Chelsea plagued by familiar problems in Graham Potter’s debut as Blues drop more Champions League points.
Chelsea plagued by familiar problems in Graham Potter’s debut as Blues drop more Champions League points. Think about Thomas Tuchel if he ever sees his ex-girlfriend with her new man. Tons of time in control, beautiful passing, and space to work with, but little shoots on goal? At Stamford Bridge, he had been delivering that line for months.
As with Tuchel’s final act, Graham Potter’s first game in command ended with Chelsea failing to capitalize on opportunities when the sun was shining despite a late bombardment of shots.
Champions League
Despite losing at Dinamo Zagreb, the team was able to salvage a 1-1 home draw against Red Bull Salzburg. The incoming manager won’t be able to think about replicating his predecessor’s first-year Champions League success for quite some time. For the time being, he needs to consider leaving the gang.
To do so, he must first fix the problems that plagued Tuchel’s Chelsea tenure. Despite their ability to have a star-studded offense, Chelsea has a hard time getting quality shots off.
The home team didn’t outshoot Salzburg 3-0 until the third minute of stoppage time when Hakim Ziyech volleyed right at goal. Only Reece James and Raheem Sterling had fewer touches than Salzburg’s 54 in the attacking third in the first half, but the hosts still completed more than three times as many passes as the Austrian ide.
Despite their overwhelming superiority, they managed only zero shots on goal and a 0.55 anticipated goals (xG).
The final score of 70% possession and 1.01 xG was disappointing but not unexpected, and there are still many familiar faces to worry Potter.
Score
Mason Mount has yet to score this season despite appearing very comfortable with the defensive demands of a deeper role. Kai Havertz appears to be endowed with inexhaustible brilliance, but he needs finely tuned mechanisms to realize his potential fully.
But maybe more worrying is the fact that Chelsea didn’t appear to have any pace in behind until Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was substituted for Armando Broja.
However, growing pains are to be expected from any new management. After all, Tuchel’s first move was to bench Mount, the team’s most recognizable player from Frank Lampard’s era, but Lampard’s former England teammate quickly won over his new boss.
The method Potter implemented did a good job of preventing goals for Salzburg until the 75th minute when they found some open space along the left side. Defenders with as much experience as Thiago Silva and Cesar Azpilicueta could and could have done better after letting Noah Okafor score.
The attacking figures in the first half suggested that this team might become more proactive, even though the shooting numbers did not jump off the page. They still need to keep the ball to protect themselves from defensive counters, but now they have greater freedom to advance up the field and stay there.
Position
Most noticeably, Raheem Sterling was shifted to the left wing. He was technically the left wing-back, but no one in the Stamford Bridge crowd would ever mistake him for Ashley Cole in his prime. For many players in his position, a night with zero tackles, zero clearances, zero interceptions, and only three victories out of eleven duels would be terrible.
The eight touches inside the penalty area, two shots, and most crucially, the goal that put Chelsea ahead in the 48th minute were all that counted for Sterling’s stat line. The 27-year-old forward stood out as the only one you’d trust with a game-changing opportunity, so it was occasionally puzzling when he was benched to focus on the Blues’ buildup.
After the game, he told the media that his assignment from Potter was to keep a close eye on the rookie right back Amar Dedic and make sure he didn’t get any further than halfway. This was a potential threat for Salzburg since it allowed Marc Cucurella to progress from left center back and allowed Mateo Kovacic to drift outside.
Remarks
I believe we dominated with our performance and the opportunities we generated,” Sterling remarked. “There were bright spots despite the final score. This was a risk I was willing to take since we needed to get this done. We appeared to be in command, but all it took was one chance for them to score.”
More than one goal seemed certain, especially in the first half. True, this happens rather frequently with Chelsea. Wait for a second, and the desired outcome is right around the corner.
You’ll have to make do with a single unit even if it does eventually come. That isn’t going to be enough, especially if the defense isn’t the well-oiled machine that Tuchel crafted in the spring of 2021.
After losing key members of the team that won the Champions League through player sales and injuries, Tuchel seemed more and more preoccupied with the defense than with the offense last year. After laying the groundwork, he would construct a fortress worthy of his formidable offensive abilities.
He was never given a chance. In his absence, Potter appeared to be going for broke in the first of many matches by trying to light a fire at the forefront of his team in the hopes that it would consume any danger posed by the opposition.
For it to work, his forwards will have to be far more clinical in the closing stages than they were under his predecessor.
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