As Interested as I am to see how this rugby bloke gets on and effects the team. I'm curious to see what his thoughts on Potter will be and if he will be directly reporting to Boehly and Co about his observations in training. 

Surely he would have worked with some top coaches albeit in the Rugby context, nonetheless he knows what a top coach looks and acts like.

Will then be Interesting if he's also tasked with trying to get more from Potter as well, or even just reporting what he sees to Boehly. I doubt this was one of his job requirements, but it seems natural that it would be something he will be looking at. As important as the players are, surely he will be looking at the man tasked with leading them and the psychological implications this is having on the team.

Didnt Zee German bring a throw in coach to Liverpool... Everyone mocked them then... And they started scoring more. The mentality of our squad needs looking at, great players are struggling to create and score goals. If winning at elite level is about the fine margins, then surely someone who can turn this collection of clucking hens into monster cock fighters capable of drawing blood on our enemy - I'm all for it... 

2 minutes ago, olderschoolcfc said:

Didnt Zee German bring a throw in coach to Liverpool... Everyone mocked them then... And they started scoring more. The mentality of our squad needs looking at, great players are struggling to create and score goals. If winning at elite level is about the fine margins, then surely someone who can turn this collection of clucking hens into monster cock fighters capable of drawing blood on our enemy - I'm all for it... 

It really is.

Liverpool brought in a mentality coach for penalties, which obviously worked in their favor in the two domestic cup finals last season. 

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

It really is.

Liverpool brought in a mentality coach for penalties, which obviously worked in their favor in the two domestic cup finals last season. 

People mocking this are the ones who have been after Potter form the first day, so bet just to ignore them really.

Every top club has specialist coaches for pretty much every aspect of the game, now we bring in one and suddenly its a sign hes a weak/terrible manager. Its pretty pathetic really.

 

To re-cap most Chelsea fans want Potter to do well [including me] as we are Chelsea fans.

 

We just have some doubts about Potter. Our doubts are there, because our results are sh*t.

Bringing in a mentality coach is slightly different imho to bringing in a technical advisor coach for penalties/throw ins and defence etc. Bringing in a ‘mentality coach’ implies a problem, maybe even a serious problem. The positive mentality of the players one would think is down to the primary coach, that is after all the essence of what a top level manager does.

 

Maybe sweeping up the dressing room is an exercise that will transform a player like Havertz and lead him towards his true potential?  But it might have more to do with the fact that he is not a no.9. and that Maybe the ‘new Ballack’ would be better managed by a manager who knows what to do with him?

 

We have some extremely talented players and yet we are not a cohesive team.

 

Enoka would make New Zealand's rugby players take turns to sweep the changing rooms after games to ensure that big egos didn't detract from the team's culture.  Which seems like a lot of fun for the players.  IF I were in the dressing room and it was my turn to sweep the dressing room I am coming to work that day with a couple of state of the art Roomba’s and my best cleaning lady. IF the manager is out sourcing responsibility then so am I.

 

I mean, seriously, the motivational stuff could be a lot of fun, but it is not happening when a club is doing well. It is an omission of failure in many ways. Does it come from Todd Bo? Or maybe it was from Christopher Vivell our technical director?  Is it just an innocent playful way to get the team bonded or is it a more sinister assessment and profiling of ‘everyone’?  some next level Stasi type sh*t. Lol. I am imagining that our new signings might be a little bit perturbed by it all.

 

Hoddle. Hoddle the Great. The first manager to truly transform our club into what it is today. Hoddle employed the faith healer Eileen Drewery . . .which is fine right? Whatever it takes.  Although employing the spiritualist was a bit ahead of its time and back fired a bit in terms of PR and team bonding.

 

3 hours ago, dkw said:

People mocking this are the ones who have been after Potter form the first day, so bet just to ignore them really.

Every top club has specialist coaches for pretty much every aspect of the game, now we bring in one and suddenly its a sign hes a weak/terrible manager. Its pretty pathetic really.

Every top club hired a manager that had more than a 28% win rate in the league at his previous club.

That may have been a more traditional option than hiring a proven medicore manager and then hiring all kinds of additional specialists to supplement him.

The winning mentality has to be set by the manager if Potter doesn't have it no amount of specialist coaches will fix that.

Football is evolving and so are it's footballers. 

Footballer in the early to mid 2000s didn't have social media and you could gauge their mental toughness. Today, social media surrounds footballers and distractions are everywhere. There is a reason why more clubs are bringing in these types of therapists. 

4 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

It really is.

Liverpool brought in a mentality coach for penalties, which obviously worked in their favor in the two domestic cup finals last season. 

You can react to something like that in different ways, Sarri won the Europa League and Tuchel won the CL, yet I do know the sentiment about how those wins somehow don't mean much since we haven't been able to win the league during this period. Had we won a few more cup finals on top of that, would our own fans here think that it was a great period, or would they still say how we have just been a cup team that didn't win the league in a long time and thus it's just not good enough?

How does that change now with Potter? If we win a cup, is it all just amazing from now on and our outlook on things is different?

Edited February 8, 20233 yr by Gol15

2 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

You can react to something like that in different ways, Sarri won the Europa League and Tuchel won the CL, yet I do know the sentiment about how those wins somehow don't mean much since we haven't been able to win the league during this period. Had we won a few more cup finals on top of that, would our own fans here think that it was a great period, or would they still say how we have just been a cup team that didn't win the league in a long time and thus it's just not good enough?

How does that change now with Potter? If we win a cup, is it all just amazing from now on and our outlook on things is different?

These types of things are small margins though. That is my point. They will do more good than harm in the grand scheme of things. 

5 hours ago, Gol15 said:

You can react to something like that in different ways, Sarri won the Europa League and Tuchel won the CL, yet I do know the sentiment about how those wins somehow don't mean much since we haven't been able to win the league during this period. Had we won a few more cup finals on top of that, would our own fans here think that it was a great period, or would they still say how we have just been a cup team that didn't win the league in a long time and thus it's just not good enough?

I find it so cringe mate the Chelsea fans that call us a cup team, play down our success in recent seasons and complain about not winning the league for 5 years soon to be 6.

If we go back just across the past decade, City have only won 3 more trophies than us, we're essentially keeping up with them. Liverpool are, or were in their best period for 3 decades, and that consists of winning 6 trophies in 7 seasons and 2 of those came last season by beating us on pens talk about finest margins.

Sometimes I think our fanbase have become so accustomed to success they don't appreciate how difficult it is to win the league. City have just dominated the league for a 10-11 year period from 2012 that's 6 wins and even in that time we still won the title twice the second most. Whereas United haven't won for 10 years come this season, Liverpool once in 30 years, Leicester once in a lifetime. Spurs are not part of the discussion and Arsenal approaching 20 years.

Yet our fans are complaining about 5-6 years wait when one team has consistently been better than everyone else, not just us. The one point differential between City and Liverpool, which decided the league twice sums it up. For me it's no coincidence it happened twice they're simply the best in the league.

22 minutes ago, LongtimerLurker said:

I find it so cringe mate the Chelsea fans that call us a cup team, play down our success in recent seasons and complain about not winning the league for 5 years soon to be 6.

If we go back just across the past decade, City have only won 3 more trophies than us, we're essentially keeping up with them. Liverpool are, or were in their best period for 3 decades, and that consists of winning 6 trophies in 7 seasons and 2 of those came last season by beating us on pens talk about finest margins.

Sometimes I think our fanbase have become so accustomed to success they don't appreciate how difficult it is to win the league. City have just dominated the league for a 10-11 year period from 2012 that's 6 wins and even in that time we still won the title twice the second most. Whereas United haven't won for 10 years come this season, Liverpool once in 30 years, Leicester once in a lifetime. Spurs are not part of the discussion and Arsenal approaching 20 years.

Yet our fans are complaining about 5-6 years wait when one team has consistently been better than everyone else, not just us. The one point differential between City and Liverpool, which decided the league twice sums it up. For me it's no coincidence it happened twice they're simply the best in the league.

In many ways you're right. Five years isn't a long time to not win the Premier league considering the amount of rivals there are. However, I think the issue isn't that we haven't won, its the fact that we haven't even come close to challenging in the last five years. We always finish about 10 points+ away from the league leaders and to make things worse, we always struggle to qualify for the top 4. I think most of people's lament come from the fact that we went from being a team that challenged for the title at least ever couple of seasons to becoming a team that fights for the top 4 every year.

Also I don't think people are downplaying our cup wins. The truth is that a cup is a sprint and a league is a marathon, and the best teams usually win leagues. Liverpool won a lot of cups in the early 2000s but they never came close to winning the league because they simply weren't good enough. We've been in a similar position for the last five years and I don't see anything wrong with that sort of criticism. I don't mind us not winning the league every year but I'd at least like to see some progress of us getting closer to the top.

 

 

Edited February 9, 20233 yr by Frankie8Lampard

Never mind winning the league. Two  one goal in open play in a game would be a good start. 

As another general point I read, and think its probably true, we now have the second highest wages bill in the league. Its strongly established that historically there has been a high correlation between team wages and league position not just in the UK but in most leagues. On that basis we should be in the top 4 and challenging for first. Not 9th and struggling to score. 

17 hours ago, dkw said:

People mocking this are the ones who have been after Potter form the first day, so bet just to ignore them really.

Every top club has specialist coaches for pretty much every aspect of the game, now we bring in one and suddenly its a sign hes a weak/terrible manager. Its pretty pathetic really.

Can I ask you if there is a cut-off point for you with Potter? Just genuinely interested where you stand.

Does he for example need to prove he can get "Top 4 form" out of us for any extended period of time before the season ends for you to be confident he can achieve our goals next season?

 

Edited February 9, 20233 yr by OriginalS

1 hour ago, OriginalS said:

Can I ask you if there is a cut-off point for you with Potter? Just genuinely interested where you stand.

Does he for example need to prove he can get "Top 4 form" out of us for any extended period of time before the season ends for you to be confident he can achieve our goals next season?

 

Im not for or against Potter, I just think he needs time, the club needs to move on from the Roman era, We're now under American ownership which is a whole lot different to a personal fiefdom as we used to be run. 

We had "big managers" who missed out on top four. We've had managers with great track records fail. We've had big name managers who have got us playing Coma-ball (where you lose ten years of life watching 90 mins at the bridge) and we've been winners and losers under all sorts of managers. Is Bobby Di Mateo as good a manager as Tuchel? Both used luck to win imo.. Wasn't it great we got lucky? 

 

We appointed Sarri as a project to change things up, AVB was also supposed to radically change how we approached football. Frank had to develop a squad, the one Tuchel ;landed the CL with using youth because of the transfer ban, which has F**ked us up until last season. 

Now we have a manager who managers, has been tasked with transforming us into something new and shiny for our stateside owners. We are bloated and have players bursting out of the seams, we cannot afford to spend 600 million pounds per transfer window. We have some of the best youth facilities in the land, we seriously need to reorganise and join up all aspects of the club. 

In order to make this transition, we have to probably miss out on some silverware, league consistency, as fans develop - we need a 90's type of patience. But above all else, I want to watch entertaining, cut and thrust attacking football. I want to be entertained by multimillionaire footballers who are supposed to entertain us. 

So If potter gets us playing attacking football, that puts a smile on my face and makes watching Chelsea fun as opposed to Tuchels coma-ball pass & grind. I'll take it for a few years... If he does a tinker man Ranieri and rebuilds the squad that a new special one can take on and instil a decade long winning football mindset... I'll take it... 

Who else will want the CFC job right now? 

 

 

I guess what I'm saying is - if Potter develops a club direction, personality and culture where we can see improvements, its better than where we've been. We've lacked identity for a number of seasons and it's been tragic to watch. 

11 minutes ago, olderschoolcfc said:

Im not for or against Potter, I just think he needs time, the club needs to move on from the Roman era, We're now under American ownership which is a whole lot different to a personal fiefdom as we used to be run. 

I agree managers need time but everything is relative isn't it? We've been in relegation form for a 12 game period now and "give him time" doesn't actually solve anything. You could use that excuse for any underperforming manager out there if you want but what good is excuses?

Certainly we need to see som attributes like getting better over time for example. But we certainly haven't so far even though he's in his sixth month at the club now.

As for who wants the job? I think everyone would love it. One of the highest paid jobs in the league and simultaneously the job with the least amount of pressure. Marsch was sacked at Leeds for a very similar run to the one Potter is one and Potter is at a top club, not Leeds. Gerrard was sacked at Villa for a similar one as well and so on. But Potter seems incredibly safe in his job even though we are on a proper disaster of a run.

4 wins in our last 16 games. The game before that run was Villa where we were proper lucky to escape with a run.
Last 12 Premier League games: 0.91 PPG average - Gets you relegated over a season that.

Edited February 9, 20233 yr by OriginalS

3 minutes ago, olderschoolcfc said:

 

In order to make this transition, we have to probably miss out on some silverware, league consistency, as fans develop - we need a 90's type of patience. But above all else, I want to watch entertaining, cut and thrust attacking football. I want to be entertained by multimillionaire footballers who are supposed to entertain us. 

So If potter gets us playing attacking football, that puts a smile on my face and makes watching Chelsea fun as opposed to Tuchels coma-ball pass & grind. I'll take it for a few years... If he does a tinker man Ranieri and rebuilds the squad that a new special one can take on and instil a decade long winning football mindset... I'll take it... 

Who else will want the CFC job right now? 

 

 

We all want to be entertained but 1 goal since xmas  reminds me of Norman May getting excited when some offspiner bowled three zero score overs in a row. As for who else would want the job!!!! You are kidding aren't you there would hardly be a big coach in europe that wouldn't want the chance to make something of this squad.

Still I can agree with having a bit of patience but it aint gunna stop the whinging. Only good football will stop that.

9 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

I agree managers need time but everything is relative isn't it? We've been in relegation form for a 12 game period now and "give him time" doesn't actually solve anything. You could use that excuse for any underperforming manager out there if you want but what good is excuses?

Certainly we need to see som attributes like getting better over time for example. But we certainly haven't so far even though he's in his sixth month at the club now.

As for who wants the job? I think everyone would love it. One of the highest paid jobs in the league and simultaneously the job with the least amount of pressure. Marsch was sacked at Leeds for a very similar run to the one Potter is one and Potter is at a top club, not Leeds. Gerrard was sacked at Villa for a similar one as well and so on. But Potter seems incredibly safe in his job even though we are on a proper disaster of a run.

4 wins in our last 16 games. The game before that run was Villa where we were proper lucky to escape with a run.
Last 12 Premier League games: 0.91 PPG average - Gets you relegated over a season that.

What's the alternative? Sam Allerdyce? Gerard? The fat Spanish waiter? the lad in charge at the city ground would be my next appointment, think he's got something about him given how he got Forrest up last season and gelled 35 players into a new team this season and now taking them to mid table.  I really don't want to compare the Gooners to us under arteta... So I won't. But go look up their league form for two seasons before this one. The S**rs have taken our former top coach and made him look like an oily rag with that stupid goal scoring plank Kane up top... 

Yeah, Relegation - happens in football, we could still face it with FFP a la city/ Newcastle or any other financially doped club. Not fussed by it, the games will still take place at the bridge. 

15 minutes ago, olderschoolcfc said:

 

Yeah, Relegation - happens in football, we could still face it with FFP a la city/ Newcastle or any other financially doped club. Not fussed by it, the games will still take place at the bridge. 

Does this mean you would stick with him even if he somehow took us to the Championship?

People have been asking to give time to the manager, whoever its been under Roman. Now we are under new ownership and we genuinely have a first time in 20 years to trust a manager. It feels people who have longed for this are now ready to kick out Potter.

Potter's history as a manager to this day has been pretty spotless. He's been on a steep upward trajectory since he started in Sweden. 

When he stepped in, he stepped into a chaos. He started well (result-wise) until we were struck by a period unprecedented amount of injuries. 

He has operated with 30-odd players in a result and never with same players apart from Kepa and Silva. Those two have performed well. 

Then came January window where we decided to bring in 8 new players or somewhere on the lines of that. Immediately Potter needs to integrate almost all of them to the side. And all this in a flurry of bad results. He naturally has the blame for bad results as well as his team. 

We are entering to a period where we have 1 game a week, our long time injury list is shortening and our new recruitments are seeing Prem football. In 1,5 months we should see some good football and hopefully some wins as well. 

The players naturally are putting all-in in the CL. Fighting for 7th place finish in the league doesn't get anyones socks moving. The league is what it is. Will be up and down.

What we need to see rest of the season is patterns of play, fixed roles for players, core of players, shots on goal, scoring patterns, midfield fluidity. We don't need to see trophies as it is too soon for everyone.

7 minutes ago, evissy said:

What we need to see rest of the season is patterns of play, fixed roles for players, core of players, shots on goal, scoring patterns, midfield fluidity. We don't need to see trophies as it is too soon for everyone.

I agree with this, with the caveat that I really don't understand why any of that hasn't been happening from day 1 ... 

 

4 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I agree with this, with the caveat that I really don't understand why any of that hasn't been happening from day 1 ... 

 

It's complicated.

7 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I agree with this, with the caveat that I really don't understand why any of that hasn't been happening from day 1 ... 

 

Why does it need to happen from day one? 

Tuchel and Conte for example were project-managers. They used the squad for a quickie...so to say. Everyone was good as a wingback in short terms. Win now, don't think about tomorrow. That is what was asked of them and they delivered. 

I feel Potter is trying to get to know everyone well, integrate them to the side with modern coaching methods. That takes time. If the ownership is giving this time we could see similar results than what Liverpool's had in recent seasons. With them it seems everyone just slots in. Their recruiting works and they know who they are as a team. We basically have never had that. Maybe under Jose. But at that time our squad was head and shoulders above everyone elses. Nowadays half the Prem have brilliants squads and brilliant managers. 

1 hour ago, olderschoolcfc said:

 

Is Bobby Di Mateo as good a manager as Tuchel? Both used luck to win imo.. Wasn't it great we got lucky? 

Sorry but that is a ridiculous comparison.

We dominated every single tie in the 2021 win and if anything were unlucky not to win by more, not lucky we won.