In case anyone failed to notice, Wolverhampton Wanderers made it five wins on the bounce with a 1-0 victory against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
It doesn’t seem so long ago that West Ham faced Wolves earlier this season in a game labelled ‘El Sackico’, as Julen Lopetegui and Gary O’Neil battled to save their jobs.
The Hammers won the game 2-1 with goals from Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen, and a whopping 19 shots each, as both managers attempted to save their positions.
In the end, both head coaches would go on to be replaced — but what has happened thereafter hasn’t been good for West Ham. Because whilst the team in claret and blue might have won the battle, Wolves undoubtedly won the war.
When Graham Potter took over at the London Stadium, West Ham were level on points with Manchester United and above Wolves, Everton, and Crystal Palace.
Wanderers were level with Ipswich Town on 16 points and a long way behind the Hammers, who at the time were looking upwards after changing manager.
Wolves also decided to roll the dice and appointed former Porto, 1860 Munich, and Corinthians manager Vítor Pereira — and the difference has been stark. Pereira has massively improved his team of inherited players, while West Ham have dropped like a stone.
Pereira has managed 14 clubs in 20 years and whilst he is every inch the journeyman, he has built a reputation as an outstanding tactician.
The difference in impact between Potter and Pereira is so great that it doesn’t really warrant comparison. The 56-year-old looks to be a capable manager with highly effective tactics, which he can concisely convey to his new players.
As a friend asked me yesterday: “Why didn’t West Ham get the Wolves guy?”
My answer… West Ham wouldn’t have even known who he was.
Oh how wise you are after the fact and yet even with access to “highly placed sources” so clueless the rest of the time. West Ham could also have chosen Amorim, would he have been better than Potter as well?
Difference being wolves have 2 great fowards… and younger runners…we have dads army.and no recognised forwards . Can’t count our new andy carol.and side note walker Peters…was head and shoulders. Above any left back.we have had for years after being lambasted by this site ,as not good enough..
Paqueta , Kudus , Bowen and Fulkrug are all proven brilliant offensive players , however if Potter stops playing offensive tactics or worse subs them all for defenders Westham are going to fail every time as proven in the last few games . We expect some mistakes within what should be an upward learning curve , but it’s obvious that Potter’s out of his depth at Westham as he was at Chelsea . Westham need to cut their losses before another bad season becomes a catastrophe next season with relegation and the many years that Westham would be set back . Do Westham need to be relegated to get rid of Sullivan’s disastrous meddling in football matters ?
It’s not enough to have attacking players like Paqueta, Kudus, Bowen and Füllkrug if you have midfielders with slow passing play who don’t adapt to the system, want to leave the club, and lack motivation
What’s the point of “what if”. You might as well say if Sullivan had delayed offering Moyes a new contract until the end of last season, we would still be in Europe and relegation would not be in the discussion at all
As a Wolves fan I don’t understand why your owners don’t seem to understand that you guys are obsessed with attractive attacking football. This is not a criticism, but it seems to me that West Ham and Spurs fans are happy to lose games as long as they attack and play good football. For us Lopetegui was a great manager but was always going to be a nightmare at West Ham as he builds from the back. I see Potter as a methodical plodder that you guys won’t have enough patience with. You really do have a problem with your owners….
No shit sherlock!!!
Against Wolves, Evan Ferguson missed a sitter early in the match. Since his previous injury, he hasn’t quite been himself. I believe the match would have ended differently if that chance had been taken.
The difference is Wolves have forwards who can score and a midfield that is quick and work hard, we have nither if you take Bowen and Kudus out of the equation!