Chelsea squad labelled ‘a mess’ by Rio Ferdinand as Graham Potter continues to grapple with best XI

Chelsea’s 33-man squad has been labelled “a mess” by Rio Ferdinand, with the ex-Manchester United defender believing it is creating difficulties for Blues boss Graham Potter.

Chelsea’s stunning transfer spend has been the envy of numerous other clubs but it’s not come without its problems, with some big-name players struggling to even make recent matchday squads.

And Ferdinand, speaking on BT Sport ahead of Chelsea’s Champions League Round of 16 second leg against Borussia Dortmund, believes the problem is exacerbated by Potter’s recent ascent to a job of this magnitude.

“I think this is hard enough for a manager with huge experience and who’s been at this level for a long time,” Ferdinand began.

“Let alone somebody who’s come from a place where he would never have had this type of quality at his disposal, and the amount of players at his disposal.

“It’s the disappointments that he’s got to hand out every single week to these players; how they deal with it, how he delivers that message to those players, how he keeps them engaged.

“They’re all big, big conversations that he has to get right on the job, first time.

“There are 33 players – it’s a mess.”

Ferdinand, alongside Joe Cole and Owen Hargreaves, settled on four nailed-on starters: Enzo Fernandez, Reece James, Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell.

But they agreed there was little consensus beyond that.

“Football is the only job in the world where you’ve sacked people on a Friday, and you have to re-employ them on a Monday,” Cole said.

“That’s why it’s better to have a squad littered with a few youngsters or with players coming down who are happy to play 20, 25 [minutes].

“Chelsea have got a big job in the summer balancing this up.”

Hargreaves offered his belief that Potter was not to blame for the bloated group.

“I don’t think this is Graham’s problem, this is the club’s,” the two-time Champions League winner added. “If you look at Arsenal you know pretty much who’s going to play every game.

“[Manchester] City, Liverpool, [Manchester] United – you know who’s going to be in that starting XI, give or take one or two.

“For Graham, it’s going to take time to find out ‘what is his core’? And then whoever it’s not going to be, then they’re going to have to sell them probably in the summer.”

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Watch Chelsea vs Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on BT Sport 1.