Straight from the off, steely eyed, no-nonsense talking Graham Potter was offering clear words to journalists assembled for the pre-Newcastle United Premier League fixture.
And he started with some surprising, if welcome news concerning midfield maestro Lucas Paquetá who has been struggling after rolling his ankle two weeks ago. Of course, the bigger picture here is that Paquetá’s Spot Fixing FA hearing is due to start on 20th march so the question in the room was clearly aiming to see if Potter had reservations about bringing the Brazilian back into the side in his current troubled mindset.
Potter was having none of it and he sent an unequivocal message – Paqueta “had been training hard, he’s back, and he’s available’.
Paqueta on-form will be a tough opponent for Eddie Howe’s Newcastle
Clearly the Hammers’ head coach plans to use Paquetá on Monday in some capacity which is good news indeed for West Ham: Nobody will know his frame of mind better than Potter.
West Ham fans will be understandably nervous seeing how Paquetá’s mindset under Lopetegui drifted away and his performances were poor, seemingly disinterested: But in fairness, as observers, our impression of the whole squad, not just Lucas Paquetá, was that they were disinterested and demotivated under Potter’s predecessor.
So, Paquetá plays. If Potter can coax another man of the match performance out of him, so much the better- Newcastle will find it hard to live with Hammer’s number 10 if he is in the right frame of mind on Monday night.
In the 2 games without Paqueta, both victories, the midfield looked more balanced and defensively solid, albeit Leicester weren’t that much of a challenge?
Who drops out of midfield, Alvarez, Soucek or JWP?
Surprising news at the conference would mean they had the mics turned on so we could hear the questions. Tin pot sully.