Those players were resorting to sitting on the floor during team gatherings in 2022.
Assuming the helm at Stamford Bridge after the departure of Thomas Tuchel, the English manager was given eight new signings that winter.
Speaking to The Telegraph this week, Potter said: "We tried to support it as best we could, but it left us with a challenge of a lot of players after January and then they can’t go anywhere."
He added: "A few of them just had to sit on the floor.
“It’s not ideal, of course. Everybody recognised it was a really difficult situation because you can only pick 11 players and if you’ve got 20 players not playing, it doesn’t matter where you are. If you can find a coach out there who says, ‘yeah, that’s the best condition for me,’ I’d be very surprised."