After another underwhelming Chelsea display in their 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest left the Blues eighth in the Premier League, the Sky Sports pundits assessed the problems facing boss Graham Potter.
The main issue, argued Graeme Souness, is a lack of a striker.
Chelsea sold Timo Werner and loaned away Romelu Lukaku in the summer, and while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joined in the summer along with wide forward Raheem Sterling, and January signing David Datro Fofana watched on at the City Ground, their top Premier League scorers are Sterling and Kai Havertz on just four goals.
“They didn’t cover themselves in glory, Lukaku and Werner, but are they a better team without those two? Are they more of a goal threat without those two?” asked Souness.
“When you look at big football clubs and who makes decisions, at the start, when this new consortium takes over, Petr Cech, Marina Granovskaia, and Thomas Tuchel all leave the club, and Todd Boehly announces himself as new director of football, short term.
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“If you’ve lost two strikers and you go out and spend £270m+ on defenders, mostly, where is your football thinking? Surely your priority is to go and get a striker from somewhere.
“I think Graham Potter needs help. I hope they’re sitting him down and he’s part of the conversation. ‘What do you need?’
“That squad is not equipped to go and win big games of football in a very demanding league because they don’t have any strikers. City have +28 goal difference, Arsenal +26, Chelsea are +2. That stat alone tells you where they need help.”
However, former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink didn’t feel the issue was as straightforward, despite the club scoring just 12 goals in Potter’s 10 Premier League games in charge.
He also pointed to injury problems within the squad – but warned there remained big pressure on the team to finish in the Champions League qualifying spots.
“I don’t think that is the only problem,” he said about the team needing a No9. “It’s not only the strikers who score goals. It’s also midfielders who score goals.
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“The problem is not the No 9, it’s several positions. The midfielders aren’t scoring goals, not creating enough chances.
“I think they are too far from the top four. Yes, they do miss some important players. Reece James, N’Golo Kante, Ben Chilwell.
“He’s had a lot of injuries, you need to give him time. If you’re going to change [manager] in the middle of the season, and all these things are happening, you need to give him more time to mould this team.
“But Chelsea cannot be out of the Champions League two years in a row. It looks this year like they’re going to be out of the Champions League… but he needs time.”
There were 14 managers at Chelsea during the 19-year reign of former owner Roman Abramovich and Jamie Redknapp pointed out the Russian would probably have been unimpressed by the early results of the Potter era.
Chelsea’s signings this season
However, with the club spending heavily on young players in the summer, and experienced personnel soon to be out of contract, Redknapp says it makes sense for Chelsea to put their trust in Potter – who signed a long-term deal – to manage the transition and development of the team.
“He’s had 10 Premier League games and won four of them, lost three. If you were in the Abramovich era, you’re under huge pressure,” said Redknapp.
“There’s going to be a massive change in this next year or so, Jorginho is out of contract, Kante whether he signs or not is still debatable, there will be a lot of changes.
“He will need time – there’s no point bringing in those players and not giving him time.”