According to journalist Dean Jones, new Chelsea boss Graham Potter has been working on ‘two different shapes’ in training.
Potter was appointed as the man to succeed Thomas Tuchel after the German’s sacking last week and we will get a first look at the Blues under the new manager in the Champions League on Wednesday night at home to RB Salzburg.
Tuchel quickly adopted a formation that consisted of three central defenders and it brought great success, as he led the west Londoners to their second Champions League title just five months after he was appointed
3-4-2-1 was the most common adaptation of the formation used by the manager in his one full season at the club, similar to the system deployed by his successor at Brighton.
With the weekend visit of Liverpool now postponed, Potter will likely field his strongest XI in the Blues’ final game before the international break and Jones has shed some light on how the team could set up.
He told GIVEMESPORT: “He’s been working on a few different things since coming in.
“Obviously, it’s very early days, but people I speak to say that they’ve seen him work on basically two different shapes in training, neither particularly dissimilar to what Tuchel was utilising.
“And I think that’s quite important. You don’t want to completely rock the boat at this stage.”
Plenty of Blues fans will perhaps be scrambling for Potter to revert to a standard four-at-the-back style having seen their team fail to score in three of their first seven fixtures this season.
However, it does seem as if the Cobham-based outfit will be continuing in a similar set-up.
With Marc Cucurella, whom he is very familiar with, Ben Chilwell and Reece James, Potter is certainly blessed with wing-backs but it will be finding a fluent front three that will be the key to turning Chelsea’s season around.
While they have conceded nine times in six Premier League games, revitalising the form of Mason Mount and Kai Havertz, who have been involved in just one goal between them so far this season, will certainly be on Potter’s agenda.
