Graham Potter took time to explain the situation around Marc Cucurella and his recent struggles at Chelsea.
“He [Cucurella] doesn’t look like my son does he?! You can’t use that one,” Potter jokingly referred to old Mount-Lampard jibe,
“I think with the results we are having and where we are in the table. Unfortunately, you expect somebody to be getting the brunt of the criticism. I think that’s the pattern.
“Whether it is fair or not, that doesn’t matter. The supporters are entitled to their opinion and voice because without them there is no football club.
"In an ideal world, you want everybody going in the same way, supporting everybody but that’s not the reality. That’s not where we are at.
“I think as professionals we have to accept that. We have to work as hard as we can to change opinions.
“That is what it is and the challenge for us. I am not going to argue against it. In an ideal world, you want everybody going in the same way, supporting everybody but that’s not the reality. That’s not where we are at.”
Asked how he intends to stop the fans from booing the Spaniard, Potter said: “There is no magic formula. It is not straightforward or easy.
“It would be wrong for me to say it is easy for him, it is not easy to play with that type of pressure or situation. All he can do is keep playing well in training, keep working hard and wait for the right opportunity.
“Our challenge is that the team has to win games and perform better and get some points because that takes the pressure off.
"In a situation where the results are going as you’d like them to go then it is understandable, you are looking for someone to be critical of, someone to blame.
“That is normal, it is human nature. As a team, we’re not losing because of one individual. We’re not in the situation because of one person.
“We’re a team and a club and we need to stick together and move forward.”
Potter then insisted that Cucurella is a quality player which explains why Pep Guardiola wanted him at Manchester City.
“The team that was interested in him [Man City and Guardiola], I don’t think they’d be interested if he didn’t have the character he has," the Chelsea boss said.
“Chelsea weren’t the only team that wanted to buy him. The other team that wanted to buy him were quite good.
“The club invested a lot of money in him in the summer. I was at Brighton last year so I know his qualities. He was the final piece, I would say, in our puzzle. He helped the team to function really well.
“At Chelsea, with the amount of transition there is, is a really different situation. It won’t be the first time that in the first six months at a club that it doesn’t feel like it should. It can affect your performance.
“I think Marc is a big boy, he is an adult who has got kids. He knows the situation. We have to help him to change perspectives on this.”
Cucurella is expected to start for Chelsea against Southampton later this afternoon as the Blues manage the minutes of Ben Chilwell following his return from injury.
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