Graham Potter has admitted West Ham were ‘nowhere near’ where he wanted them to be following the abysmal first-half performance against Brentford.
If we’re honest – and I’m sure Potter would agree – the Hammers were lucky to go in at half-time only 1-0 down.
Possibly the worst part of being outclassed by Thomas Frank’s team at the London Stadium was the fact that Potter had just enjoyed an uninterrupted ten days of training. It was really the first time that the new Hammers gaffer had a decent squad and enough sessions at Rush Green to start to translate his ideas to the team – and we looked worse.
Potter himself seemed unimpressed, saying: “We were nowhere near the level we want to be, and the only thing we can do is learn from that and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The new manager is probably not the type to go flying off the handle and chucking tea cups around the dressing room, but the loss was sobering – possibly due to the fact that Potter’s arrival had given fans a glimmer of hope that things were about to improve. But it’s hard to look up the table and find a club worse than us.
I do wonder if the task ahead for the new management team is bigger than they imagined, but there is much work to do. Fortunately, it would seem that Potter would agree
I think potter is a good manager and will turn it around . The thing is it looked to me that several players didn’t look like they were bothered . Not enough passion , hard work aggression , they need to work harder as a team can’t have lack of effort . Potter will learn who to ship out . More fight lads I think we can do it with potter ⚒
For me it’s the inconsistency that annoys me. We played well against Villa and Chelsea unlucky not to get more out of those games than we ended up with. These games were dovetailed by Palace and Brentford which were abysmal. All I would like to see at the moment is consistently playing as we did against Villa and Chelsea, even if the results don’t go the right way, I believe in time they will.
One of the main criticisms from Brighton and Chelsea fans was he continually tinkers with the personnel and the system, trying to out smart to opposition but it often fails. We have come from Moyes who was the complete opposite we don’t want that again but somewhere in between would be good.
I am reluctant to get on the new managers back, but I agree with Saul we can’t blame everything on the players Potter has to take responsibility. I’m sure he has quite a bit of leeway with most of us.
It is rather typical of us though, we played well against Chelsea but still lost, we should have saved that performance for Brentford and we may have won. I bet we play well against Arsenal next week and lose, it has always been that way 😊⚒️⚒️
Potter was tactically defeated by Thomas Frank .The first half looked like men against boys and the blame must largely fall on the coach for playing the wrong players in the wrong positions in the wrong tactical formation . A bunch of crappy players can perform well as a team , just look at Everton under Moyes . Historically , Potter takes a long time to get his teams winning and so expect more of the same this season and hope that his tactics are still current in the Premier League .
“I do wonder if the task ahead for the new management team is bigger than they imagined, but there is much work to do”.
Unless the 11 on the pitch have become poor players overnight, which they clearly haven’t, then this ‘task’ that they have is entirely fictional. Yesterday’s debacle was entirely due to the management, not the players at their disposal. Why wasn’t Bowen played up front, allowing Kudus to play on the left and have someone in the box to cross to? Paqueta as a false 9 works if he has players around him but yesterday he was isolated. Soucek wasted as a player alongside Alvarez and then taken off at half time instead of pushed forward when we needed his presence in the box alongside Ferguson. Yes, everyone’s an armchair manager. But yesterday was shocking and no way is that to do with the players in the squad.
under Moyes the players did the same under Loppy they did as well and now under Potter…at what point do the players get the blame? just like at manure and the way they go through managers because its there fault and yet the same players still there and the same old problems arise funny that
You have a point though Pat. Maybe the best managers look at the fight and energy players bring to a team, as well as talent, skill,… etc.?
The players didn’t do the same under Moyes at all; they performed their socks off to finish 6th and 7th. And that was a weaker squad than we have now. Moyes’ tactical inflexibility and indecision when buying players cost us eventually. Certainly wasn’t the players.
Along the same lines, re. manager, I think now is not the time to be tinkering with the team setup. Get the right players in their best positions and go from there, otherwise you have new problems to sort out during each week of training. First get basic ideas & structure working. including trust/familiarity between players, teamwork & team spirit and fix specifics – say getting wingbacks/midfield interplay ticking over (just supposing). This is a bedding-in time, especially for this whu team who are recently always in flux. You can tinker later, or even next season.
What I mention about basic ideas & structure, this is what I thought GP was achieving and we were already starting to see the improvements on the pitch. Scarles has looked promising, so keep him in (just maybe not for 90 mins) and carry on building from there. Weird. Anyhow good luck to GP, but am not sure what to expect next week that’s for sure. Fingers (and hammers) crossed.