Ahead of today’s derby against Tottenham, Potter Exposes reasons for Chelsea’s struggles; What he said
Ahead of today’s derby against Tottenham, Potter Exposes reasons for Chelsea’s struggles; What he said.
Tuchel has said that the problem with Chelsea start this season is very open and he is looking to correct these issues with Tottenham clash today.
Potter said, “It’s really tough. My quote a few weeks ago was that this is probably the toughest job in football, and there are a lot of factors for that. There was a sub-optimal pre-season – and speaking to a few of the experienced guys, they thought it was the worst pre-season they’ve had for different reasons. That isn’t to blame anybody for the reasons. It’s just that it happened.
“I don’t want to speak about that. It was more organisationally, for different reasons, the tour didn’t quite work as well as they’d have liked. I wasn’t there so I can’t say. That was one thing, then old players left, new players came in, a manager change, and I turn up in the middle of a Champions League Saturday-Tuesday schedule.
“We have the most unprecedented injury situation in that period in the Premier League. We played Newcastle before the break and we had no Kepa, no Reece James, no Ben Chilwell, no Marc Cucurella, no Wesley Fofana, no N’Golo Kante, no Raheem Sterling, no Ruben Loftus-Cheek after two minutes, and no Cesar Azpilicueta. We lost 1-0 and that is where we were at.
“We then had the World Cup, then the club invest a lot of money in the squad and the pressure, expectation, and noise goes up. But the players we got, they’re not 28-year-old, 400-game Premier League players. They are young players that take time to adapt to, and at the same time we’ve got the injured players who have to get up to speed to play in the Premier League.
“That is the position we were in. We thought we were making progress but then we had the first half against Southampton – the third game in a week after a Champions League game –that was below par. Then the sky can fall in. That’s essentially how I can say that are some of the inconvenient facts if you say I’m not use. But that is the situation.”
