Graham Potter explains to Thomas Frank why Chelsea regularly change formation
By Sean Walsh
Chelsea head coach Graham Potter explained to Brentford counterpart Thomas Frank why he utilises so many different formations prior to their stalemate on Wednesday evening.
The Blues were held to a 0-0 draw by the Bees at the Gtech Community Stadium, with the hosts creating the better chances and the visitors consistently bailed out by the much-improved Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Prior to kick-off, UK broadcasters Amazon Prime managed to get the two bosses together on the touchline, and dared them to pit one burning question to another.
Frank was first up and opted to ask Potter why he changes formation so often, prompting a laugh from the Chelsea man.
"Good question!" Potter replied. "We don't really see the formation as the end goal, we see actually how the team's playing. The team needs to look consistent regardless of the formation.
"And then it's about the personnel, how you want to attack the opponent, how you want to defend against the opponent. I suppose those are the things we consider.
"But hopefully there's things that look the same even though the shape changes."
Potter was then allowed to put a question back to Frank, and he chose to ask about what he thought the differences were between the Championship and Premier League.
"The pace of the game, I would say," Frank began. "The quality of the players is crazy. You can make one minor mistake, and it's not like you get punished every time but you get punished so much more.
"So I would say the speed of the game and another thing I think is the level of the modern game, playing in the Premier League. So many changes, formation shifts in the game, a lot of teams are doing that more and more. [It's a] big challenge."