What Potter feels is 'undermining' him at Chelsea

Cameron Smith

• 27 Feb 2023 16:00 GMT
• 3 min read

Graham Potter reportedly believes there are too many first-team players at Chelsea, something that is undermining his training sessions.

The Blues are on a dreadful run of form that has seen them win just once in their past 11 outings in all competitions, while they've netted just one goal in their previous six games.

The West London club are now closer to the relegation zone than the top four, and fans are calling for Potter's head.

READ: Is Potter the worst Chelsea manager in history? The records of every coach

The Englishman was brought in from Brighton & Hove Albion after Thomas Tuchel was sacked just weeks into the 2022/23 season and was given major financial backing during his first transfer window in charge at Stamford Bridge.

Over €300 million was spent in total, with Chelsea bringing in Benoit Badiashile, David Datro Fofana, Andrey Santos, Joao Felix (loan), Mykhailo Mudryk, Noni Madueke, Malo Gusto and Enzo Fernandez in January.

However, it hasn't helped their form on the pitch and Potter believes it may have even hindered them as a team.

Potter: Don’t sack me and I could be next Klopp or Arteta

Has the spending spree affected Chelsea negatively?

According to the Daily Mail, 'Graham Potter fears his training sessions at Chelsea are being undermined by having too many players to work with. After a month of working with the larger group there are now concerns that the bloated numbers are affecting work on the training pitch.'

Potter was very tactically intuitive at Brighton and liked to work hands-on with his players in training. However, at Chelsea he has reportedly been forced to move away from his preferred 11v11 training method in favour of keeping every squad member involved.

There are now 31 first-team players at Chelsea, with Potter forced to rotate heavily in order to keep everybody happy.

Marc Cucurella, Trevoh Chalobah, Carney Chukwuemeka were all left out of the matchday squad to face Tottenham, although Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was re-introduced to the team.

It remains to be seen if Potter will continue to have the faith of Todd Boehly if Chelsea's slide down the Premier League table continues.

Potter has recently asked to be given time and referenced how Mikel Arteta wasn't sacked at Arsenal despite calls from fans to pull the trigger and remove him from his post.

Chelsea's next game is at home to Leeds United on Saturday.