Like a man wondering in the desert, aimless, lost, dying of thirst, I, too, saw Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat in Dortmund as an oasis. We might have been still stuck in the middle of a barren wasteland, but least there was some hope, some signs of life.
Turns out, that was a mirage. I was starving for it. But there was no oasis. There was just more of the same. More nothing. No progress. No process.
It was so bad today, that not even Graham Potter could quite pretend that were positives to take away from another 1-0 defeat.
“Certainly in the first half, it was a below-par performance. Returning from the Champions League and we had to make some changes, so you lose a bit of fluidity and cohesion.
“Southampton set up with a plan, an idea. They mixed the game well with a big target man but our performance wasn’t what we wanted in the first half and I take as much responsibility as anybody in that.”
Gosh, that powerhouse Southampton, with all their managerial stability, proven veterans, and entrenched ideals at the very bottom of the league. No wonder they beat us, again!
What’s that you say? They didn’t even have a manager? They just had a dude dressed nicely on the touchline? The dude who literally admitted that he couldn’t “invent a different system” in the few hours he’s had in charge of the team, so he just kept things basic? And that resulted in one of the worst games of football ever played but was still enough to win at Stamford Bridge?
How could we possibly expect Graham Potter, the most expensive manager of all time, in charge of the most expensively assembled squad of all time, to have any idea how to deal with all that?
But it’s okay.
Potter understands you’re angry.
And that’s okay.
Let it all out.
He’ll be here when you’re done.
He’ll always be here.
Always.
…
Always.
“After a 1-0 defeat at home, any criticism you get is understandable. I think we’ve had a tough period and I think we’ve had lots of challenges in terms of integrating young players into the Premier League. While results don’t go your way it can be tough, that is how it is.
“I’m sure there will be people out there that think I’m the problem, absolutely. I don’t think they’re right but I’m not arrogant enough to say their opinion isn’t worth articulating.
“My job is to help the team, keep working through a though period, we’ve had to make some changes today and the truth is we took a step back in our performance in the first half. The response in the second half was good, but it wasn’t good enough.”
-Graham Potter; source: Football.London
Well, you’re doing a bang up job, Graham.
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