Opinion: Potter can help himself with team selections alone

Things are very rough for at Chelsea right now, but he can certainly be doing all he can to help himself with team selections, something I don’t feel he has really been doing lately.

Potter has continued to surprise us by persisting with consistent under performers and average players who have been poor for years, and ignoring bright players who could actually make a big difference and are eager to impress.

This is my biggest gripe. I’ve always tried my hardest to back Potter, but his team selections and decisions of late is making it almost impossible. Please Graham, help yourself, and you can start with Leeds on Saturday, seeing as it seems the board are at the very least giving you that chance.

Don’t go for players who you think are ‘reliable’ or ‘experienced’ and will not let you down. Remember, there is such thing as bad experience.

I really like Graham as a person, which is why it’s so hard to witness this situation. As a coach, whilst he has proven in the past to show signs of being a good coach, he’s certainly not showing that at Chelsea right now as we continue to digress rather than improve.

I still want to win matches, and you’ll never find me becoming one of those fans who want us to lose just so the manager is sacked. I could never be like that.

So of course I want us to beat Leeds United. And I’m not saying the team selection below guarantees you a win on Saturday, but I’d certainly be a lot more confident in this team selection, rather than the awful one put out on Saturday.

This is what I’d go for:

I personally think that Ben Chilwell needs a little rest, and I don’t have a lot of faith in Marc Cucurella right now either, so that’s why I’d have Lewis Hall back in there. Whilst he looked poor for one game, the four or five games before that he was excellent, and I have no idea why he’s being ignored now. Carney Chukwuemeka needs to be back on that bench at least, because he has flair and can come on and make an impact.

I get people calling for a back three, but for me personally I want to see us continue to try and perfect the back four. I also want us to have a settle formation and line-up going forward. We need to build a trust with our best Xl, and we need to form partnerships and linkups all over the pitch. Only repetitiveness will see that happen, on the pitch.

Denis Zakaria simply HAS to play in close to Enzo as our deepest midfielder. Enzo needs the protection, and we need that physicality and defensive stability in there. I’d even contemplate a 4-3-3 with Zakaria as the traditional holding midfielder staying fully disciplined, and then staggering Enzo and Felix ahead of him.

Thiago Silva will obviously be injured for Saturday, and I’m a little split on who I would place as captain to be honest. Reece James shows leadership qualities, but he is still too quiet on the pitch for me and that’s just his personality.

I think I’d give it to Raheem Sterling, leading from the front. He’s got captaincy experience and is the most experienced player in this line-up.

At the end of the day, could this lot really do any worse than those who lined up against Spurs? Nope.