance, when he implored his players to compress lines and close space, Jorginho was the player he called over to receive instructions, tapping his head as he spoke to the deepest-lying of his midfielders.
Yves Bissouma became by far the most consistently impressive player under Potter in Brighton’s midfield, setting the standard and seeking to cover much of the pitch last season in a role in front of the defence that persuaded Tottenham to spend £25 million on the Malian in the summer.
Potter may have picked out Jorginho as a player with the intelligence to fundamentally understand his vision of the game and keep Chelsea on the move.
No sentiment for high-profile names
Ben Chilwell, Wesley Fofana and Kalidou Koulibaly were all dropped by Potter in his first team selection as Chelsea manager, representing £148 million of signings — the latter two under new owner Todd Boehly.
Potter’s willingness to drop big names will not come as a surprise to those who followed his squad reshape at Brighton, where he abruptly ousted Mat Ryan – the goalkeeping mainstay of their early stability in the Premier League – in favour of the then-untested Robert Sanchez, who had been on loan at Forest Green Rovers and Rochdale.
Several players who were pivotal in Albion’s promotion from the Championship were also moved on by Potter in what seemed like potentially foolish acts of bravery at the time, and Neal Maupay – the club’s only forward to hit double figures during the past two seasons – was allowed to join Everton.
The good news for players left out is that, barring heinous feats of brattishness around the training ground, they are almost always back in the starting lineup soon afterwards as part of Potter’s ploy of keeping opposition managers guessing.
Centre-backs must be pass masters
Koulibaly and Fofana did not cover themselves in glory during the defeat to Dinamo, and Potter may have been justified in replacing them with Marc Cucurella and Thiago Silva on that performance alone.
Thiago looked a class act on his return and his silkiness on the ball and quick eye for the correct pass is matched by Cucurella, the player of the season for Potter at Brighton last term before he became the most expensive full-back in history.
Potter demands that his defenders can advance with the ball confidently and spot opportunities to launch attacks. Just ask Shane Duffy, so often a beacon of dependability but jettisoned by his manager because of his tendency to play passes under pressure into the crowd rather than a teammate.
It is a quality that Potter nurtures on the training pitch. When Brighton broke their transfer record to make Adam Webster one of their first signings under Potter in August 2019, the centre-half began his career with a level of uncertainty that cost his side goals when he emerged with the ball and was pickpocketed by Premier League strikers.
Those blemishes are a distant memory now for Webster, a player who has moved ahead of his team’s captain, Lewis Dunk, as a candidate for an England call-up. His is a tale for Chelsea defenders to heed, while Duffy’s might act as a cautionary one.
Kepa, too, will be expected to have much more of the ball if he retains his place in goal ahead of Edouard Mendy.
Potter will not have relished seeing the world’s most expensive goalkeeper make a hash of a pass to Jorginho during the first half in a mistake that would have allowed Salzburg a free run on goal but for the intervention of an offside flag.
Potter’s slow burn takes time
While it would be an exaggeration to say that the number of Seagulls fans booing Potter during his most difficult times at Brighton was anything greater than negligible, impatience indisputably grew in line with some of the worst calendar year runs of home form in the club’s history.
Boehly has been accused of tone-deafness after suggesting the introduction of a Premier League All-Star game, but the Chelsea chairman will surely heed the surround-sound calls for patience with Potter, a man who prefers projects and philosophies to instant gratification.
There was, though, reason to expect an immediate impact — and perhaps that anticipation was reflected in the boos that were heard from a minority of Chelsea supporters as the full-time whistle peeped.
Swansea fans’ nerves about their first season after Premier League relegation were not entirely eased by the club’s decision to put Potter in charge in his first major job in England. They began with much-needed successive wins as part of a run of one defeat in seven game.
At Brighton, fans wrote to the board to warn them of the grave error they had made with the shock sacking of Chris Hughton, a coach rightly revered for earning the Seagulls the top-flight berth they had long pursued and keeping them in the top flight.
Brighton’s form had plummeted at the end of Hughton’s final season and much of the football they had played since winning promotion had been unambitious, making away wins an increasingly rare novelty. The slick 3-0 win at Watford in Potter’s first match in charge rewrote the script.
Players enjoy working with Potter on a personal and professional level, their confidence growing with each win under his guidance.
Potter said beforehand that he is not a manager who asks for time. He will hope that he is given it anyway by Chelsea supporters — and that those words do not return to haunt him.
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