'You can see his quality' - Graham Potter pleased wtih Mkyhaylo Mudryk debut as Chelsea draw with Liverpool
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Published 21/01/2023 at 15:21 GMT
Chelsea winger Mykhaylo Mudryk showed glimpses of his quality after coming off the bench in a 0-0 draw with Liverpool, according to Blues manager Graham Potter. Mudryk was introduced in the second half after joining the London club from Shakhtar Donetsk in a big-money move earlier in the week. Potter was happy with his side's performance, although it did little to improve their league position.
Potter looks ahead to Liverpool with boost of new signing Mudryk
Chelsea manager Graham Potter praised his players after earning a 0-0 draw away to Liverpool and said he was pleased by the impact of debutant Mykhaylo Mudryk from the bench.
Both sides went into the game in poor form and a lack of confidence showed as neither side found the breakthrough, although Chelsea had the better chances and saw an early Kai Havertz goal ruled out for offside.
Mudryk, who joined the Blues from Shakhtar Donetsk last week in a deal reportedly worth £88.5m, came on in the 55th minute and provided some spark, and Potter said afterwards that he was happy with what he saw.
"I thought the performance was good. Happy with the team, the energy in the team, what we tried to do,” Potter told BT Sport.
"Obviously at Anfield it’s always tough. But I’m happy with a lot of it. Obviously I wanted to win, but at the end it’s a clean sheet, a point for us, and we move forward."
He added: "First half we were decent, obviously a little bit unlucky not to get the goal, offside is what it is. But throughout the game we had good energy.
“They started the second half well and we adjusted a couple of things then and got a bit more control in the game, had a couple of chances. So overall, positive day apart from that we wanted - three points.”
Mudryk showed flashes of his talent from the bench in an encouraging start to his Stamford Bridge spell.
“He’s not played football for a while, he’s been on a mid-season break, so we had to manage his minutes and he’s still in that phase,” Potter said.
“But I think you could see his quality, he had a good impact on the game.”
Chelsea defender Thiago Silva was named man of the match, but Potter also reserved words of praise for January recruit Benoit Badiashile.
“(Thiago) is helping Benoit, it’s his second game in the Premier League and I thought he did really well,” said Potter.
“But to have Thiago alongside him is a really big help. I’m delighted with his form, he’s an important player for us, a leader in the team, a leader in the group, and it looks like he’s enjoying his football.”
The result did little to help Chelsea’s league position, leaving them 10th and nine points from the top four ahead of the rest of the weekend’s fixtures.
“We’ve had a tough period for different reasons, but the group has always stayed together,” said the Chelsea boss.
“We’ve always remained calm and tried to get our own perspective on things, but we know the results aren’t what we would like. At the same time the group is fighting and I’m happy with the performance today.”
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