Potter took over shortly before Queen Elizabeth II’s death, and subsequent postponements meant he had to wait almost a month before taking charge of his first league game, the 2-1 win at Crystal Palace. From that game on 1 October until the World Cup, we played every midweek, a run that has continued since domestic football’s return on Boxing Day.

With so many injuries plus the World Cup, Potter has not yet worked with his entire squad, but he will at least have substantial time on the training ground before the trip to Anfield on Saturday and in the two-week break before our next game, at home to Fulham.

‘Time is valuable for us, and we will use it as best we can,’ Potter explained.

‘We walked into the washing machine in terms of games, with the condensed schedule before a World Cup, it was a unique situation. As we went along key players kept dropping away and it was a struggle for stability and the confidence stability brings. You learn a lot from that, even though it’s not nice.

‘I understand the timescales people work to are very short these days, but in the end we will just keep working and keep trying to improve.’

Potter has several new faces to work with this month, including our newest recruit, Mkyhailo Mudryk.

• Watch - Welcoming Mudryk, remembering Vialli and victory over Palace

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He, David Fofana, Joao Felix and Benoit Badiashile have supplemented our options, but Potter is wary of a bloated squad when he considers if further acquisitions will be made this month.

‘We have to be careful,’ he stressed.

‘It’s a challenge for us. You need a squad that’s balanced with the right amount of competition. We have 10 or 11 players unavailable. You obviously can’t just sign players to replace those, because in the end you have a squad of 30, and that’s a problem.

‘You have to do the right thing, and look at what the right solutions are. Sometimes they are not aligned completely as you would like them because the January window is complicated.

‘When we’re analysing football it is just the results, and that affects everything, but as I have said before there is a period of transition and you have to stabilise things and work to support the club as best you can,’ he added.

‘If you’re in a position where too many people are making recruitment decisions over too small a period, it’s not the recipe for long-term or short-term success.

‘We have to stabilise things, make good decisions, and we have to align our resources. Having resources is one thing, but they have to be aligned and they have to be used in the right way.’