Paul Merson has told Sportskeeda that he believes Graham Potter may already be having doubts over Chelsea defenders Wesley Fofana and Kalidou Koulibaly.
The pair were both unused substitutes in the new manager’s first game in charge of the club, as the Blues were held to a point in the Champions League against RB Salzburg.
Instead, Potter elected to start Cesar Azpilicueta due to his experience, although his difficult start to the season continued in that game.
Surely the former Brighton manager will look to bring in at least one of the club’s new signings this weekend, with them both signed for big money over the summer.
However, Merson has questioned over whether Potter has an issue with starting either of the two defenders, and may not look to start them just yet.
He said: “He didn’t bring in Fofana and Koulibaly, however, and that’s a problem – how much does he rate them? This is a dodgy game, but I’m going to go with a Chelsea victory.”
Potter may not rate Koulibaly or Fofana
With the pair brought in to replace important first team members Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, they will both surely expecting to be important members of the squad for this season and campaigns to come.
After another disappointing performance from the captain last time out, Fofana is surely likely to be brought in to bring pace and agility to the right centre-back role of the fluid Potter system.
With Thiago Silva not able to defy ageing forever, it is expected that Koulibaly is set to become the experienced rock at the back Chelsea need.
With him starting the season at left centre-back, that position has now seemingly changed, with Potter preferring a figure who can play wide as well to cover Raheem Sterling.
It will be interesting to see if either new signing is given the opportunity to impress in what is sure to be a tough game.
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