Whether it was through over coaching, or lack of it, or indeed just through fear at playing as part of a failing side, West Ham’s cautious, ‘side side, backwards’ approach, so evident and lamented last season under both Graham Potter and Nuno, is proving a difficult habit to break for one of their former midfield contingent who exited the club in the summer.
Despite Freddie Potts’ £10 million move to Club Brugge, the former Hammers’ favourite is struggling to set himself free of the debilitating, negative style coached into him by successive West Ham managers and by the fear accumulated during a traumatic relegation season in east London.
At least, that’s the claim of Belgian analyst Franky van der Elst, reported by sportwitness.co.uk:
“Potts needs to have the courage to play the ball forward,” Van Elst said.
“That isn’t happening right now. Gert backed this up with a map showing Potts’s passes. Barely four were directed forward, and not a single one found its target. That’s simply not enough. You could sense Gert’s frustration while he was explaining it on TV.
“All those backward passes annoyed me, too. It’s as if Potts doesn’t realize he can turn, play forward, or switch flanks. He needs to scan his surroundings better. Perhaps it’s a lack of confidence, or a failure to read the game situation – or a combination of all those things.”
Freddie Potts: Suffering the long term effects of playing in a failing coaching environment
From our grandstand seat over the last couple of seasons, it is easy to see the origins of his backward passing – seeing as successive coaches seemed to actively encourage a negative, cautious style which the Hammers only managed to throw off mid way through last season when desperation caused Nuno to go looking for Premier League wins.
Potts, like Ward Prowse, Rodriguez, Alvarez and co, was part of a midfield that couldn’t attack until the arrival of the more dynamic Mateus Fernandes showed the way forward – literally.
Hopefully Freddie will overcome his loss of confidence that, far from being unique to him, affected just about the whole of West Ham’s ‘relegation squad’ after too many managers, too many different coaches and too many defeats caused fear to handicap playing style and caution overcome natural exuberance.
The remaining squad members have just about thrown off the shackles from their ‘relegation hangover’ – as we saw last night: Potts, hopefully, will be able to do the same in time.
He is suffering PTSD – Potter Traumatic Stress Disorder
Maybe he just isn’t good enough even for the Belgian League? He no doubt suffered from the expectations of being a ‘prospect’ or a ‘wonderkid’ depending on what the press were calling him at the time. Never been a big fan and said he wasn’t good enough at start of last season.
I thought he would end up in League One so good luck to him that has at least played in Champions League for Bruges.
I get fed up with West Ham always going backwards. Every time we get ball half way up the pitch we go, from attacking situations the play break down our first instinct is to go backwards. Even when 2 nil up ⚒️⚒️⚒️
Interesting, Martin. Freddie Potts’ coaches have remained fairly constant throughout his development at West Ham. Same applies to his contemporaries. Whilst the club managers have changed, the youth coaches have continued their work in post.
David Moyes had the likes of Alan Irvine, Kevin Nolan, Paul Nevin and Stuart Pearce to help with getting the best from the first team squad. Potts and company were not near the first team then. Moyes finished without much backroom support as the club moved forward to the Spanish experiment.
Thereafter, Lopetegui, Potter and initially Nuno all have relied on a chaotic coaching regime with no consistent messaging or style of play other than trying to achieve 100% possession and not conceding any goals.
Meanwhile the youngsters have been looked after by the same guys. These same guys that stepped up to fill the voids left by Potter’s expulsion.
The unfortunate consequence of these years of development coaching and lack of any aims or ambitions are exactly as you have described in your excellent piece of writing.
Last season under Potter and Nuno was just a consequence of inheritance rather than a conscious decision on a style of play. A terrible shame for all players caught up in this situation, especially the youngsters.
It seems a stark contrast with the coaching received by Divine Mukasa at Manchester City. Not received from Pep directly, but from the machine behind their Academy.
We could do a lot worse (and we have) than taking a leaf from the Man City coaching text book. Even so far as employing these guys. Maybe it is just water under the bridge from here on in. It looks like we are actually equipped to entertain our fans and beat our opposition with a West Ham United side unafraid to show endeavour and delight at scoring lots of goals.
We move on and if our discarded lads learn and gain experience the may come back to make us better in the future.
COYI
Great comments, thanks Taffyhammer. Had no idea of the goings on in the background, but on the pitch Scarles & Potts never improved, Potts even regressed and it was obvious they were left to their own devices, more or less expected to pick things up as they go along. Yet this is a crucial step up, from U21s, to fringe player to a 1st team, – won’t work. Plus need guidance for that step up from fringe player, to competent 1st team starter, new tactics, new level of difficulty, etc.
As you say, Divine Mukasa shows what a difference it makes to take those youngsters on the fringes of the 1st team and concentrate on helping them.
With low recruitment, Koppen bringing in youngsters, the performance by the youngsters in the cup against Soton showing the way forward, the manager is now willing to rely on youngsters. Consequently, they are having to work with certain youngsters (Scarles, Kante) and you can see it in their performances.
Will Ajala, Orford receive enough one-on-one coaching? Maybe, hopefully but there should be no ‘maybe, hopefully’ about it with this manager & future managers.
Is that the same Franky van der Elst as played for West Ham way back?
Doubtful, he’s been dead for 9 years
Agree! But I would go back further, to Moyes
Still doing the same thing today.
Not!