There are many small questions that need to be answered in order for the big picture to be completely understood. Today, I will attempt to understand some of the things that are happening or have happened to Chelsea. Starting with their current coach.
Can Graham Potter assemble a super team quickly?
You could form a committee of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, and any other top manager and analyst team, still my answer would be "I don't know"
What we know about Graham Potter is that he is an overachiever with his Brighton team. He is very data-driven and it is something that he shares with Chelsea's current board and new owner, Todd Boehly. Todd Boehly, much like, most American owners, are focused on getting the best results out of what they have so it makes sense for them to hire Graham Potter.
That's the reason that Chelsea bought Carney Chukwuemeka and Gabriel Slonina as they are players who showed in their analytical team to increase in value whether as players in the team or players the team would sell in the future. There's also the fact that Tuchel didn't like being as involved as a manager, but that's a topic for another day.
As for now, we have a manager who has made the best out of his players before, an overachiever. But, can he do much better than Tuchel when it comes to Chelsea's squad? Well, answering the next question might help us with that.
Why did Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku fail at Chelsea?
Let's start with Timo Werner. Timo Werner has a very unique problem as he is not a winger nor a striker. He is also not a number 10. Kai Havertz has the same issue, by the way.
Werner's career is very reliant on the style of the teams in which he plays and whether they'd give him the space he needs by employing the fullbacks, wingers, and the second striker in the team to serve him. If you do that, you will get the best of Werner.
On the other hand, if he employs him as either a striker or winger, he will fail as he is too fluid to be pinned down to one position. He is also half a year away from being 27 years old, so it would be very hard for him to pick up the traits necessary to work as a part of a system instead of the focus on it. Jamal Musiala has similar fluidity to Werner and Havertz but he has a manager and a team where his fluidity works, Chelsea doesn't have that.
Werner's problem is simply you have to ask yourself whether he is worth all of that. Players' roles these days are already way too complicated without even forcing them upon a player who is on the upper side of his 20s.
Chelsea's 2020-2021 transfers
Whoever was making the decisions during the 2020-2021 summer transfer window deserves to be fired as there were three players brought in where no more than one of them should have been brought in; Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, and Hakim Ziyech.
No one at Chelsea seemed to stop for a second to ask what formation would have Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, and Mason Mount playing together. Like, let's forget all other phases and just say when Chelsea has possession of the ball, what would be the setup with all those players?
Let's be clear, none of those players is a clear number 9. So, those four needed a striker. So, your front five have to be those 4 plus a striker, which means Chelsea would have no defensive midfield. Those 4 also don't include a left winger. It was a summer where Chelsea just bought themselves problems.
There isn't even a shape where two of the three players bought would work. I know that I am speaking now after seeing all of that happen, but it really wasn't hard to see that at the time, especially for people whose job is to see those things. Even now with Werner gone, there isn't a shape where Ziyech and Havertz would work without sacrificing Mount.
With all of that in mind, we go into the last part of the post.
Lukaku
When you take everything in mind, you realize that Chelsea still had problems and that Lukaku wasn't the only solution for them yet he was treated as such. Chelsea had problems that needed to be solved and Lukaku wasn't the only solution for them, simple as that.
It is a case of shared blame, however.
From one side, it's not excusable for Tuchel to spend so much time without having a solution or use for a signing that cost the club 113.00 million. On the other hand, Lukaku shouldn't have spoken like a child and stirred all that trouble with his comments about missing Inter Milan. the situation was and should have been avoidable by both parties.
Lukaku's problem was the cherry on top of a horrible transfer window that despite having better names, Chelsea had a more balanced team before.
Now, Chelsea looks disfigured, completely lacking in balance. In one game a full-back has to play his role plus coving for the lack of a winger on his side, the other a winger has to be a wing-back, after that a midfielder has to fill for a striker as another midfielder fills in for a winger or a wing-back.
Go to any formation building site and tell me if you can build Chelsea a team where every player would play a role they're comfortable playing. Graham Potter has a tougher job than it seems. Maybe he will find a way to make the team work and the players rally behind him.
I wish him the best, but I feel like it was a quick shot by Chelsea. Yes he was succesful with a smaller team but this does not mean that he will have the same success at chelsea. It will be interesting to see whether he is able to develop a game idea.
Todd Boehly sees Potter as the new Dave Roberts (the baseball coach he hired to rebuild the LA Dodger) If he has that patience I believe it is possible.
Potter truly has a lot to put together to get that team up and running but I don't see it happening swiftly.
Nice analysis mate.
Thank you.
I agree. Giving him a 5-year contract was an odd move.