Chelsea manager Graham Potter’s decision to play Raheem Sterling as a wing-back in his first game in charge of Chelsea against RB Salzburg in the Champions League raised a lot of question marks.
Potter opted for a 3-4-2-1 formation with Thiago Silva, Cesar Azpilicueta, and Marc Cucurella as the three-men defense, Mateo Kovacic and Jorginho at the heart of Chelsea midfield, Raheem Sterling and Reece James as the wing-backs, Mason Mount, Kai Havertz and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as the front three.
However, William Gallas has revealed that he does not understand Graham Potter’s decision to play Raheem Sterling as a wing back against RB Salzburg.
What did William Gallas say?
The former Chelsea and Arsenal defender said to Genting Casino: “That is a problem. When I saw Sterling playing as a left-wing-back, I didn’t understand it.
“It’s difficult for me to understand why he wants to experiment with something like this, especially in a Champions League game. You are playing at home and you put Cucurella as a center-back, you have Fofana on the bench with Koulibaly, Chalobah on the bench, and you put Sterling as a left-wing back? I don’t understand.
“In the end, they didn’t have a good result, they drew 1-1. People will always judge the result, and the question is why did he put those two players in those positions?
“Graham Potter seems like a nice guy and a good manager, but I’m still waiting to see what he’s going to do to get Chelsea back to top form.
“He looks very calm, and looks like he likes to have conversations with his players from what I see from the outside, but I don’t know if he’s like this in reality. I’m still waiting.
“He did a good job at Brighton, but Chelsea is not Brighton. He has gone to another level with more expectations, more pressure, so it will be good to see if he can be the right manager.”
Explaining his decision to deploy Raheem Sterling as a wingback, Graham Potter said: “It was a back-three as far as I was concerned with Reece [James] and Raheem giving us the width.
“Salzburg is very strong in the middle with their 4-3-1-2, so it’s not easy to play through the middle of the pitch. We wanted to get some dangerous width and Reece and Raheem were that.
“They were more full-backs in the lateral positions and then midfield players. I thought Raheem got into some good situations and Reece was well down that side.”
On the risk of Sterling playing as a wing-back, Potter added:
“Well, there is that possibility, but you have to organize around that, as you don’t want Raheem really defending in his box too often, and I don’t think he did. I think Marc Cucurella managed the situation quite well. I cannot remember too many opportunities they had down that side.
“Whatever you do, there’s always a plus and a minus, but we were at home, and we wanted to be on the front foot and get some attacking ideas in those positions. Raheem is really good at attacking a back-line and scored a fantastic goal.
“I thought he was really good in the game. Reece balances it off a little bit and we can still defend in a four if we need to, so that was the thinking.”
Chelsea will face Crystal Palace over the weekend at the Selhurst Park Stadium.
