A smattering of boos greeted the final whistle after Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with RB Salzburg but despite the unconvincing performance Graham Potter gave us a glimpse of what’s to come at Stamford Bridge.
The most striking thing was the confusion before kick-off regarding Potter’s formation, which turned out to be a hybrid 4-2-3-1/3-5-2 formation with Raheem Sterling playing left wing-back and Kai Havertz working in tandem with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
If it was a little hard to follow, Chelsea supporters will just have to get used to it, as will the players.
It will take time for Potter’s complex tactical ideas to spread through the dressing room (the long break before their next fixture is welcome) because his football is a major departure from the Thomas Tuchel era - and endlessly flexible.
In broad terms, it will be an era of meticulously choreographed possession football complete with a high defensive line and hard pressing, as opposed to Tuchel’s preference for a safer midblock, minimal pressing, and verticality on the ball (although the latter, often seeming ill-suited to the players at Tuchel’s disposal, tended to disintegrate into dull sideways passing).
Some of the core features of Potter-ball include intricate build-up play out from defence, generally done in a 3-5-2 or similar, with positional rotation ensuring there are numerical overloads in each third of the pitch – and plenty of width via those attacking wing-backs.
Chelsea can look forward to neat triangles and midfielders crammed into key areas in threes and fours, often forming unusual shapes to confound the opposition.
Naturally, some Chelsea players are more suited to this than others, although on the whole Potter has inherited an intelligent squad that will likely adapt well to his demands. Here’s a look at the players most likely to thrive, and those most likely to falter:
Raheem Sterling
Beginning as a wing-back on Wednesday, Sterling could be a star in a whole new way.
Leandro Trossard became the key player at Brighton, racking up goals and assists from a wing-back position that actually required him to pop up in many different attacking positions.
It is also the only area in a Potter team that allows for direct dribbling and constant vertical energy, which is Sterling’s forte.
Sterling’s training under Pep Guardiola, who shares many principles with Potter, means Sterling should adapt quickly, and will certainly understand the requirements for positional diligence and revolving with his team-mates.
He could also play as one of the inside forwards when Potter uses a 3-4-2-1, drifting up and down the left half-space; his tactical intelligence will be crucial.
Kai Havertz
When Havertz arrived at Chelsea he was one of the most gifted young players in world football but for whatever reason he has never quite settled.
Perhaps finally Potter can get the best out of a footballer renowned at Bayer Leverkusen for being a smart mover and instinctive appreciator of space.
Operating as a false nine, weaving between the lines but also popping up for tap-ins, Havertz has the potential to be the complete forward that Potter could never dream of finding at Brighton.
Potter is keen on exploiting attacking transitions when the high press wins the ball back, and it is here that Havertz may flourish most of all.
This is how Leverkusen used to play in the Bundesliga.
Mason Mount
Potter would love a team of Mounts.
He generally likes to play with multiple attacking eights, occasionally even starting three together behind a striker, as in his final game for Brighton, a 5-2 win over Leicester.
Chelsea may lack players like Moises Caicedo and Enock Mwepu, but in Mount, Potter has someone with a natural geometric awareness to sew things together and be the link player in hybrid formations.
Often a box shape forms in a Potter midfield, with two players as pivots and two in the half-spaces.
Mount could realistically operate in any of these four roles.
Marc Cucurella
Potter will greatly benefit from having a player in his squad who already knows exactly what he wants, even if Cucurella might have been feeling a little sheepish about the appointment of the manager he left in the summer.
Cucurella can play left wing-back or left central defence for Chelsea but is more likely to appear in the back three.
From here, he can be the most important defender in that first phase of build-up play, while later in moves he can overlap – converting the 3-5-2 into a 4-2-3-1.
It may prove to be the most complicated role in Potter’s team. There is nobody he’d rather have do it.
Conor Gallagher
Theoretically N’Golo Kante, Matteo Kovacic, and Jorginho all have the technical ability and press-evading qualities to function as pivots for Potter, but the most interesting of all is Gallagher.
He is young enough to still be moulded any way the new manager wants; perhaps he will become an aggressive forward-passing anchor like Alex Mac Allister, or perhaps his unique tackling success in higher areas of the pitch will see him deployed closer to Mount.
Either way, Gallagher should prove an important part of the high-pressing system, and once Potter’s football is in place he is the kind of swaggering and energetic player who will thrive in the spaces that open up as Chelsea gallop into the final third.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Potter isn’t likely to want players who don’t press from the front or drop between the lines, which makes Aubameyang a pretty poor fit.
However, clearly there will need to be some adaptation to taking charge of a super-club and with Chelsea facing deeper defences, maybe there will be room for a poacher.
The fact he started against Salzburg is a good sign – but he’ll probably be gone within a year.
Ben Chilwell
There just isn’t an obvious place in the first XI for Chilwell, with Cucurella and Sterling far more likely to forge a strong dove-tailing partnership on the left.
However, rotation will be used a lot in such a hectic season and there will be ample opportunity for Chilwell to prove his worth.
Christian Pulisic & Hakim Ziyech
Unless Pulisic and Ziyech are converted into wing-backs, both will be surplus to requirements.
Potter’s formations are always very narrow, in order to get more playmakers swarming into the half-spaces, with the width coming exclusively from the wing-backs.
Tuchel built the squad with a very different image in mind.
Pulisic and Ziyech may already be on the phone to their agents.
