Sleep must not come easily for Graham Potter of late, especially after Chelsea’s 1-0 loss to Southampton. Counting the Blues’ four goals across their 10 games this year is going to get him no more rest than recalling their singular win. Luckily, there’s been some cricket on to keep him company through the long nights.
Short on goals, ideas and hope, Potter’s Chelsea need a reset, a revolution. As the ex-Brighton boss may have learned if he tuned into England’s comprehensive first Test triumph in New Zealand, they need Bazball.
Derived from head coach Brendon McCullum’s middle name, Bazball embodies the unfettered, win-at-all-costs attitude of England’s Test side. Despite the Chelsea ownership’s seemingly unwavering faith in their manager, Potter needs to start finding wins, and fast, or fan mutiny could force Todd Boehly’s hand.
Learning a thing or two from McCullum and Ben Stokes’ side, who have now won 10 of their last 11 Tests, could provide a short-term answer for the beleaguered Chelsea boss. These are four principles which could help Potter sleep sounder in future.
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Johann Cruyff once said that “playing football is very simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is”. At Brighton, Potter was famed for the primacy of his intricate tactical system above all else. It took him two years to fully implement his vision, and even then, his Seagulls were often criticised for their inability to convert the excellent chances they created.
Potter got results, but it never looked simple. If anything, the complexity of his work is what made it impressive – centre-mids at left wing-back fuelling 60-pass moves and gunning for Europe with Danny Welbeck as your star striker. Now at Chelsea, this partially-implemented complexity appears laboured, contrived, confused; a succession of half-developed theories welded together by necessity under the guise of genius. Fans and staff alike are searching for an easy fix, but there are so many culprits that a fresh start may be easier than the agonising process of weeding out individual issues.
This is where Bazball comes in. It’s not so much a tactical system as an easily-digestible ideology, a manifesto to fuel success. This may not be a long-term solution for Potter, but it sure as hell beats giving Southampton their second clean sheet in 29 league games. Remember the KISS principle: keep it simple, stupid.
This is Potter’s moment to pin up “Believe” on the dressing room wall, to get out his whiteboard and ask his players what they wish to stand and fall for. Bazball is underpinned by positivity, unity, support and an overpowering desperation to win. Potter does not have to repeat these verbatim, but they would give his mismatched squad of mega-money recruits, academy products and outcasts a common goal to unite behind and work toward.
Chelsea’s results in 2023
- Nottingham Forest 1-1 Chelsea
- Chelsea 0-1 Man City
- Man City 4-0 Chelsea
- Fulham 2-1 Chelsea
- Chelsea 1-0 Crystal Palace
- Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea
- Chelsea 0-0 Fulham
- West Ham 1-1 Chelsea
- Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Chelsea
- Chelsea 0-1 Southampton
Let ‘em play
In England’s first innings against New Zealand, batter Joe Root got caught out playing a reverse scoop, his trademark shot many would call unnecessarily risky. As he trudged off having scored just 14 runs off 22 balls, Brendon McCullum made a concerted effort to praise the former captain. He may have been dismissed cheaply, but he went down playing according the principles McCullum champions.
Root played that shot because he was not scared of the consequences. Chelsea’s players, on the other hand, look absolutely terrified of making a mistake.
To varying extents, all sports are games of calculated risk. Is attempting this through ball worth the risk? If this tackle goes wrong, am I going to get sent off? If I foul a Southampton player 20 yards from goal, what will James Ward-Prowse’s celebration look like?
Potter’s Blues are currently taking very little risk and getting absolutely no reward. They have a team full of great attacking talents, currently restricted to roles they clearly do not understand. Following on from a simpler ideology, how about just letting those phenomenal talents play? Chelsea fans have touted Zinedine Zidane as a possible replacement, so why not take a leaf out of the Frenchman’s triple-Champions League-winning playbook?
Players will only take risks if they believe they can make mistakes and live to tell the tale. Trying and failing is better than not trying at all, as your mother or self-help book may have told you. There has never been any doubt in the abilities of Raheem Sterling, Kai Havertz, Joao Felix or Mykhailo Mudryk, so how about you just let them play and see what happens? Trust will give them a much-needed confidence boost.
Power to the people
One of McCullum’s most tangible changes has been the stripping back of backroom staff. There are fewer assistants and coaches in his stable than would usually be expected, which promotes player-to-player relationships and alters the fundamental hierarchy of a dressing room.
One of the clearest faults in Chelsea’s recent run has been a lack of clear leadership. When the chips are down, which they often have been, no voice quite knows how to alter the situation.
I am not suggesting that Chelsea sack all their backroom staff, but giving the players increased power and responsibility should encourage leaders to grow organically. This will allow only people who can really change their situation – the players – to decide how to do so. If they believe in a system they create alongside Potter, then there is increased motivation to implement it at all costs.
McCullum doesn’t believe he does much coaching, but that brings into question what coaching is. The ex-New Zealand bat is a mentor, providing sage guidance to already-gifted individuals so they can find their own paths to success. Something so loose may not wholly work in football, given the necessary on-pitch synergy throughout a game, but a similar approach to individual coaching may well provide an unpressurised environment for some of the world’s most talented youngsters to discover their own ways to thrive.
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Upon arriving in New Zealand, England spent four days at the five-star Millbrook Resort. Among other luxuries, it boasts two 18-hole championship golf courses, which McCullum and Stokes encouraged their players to use liberally. Cricketing talk was verboten.
While Chelsea cannot quite manage a four-day jaunt around the North Island’s finest golf hotels in the next few weeks, Potter must find a way to organically integrate his £600m smorgasbord of signings. Building trust is hard at the best of times, and none of these players are enjoying the best of times. Knowing his players are unlikely to build the necessary relationships among the on-field malaise, the Chelsea boss needs to help his squad bond off the pitch.
This could be golf, laser tag or go-karting – whatever takes their fancy. You can improve the atmosphere in a dressing room immeasurably when the people in it all like each other, and it’s hard to believe that is currently the case. Mudryk, Enzo Fernandez and Noni Madueke have just made the moves of their lifetimes, and they will naturally blame their teammates for the club’s woes.
Chelsea’s first-team squad currently houses 32 players, aged between 18 and 38 and hailing from 17 different countries across four continents. Fifteen of those players have joined the club in the past eight months, eight of which are playing in the UK for the first time. Something has to bring this group together, and it won’t be losing. They all need a way to relax and bond from a situation that must be both hugely exciting and damagingly stressful.
Let them play golf.
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