Graham Potter and the Creative Conundrum: West Ham 0-2 Crystal Palace
New West Ham United boss Graham Potter may have just realised the enormity of the challenge awaiting him at the London Stadium.
Against Crystal Palace, the Hammers were utterly woeful, fully deserving their 2-0 defeat.
There is some mitigation for Potter. Heâs inherited a depleted squad, one of the oldest in the Premier League, currently grappling with an injury crisis. Fixture congestion, limited time on the training pitch, and the hangover from 12 months of decline before his arrival have also compounded the difficulties.
That said, West Ham have managed just three shots on target in their last two Premier League matches, both played at home. This worrying statistic isnât likely to improve as long as the midfield remains overly reliant on destroyers rather than creators.
I was surprised to see Carlos Soler omitted from the starting lineup against Crystal Palace, particularly after already sensing the team lacked creativity in the previous win over Fulham. Removing another technical player only exacerbated the problem.
Potter undoubtedly has a tough task ahead. The pragmatist in him has rightly focused on improving a leaky defence, and in fairness, he has made progress. A heavier defeat would likely have occurred under former manager Julen Lopetegui.
However, the team showed very little attacking threat, which allowed Crystal Palace to pursue the win without much fear of conceding.
This defeat will provide plenty of food for thought for the new Irons manager. While Potter is renowned for his technical and attacking football, he may have concluded he lacks the players to implement his preferred system. Unfortunately, it also seems he doesnât have the personnel to sit back and defend effectively either.
If there is one player I would get rid of now itâs Mohammad kudus what a useless player , he is not interested to play for west ham he canât pass a defender anymoreâŚ. Sell him now and get Duran and ansu fati, bye bye kudus and letâs see what you do for any team , Summerville and Guillerme are better than him
Soler had a kick and was doubtful I understood
I wasnât there today so difficult to comment. I donât want to knock the new guy because he has been left a really difficult job by the previous 2 managers our chairman and TS poor buys. But I wouldnât describe Potters style as attacking from his past. He has many decent attributes and hope he develops an attacking mentality but he hasnât been so before
On todayâs performance the ten point lead we have over the relegation deadbeats may not be enough. Sullivan has got to help Potter get reinforcements in before the transfer window closes.
Good summary Gonzo and agree with you. Graham gave a very honest interview after the game and highlighted the need for improvements and support. Itâs interesting to see that Palace were winless until the end of October but have since improved under Glasner after he joined in February last year and was able to implement his ideas.
I do think that the players also need to step up and take more responsibility. Most are internationals yet we only had 3 shots on target against Fulham and zero shots on target today. This is unacceptable for any team particularly at Premiership level. Yes we have most of our strikers injured, but surely we should still be creating more chances especially when we still have players such as Soler, Kudus and Paqueta.
Self discipline must be improved and Alvarez and Mavrapanos nearly led to us being down to 9 men. This happens far too often leading to suspensions and weakened sides letting down the manager and team.
I can only hope todayâs defeat will force Sullivan to act quickly to back the new manager in the transfer market and bring in the players who Potter has identified to rebuild his team.
He new what he had got before today, and today we never looked like winning due to no focal point up front. How ever the officials weren’t great either. Palace player kicked the ball away just before a West ham free kick, no booking, Will Hughes fouling everyone all over the pitch but no booking just got spoken to. Last game when under pressure corner was given when it never was, this game as we start to build pressure a corner not given when it was obvious it was. We weren’t good today but also not getting he rub of the green from the officials!
It is notable that we stifled Palace in the first half at the cost of no threat at all posed by us. We conceded in the second half after we made substitutions designed to increase our threat.
As the headlines read:
”Potter will fail if recruitment let him down”
No more to be said.
I take slight issue with your reflection of the defending today.
How many clear chances did Palace create today?
Both goals came from counter-attacks, and neither really looked like a certain goal until they were.
Fabs has been brilliant at times, but he will look at all 4 goals conceded this week and feel he ought to have done better. I certainly cannot defend his penalty today!
Midfield creativity is one thing, but if you have no one to play the ball up to, the midfield/defenders will have to pass sideways/backwards.
Palace have a really good coach in Oliver Glasner, he out-witted GP today.