Graham Potter admits to their poor performance but has defended his player after their 4-0 loss to Manchester City.
Chelsea manager Graham Potter has defended his players after the lost to Manchester City in the FA Cup last night.
The Blues suffered the second defeat in a row against Pep Guardiola side after following 4-0 defeat at Etihad.
Brace from Riyad Mahrez, Foden and Alverez gave Manchester city a perfect qualification in the cup.
Speaking with the media after the game Potter claims his players are giving their best for the club and he notice not a bad attitude in the team.
“I am working with the players, I don’t get any sense of people with a poor attitude. Everyone wants to try to do better. I think there is support in the dressing room. It is just that we are going through a bad moment and sometimes when you have these moments you need somebody or something to blame, I understand where that question comes from. But at the same time, we have to stick together and keep working.
“This opponent is probably the worst opponent you can play when things aren’t going very well because they can make it look like you’re not running, like you’re not trying, because their positional structure is brilliant, they use the full width of the pitch, they keep the ball and make it difficult for you to put any pressure on them.”
When asked about the assessment of the game Potter stated that: “I thought we were second best to a very, very good side. Obviously, we are not in a great moment ourselves and even though it was a cagey first 20 minutes we couldn’t attack the backline well enough, we couldn’t attack as well as we would like. I think Manchester City do really well in terms of stopping you doing that. At the same time, we struggled.
“It was a fantastic first goal in terms of a strike from a free-kick, and a strange penalty and you are caught in a position where it is 2-0 and you have to chase the ball against Manchester City. You are caught between trying to commit more men and not getting opened up.
“So the first half was painful and tough for us all. Second half, we had to respond and I thought there were some positives there in terms of the young players. I thought they gave everything and showed their quality but we are disappointed we went out of the competition. Congratulations to Man City. They deserved to win, of course.”
