The Switzerland international spent the 2022-23 season at Chelsea on loan from Juventus, arriving late in the summer transfer window after Thomas Tuchel had specifically requested his signing. Tuchel was dismissed shortly afterwards, however, and Zakaria found himself struggling for opportunities under his successor.
Potter had been appointed from Brighton on a five-year contract, but the midfielder made only 11 appearances in all competitions, accumulating approximately 600 minutes of football. He believes the manager's difficulty managing the club's wealth of established players ultimately contributed to his failure.
"In the end, I know he's a coach, and he's a good coach," Zakaria told Zack En Roue Libre.
"I don't want to speak badly about coaches. I would never speak badly about a coach. But he's a good coach with a lot of good ideas who didn't know how to manage a big squad.
"And I think that's also why he didn't have the success he could have had at Chelsea. For me, I'd arrived from Gladbach. I'd spent six months at Juventus, of course, but I wasn't a big name.
"That meant it was easy for him to leave me out. He could keep all the big names involved, and I think that was important to him because he felt he couldn't leave the big names out of the squad. And I think that's why I ended up paying the price."
Potter lasted only seven months at Stamford Bridge, being dismissed in April 2023 after 31 matches in charge. Zakaria says his own experience of being repeatedly excluded left him questioning the reasoning behind the decisions.
"For me, honestly, that's when the chaos started. It was crazy.
"Four months without playing. And it wasn't four months without playing but still being with the team. It was four months without playing and not even being called up. I wasn't in the squad.
"Out of the squad, out of the squad, out of the squad, all the time. You go and speak to the coach because you're training well. You're working hard, so you ask, 'Coach, what's happening? What can I do?' I didn't go to him saying, 'This is ridiculous' or anything like that.
"I just asked, 'Coach, what's the situation? What do I have to do to be in the squad, to be able to play?' And he said, 'Zak, you're training well. You're really doing everything right, but there's no particular reason. For now, that's just how it is. Maybe your moment will come, but for now, that's how it is.' And that was the response I got. It was crazy."