“I want him to be a warrior” – Chelsea legend Frank Leboeuf’s Blues column

*This column was first published exclusively on Si & Dan Talk Chelsea

Graham Potter and current Chelsea

I saw some articles going out from the press saying I was resentful towards Graham Potter, but in fact I was just upset with what he did against Manchester City and the team selections he made. I think you need some people with experience when playing against Manchester City, personally.

I am overall behind Potter. We all knew when he signed what we could expect from him and he needs to be able to build the team and the new spirit of the club. It would have been crazy to think he is going to change everything in a second. It’s not possible and it doesn’t work like that. He’s not the guy who comes like Mourinho or maybe Tuchel, and is not going to change the spirit of the team just like that. He’s going to have to prove to the players what he wants. I’m behind him because I know it will take some time, but he has to be clear with what he wants to do, and the board has to be clear. I was expecting someone from the club to talk and say ‘OK, that’s what we want to do, give us some time we are going to go through bad times, yes we are Chelsea and we know your expectations, but that’s what it is after a year of not doing well, we have to recreate something, an atmosphere in the dressing room, a way to play, more vertical way of playing, but at a Chelsea level.’ And everybody would have understood that, but the message wasn’t clear and the performances have been horrendous.

What Potter did against Manchester City made me feel that maybe the guy is overwhelmed right now and doesn’t know what to do. But I have to say after Crystal Palace, I liked the spirit of the players and how they played, I saw warriors on the field and I was very happy with the performance. I am a big lover of Chelsea Football Club, but I expect the best. Because I know we can produce. It’s not average players we have at the club, we have some good players. So you have to be hard on them sometimes to make them react. I’ve not been happy with what I’ve been seeing. I see players who get their big time money and don’t do 20% of what they should be doing. I don’t like people insulting Potter because he doesn’t deserve it, I’m sure he’s a very professional guy and does his best.

I’m not sure Potter has the players that he wants. We all know that we need a striker. I like Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, I played with his father and I love him, but I know that he’s not the guy we needed. They asked me at ESPN if I was OK with him and I said no it’s too late, he’s not the Aubameyang we knew. We can talk about Marcus Thuram, but he is not a striker, we need a striker. Romelu Lukaku didn’t work out, but Chelsea need a striker, someone who is able to create and score goals, because that is lacking right now. We also have to work on the middle of the park. That’s where you win the battle. You have Zakaria and he plays well against Manchester City in the league game. Then we played the second game, which for me was the biggest game this season because I don’t think Chelsea will win the UCL, this was the biggest possibility for Chelsea to win silverware this season, and Zakaria wasn’t selected. I don’t think he’s made the right selections.

We’ve lately bought too many players who are the same, we have a lot of attackers and need to move some out. We need a proper number nine and somebody in the middle of the park. I like the fight I saw from Benoit Badiashile, he seemed to be very solid. I like Thiago Silva. But you have to reinforce the middle of the park. You have to find the kind of players who get the ball like Jude Bellingham; work hard defensively, and get the ball forward vertically, that’s the kind of football I like. And then we need players to finish the job.

Some people were happy when Chelsea were making 800 passes a game, but scoring no goals. That’s not football, it’s not about that. Liverpool proved some years ago that being vertical trying to be effective is better than just keeping the ball. Yes, Manchester City does it well, but that’s Pep Guardiola’s philosophy and he knows exactly how to work on that; he’s an expert, but he’s the only one, and has the players for that. At some point he realised that he had to put a striker up top to finish the job in Erling Haaland. It’s nice to keep the ball, but you need someone to finish the job. WE don’t have it.

Losing players to injuries has been a real issue

We lost many players to injuries and without Reece James and Ben Chilwell the team is very different. But we are Chelsea FC, it’s not the Chelsea FC that I used to play for when you had 15/16 players. They now have so many players and you can field two starting line ups! Overall I think you need to rethink the idea of what you want because right now it’s a bit of a mess. We buy, we buy, we buy, but we need to see it coming together soon. We have to find the right balance with the players, what you want to do and how you want to do it. I’m sure it’s overwhelming for Potter when you go a bit deeper and see what you lack and what you need.

Generational differences causing mentality changes

We had a different characters when I was playing. Now, not saying the truth to players when they are bad, like Vialli or Gullit could have told me ‘Frank, what’s wrong, today you were sh*t, you were awful’. They don’t say that anymore. So psychologically the players are more touchy and you have to be nice to them and say that they are ‘fantastic but could do a little more’. Suddenly they become very fragile because they have always been told they are fantastic players. That’s the thing. sometimes you need a kick up the butt to make sure you are going to react, but it doesn’t always work with these players.

Kai Havertz isn’t a striker and lacks mentality

Kai Havertz is a very nice guy, a real gentlemen. But I want him to be a warrior, I want him to be upset; I like when he’s upset and he shows his character. But I want him to finish the job and be harder than he is. We don’t have that, he’s not a striker either, he needs a centre forward next to him.

Time for Jorginho to move on

Jorginho has served the club very well but he’s nowhere near it anymore. I had my time at Chelsea and people made it clear that John Terry was coming and I had to make way for him, and that’s understandable. That’s life. There is a present and there is a past, and the future is not for us. You have to accept that. I do like the way Jorginho plays, but he’s too slow when he has the ball, and defensively he doesn’t participate enough for me.

Lack of leadership

Thiago Silva is definitely a leader for me, not necessarily by his personality but the way he plays as a technical leader. He shows the way to the youngsters. Cesar Azpilicueta because of his fighting spirit is a leader. Otherwise I see no leaders there. N’Golo Kante can be a leader on the field, he’s not a talker but a leader because he shows the way. I think it’s the time for Mason Mount to show his character. He’s a guy from the club, the guy who can be listened to by the others because he represents the club.

When I signed from Chelsea Dennis Wise was the captain, and I knew exactly what I had to expect from him. I remember Gianluca Vialli, Gianfranco Zola, Dan Petrescu and Roberto Di Matteo, because they played in Italy, speaking in Italian at the table and Wise saying ‘hey guys, here it’s England and we speak English. If you don’t know how to speak English you don’t speak, but you learn. When you are altogether, we speak English.’ And just saying that, it showed everybody that he was the leader and that he was the skipper. But Wise was open for everything. When I signed, after four games we had a penalty against Arsenal, and he was the regular penalty taker. I said can I take it and he said, ‘yes Frank, if you feel comfortable’. That is when I became the penalty taker at the club. You had to ask him, because he was the skipper. We had the feeling that he had Chelsea blood inside him, and this is what Mason needs to show to the world. And Reece James, with Reece we feel it. With Mason, I don’t feel it yet. I want to see it because he is fantastic player, we all know that. But as that new generation can be like, sometimes they fall asleep. We need consistency, and that has to change.

Koulibaly’s woes

I’m as stunned as everyone else. I was so happy when he signed. I said ‘yes, that’s the player we need – strong, leader at the back for Napoli, great player, great mentality, alongside Thiago Silva, wow, that’s going to be fantastic’. I think Kalidou Koulibaly will be the first one to admit his disappointment. We are all disappointed, because he hasn’t yet fulfilled any expectations. The fact that behind him though, the goalkeepers do not provide too much security with their form lately, doesn’t help. But still, I really thought that Chelsea had one of the best central defences this summer with Wesley Fofana, Silva, Trevoh Chalobah, and Koulibaly. But it’s not what’s happened and I’m sad about that.

Sometimes it takes time to settle in. It was easy for me, I can’t explain why, but I felt so good so early during my time at Chelsea. But sometimes it takes longer for some players to settle down, and if Chelsea have time and try to organise everything, and maybe Kalidou next season is going to be fantastic and show the world that he is still the player Chelsea signed from Napoli. I have doubts though and we are all disappointed. I want to believe it’s not the end of it, you don’t lose all your tools like that, it’s impossible. It’s just mentally that he has to fix some stuff, maybe with his family. I think we have to give him a chance to show the world that he’s still a good player.

Liverpool next

If there is one team more sick than Chelsea right now, it’s Liverpool. In terms of big clubs trying to heal, Liverpool are there with Chelsea. Liverpool have dropped it’s football so quickly. Defensively where they were so strong, they don’t exist anymore. Offensively they don’t score as many goals. You see the names of the players filling this squad, it should be much better. Yes of course, they signed a player in Darwin Nunez who doesn’t score goals and is clumsy, but I’m sure he will settle down and be effective.

It’s a great time for Chelsea to play Liverpool for sure, and show to the world that you are healing better than Liverpool and you are on your way back to your best. It’s going to be a very interesting game, to see how the two teams react. For me, everything works in their heads. Whoever is going to be the strongest mentally and psychologically is going to win the game. We are going to see phases of time where we are going to see the doubts of both teams, and they could concede a foul or give the ball away and then suddenly, you will see the doubt. That can make the difference. Chelsea winning against Palace last weekend and getting a clean sheet, that’s very hopeful. It’s crazy to see Liverpool like this with the coach that they have, having so much doubt.

Everything too much, but great, that was Gianluca Vialli

I first met Gianluca Vialli when I joined at Chelsea after remembering him as captain of Juventus winning the Champions League. He then signed for Chelsea when Ruud Gullit was there, and he then said to me ‘I want you to come because I want to sign Vialli, we already have Mark Hughes, Petrescu, Wise, and I want you to come, I want Di Matteo, and Zola’. I said, ‘wow, why is he calling me? I’m nothing to do with those players, and he knows me, and he wants me.’ Meeting the mighty Vialli was amazing. Talking about finishers, strikers, scorers, that was Vialli, on top of being a live wire. He shaved my head, that’s the guy who shaved my head first. I’ve been like that for almost 30 years now.

It’s hard to talk about him with the past because it’s unbearable to realise that at 58 years old, he’s not with us anymore. I had a very good time with him as a player because he was my friend, he came for Christmas at home with his girlfriend at the time. We shared a lot of times together. Then he became a coach, he had to take distance from us, and I didn’t understand that, it was too much for me, I couldn’t talk to my friend anymore and we fell apart at some point. We discussed later about that and everything was OK, but never like the past.

He’s somebody that I very much respected, someone that I loved, and I’m sad because it’s not fair, it’s really not fair. I was happy that he first got rid of the cancer and went back happy with Italy in the Euros. Then I was on my way to London to do the show Soccer AM when someone told me that Luca passed away. It was like my stomach was falling apart. I was in the parking lot and I read that and said ‘oh my god, that cannot be true’. I still have goosebumps thinking about it. I lost my father at 60, and now Luca is gone at 58. It’s not acceptable.

Vialli bought joy to the dressing room. Mark Hughes was somebody quiet, very nice, but with Gianluca, it was’ ‘HEY CHAPS!’ every morning in his Italian accent. The smile in his face, that’s what he was. He was always happy, and always saying ‘come on chaps, come on’.

He was a fighter, lover, warrior, and he had that Italian spirit. Everything too much, but great, that was Gianluca Vialli. Let’s end it there, Vialli was too much, but great!