[PREMIER LEAGUE] Why did Chelsea choose to sign the new head coach?

The most shockest news this week was Chelsea sacked Thomas Tuchel who was the head coach. After 2 day, Chelsea officially signed the new head coach, Graham Potter. I am pretty sure that Chelsea had already planned to sack Tuchel for a while. Not because of the shocking result against Dinamo Zagreb, the reason why was a poor communication with Chelsea’s owner, Todd Boehly. Todd was willing to corporate and discuss with the head manager regarding their club’s future, but Tuchel didn’t want to be part of it.

For example, Todd wanted to sign Cristiano Ronaldo so he asked Tuchel ‘What do you think about it?’, but Tuchel said ‘NO’. Just ‘NO’… He didn’t explain why. The new owner is not really aware of football so he wanted Tuchel to explain why he didn’t want to sign Ronaldo. However, Tuchel was too cold to him. Be nice to your boss and colleagues guys… haha.

Anyway, I wondered why Chelsea planned to sign Porter?

Because Potter was using a similar football style as Chelsea in Brighton & Hove Albion which is his former club. Potter is also proving his football style is working in the Premier League that his former club is currently ranked 4th.

I will share a couple of most important points that you must be aware of:

1. Aggresive Wing-Backs

Both clubs’ main formations are a 3-4-3 formation.

And their wing-backs are playing very aggressively like wing-forwards. If you look at the data below, their wing-backs, Solly March and Leandro Trosaard shooted most this season. It was more than Danny Welbeck who is their striker.

As you may know, Chelsea also used wing-backs very aggressively. The Chelsea’s wing-backs, Reece James and Marc Cucurella didn’t shoot most, but they were in the upper rank. Their performance would be the most important for Potter.

2. Overlapping Centre-Backs

As you can see the images below, their centre-backs were overlapping and playing like midfielders when they were attacking. Both teams’ defending lines were very high.

3. High Possesion and Pressing

Both teams liked to have a high possesion and pressing. Brighton’s pressing stat was ranked in the top tier the last season, even higher than the Chelsea’s stat.

As you learned the three points, both the head coaches’ playing styles are very similar. That’s why Chelsea pushed hard to sign Porter who is the perfect option to replace Tuchel’s football.

However, there are also a couple of things that I concern.

1. A Lack of Strikers

Porter wants strikers also to press and work very hard when the team is defending. However, Aubameyang who is Tuchel requested to sign is not that style of player. Kai Havertz and Armando Broja would be Porter’s first choice in Chelsea, but Broja is too young and Havertz is not even a former stricker, but a second striker. Chelsea might need to sign more strickers in the winter transfer market.

2. A Lack of Experience

Potter started his professional managerial career in 2011 with Ostersund, but he has never managed a big club and experienced on big competitions like the Champions League. It would be very risky to Chelsea which is a big club and qualify the Champions League.

How do you rate this signing?

Thank you for reading:)