- Graham Potter claimed that Caicedo's qualities could not be captured by statistics
- The young midfielder has improved after a difficult start to life at Chelsea
- Caicedo has started every Premier League game this season
Graham Potter has provided a glowing appraisal of Chelsea midfielder Moises Caicedo, hailing the £115m signing's qualities on and off the pitch.
The pair first met at Brighton. Potter was manager when the energetic midfielder moved to the south coast and handed him his Premier League debut towards the end of the 2021/22 season. However, Caicedo only ended up making 16 appearances under the English coach, who was poached by Chelsea in September 2022.
By the time Caicedo made his nine-digit move to west London the summer of 2023, Potter had long since been sacked by the club's trigger-happy owners. Despite their limited crossover, the out-of-work manager is quick to laud his former player.
"When people talk about team players, well, that's Moises," Potter wrote in a column for the BBC during October's international break. "He just wants to do the best he can for his team. Of course he is a better player when the team is functioning well, but he will make everyone else better too.
"He is not the guy who is going to dribble past ten players, or try something flash," Potter continued. "He is physical, he wins the ball for you and he keeps things simple when he has got it, although he has got quality too."
Caicedo initially struggled to adapt to life in London. The 22-year-old infamously gave away a penalty on his Chelsea debut in a humbling 3-1 defeat to West Ham United. However, he improved as the season progressed and has emerged as a commanding presence at the base of midfield for incoming boss, Enzo Maresca.
Potter explained that Caicedo's new, defensive-minded role "provides them with the balance which allows that front five to attack". The former Seagulls coach added: "Moises' positional sense will get better and better, the more he plays in that role, but he is already very good at recovering those big spaces and winning the ball back. Along with everything else, that makes him the perfect fit for the way they want to play."
In a world where data can be morphed to fit any opinion, Potter warned: "The impact he has in the team goes beyond most of the stats that are shown for midfielders, because they don't wholly reflect his role and influence on the team.
"You can use those binary measurements, like tackles made, distance run or sprints and it tells you one thing about him - but not everything." Those figures are pretty flattering for the Ecuador international. No Premier League player has made more combined tackles and interceptions this season than Caicedo, per FBref. The statistical research group at CIES also dubbed him the best young midfielder in the world.
Off the pitch, Potter hailed Caicedo's "world class" character. "Moises is a mix of someone who wants to learn and improve, but is also highly intelligent anyway," the 49-year-old explained. "The way he approaches things is the perfect combination for a manager or coach to work with, and because of that I always thought his future was extremely bright."
