Much like Bill Clinton’s strategist who yelled ‘it’s the economy, stupid” as the big reminder of what needed focus ahead of the ’92 election, I found myself wanting to message Graham Potter with a similar reminder:” Its the midfield, stupid”.
So far the Irons have a new goal keeper (excellent), new left and right wing backs (good) and a new striker (no comment).
New midfield? Nada.
Freddie Potts in the first half at least offered Alvarez-type bite and looks as if he will be an improvement but he’s still learning his craft.
You’d hope Potter knows it, but after four signings the same midfield structural problems remain and were only too evident when the Manager made his second half substitutions. The terrible trio of JWP, Soucek and Rodriguez were back and immediately Lille started to play straight through the middle.
The pace was so slow that at one stage, Fullkrug, tackling back actually overtook Rodriguez and Soucek in pursuit of the ball. I kid you not.
James Ward-Prowse is being selected on reputation alone and flatters to deceive as a play-making midfielder – but fails to move either himself or the ball fast enough. As one far cleverer fan than I put it on the forum I was plugged into: JWP=Just Walking Pace.
West Ham desperately need a driving, fast, aggressive midfield ball player, as was painfully evident all of last season as we watched in frustration, shouting ad infinitum at our TV screens.
Without a new midfield recruit, preferably two, and the disbanding of the ‘midfield that cannot run’, expecting a different outcome from the same personnel becomes an ultimate exercise in football insanity.
They’ve got to go. Time for Potter to get ruthless.
Do you think Summerville could fill JWP’s role?
Potter is scared of being right and wrong at the same time. He took the youth on tour,great,used them,great and then left them out when they played better than his stooges, JWP,Soucek and worst of all Rodrigues .It makes no sense to use these 3 all the time and not go with alternatives.He saw last season that doing this alienates the fans and we carry on be boring and losing. All the positives from the US tour have vanished as he will 100% use JWP and Soucek against Sunderland.Both should be on the bench. Why he didn’t try Potts and Alvarez together,then change it if isn’t working. but it wasn’t working yesterday and he changed nothing.
There are some glaring problems with the team today .
Kilman is not a premiereship centre back . He was dire last season and continues to be a liability . He makes the other centre backs look worse than they really are . He has little positional accumen , can’t jump to head the ball , offers nothing in attack at set pieces and is brushed aside easily by opposition forwards . Ward Prowse was a one trick pony a few years back . Now he is only fit for the knackers yard . Awful . The midfield is still lacking in pace and a General pulling the strings and organising things . It is a bunch oh headless chickens with no pace or vision . Still a way to go but showing some signs of improvement .
Obvious to a blind man midfield needed overhauling as a priority this Summer, but it’s West Ham we’re talking about. We’re going to judge Potter on what Sullivan has allowed him to do ( nothing ! ) and that’s not right. Chucking a load of kids in is not the answer, they need blooding gradually and some won’t make the grade. This is the Prem’ we’re talking about not the Championship or League one.
Unless a few miracles happen in the transfer market we’re bang in trouble.
Potter will probably be sacked as another Sullivan scapegoat, and the [edit] will employ another out of work second hand manager.
Been said numerous times, but unless the [edit]leaves these shores club will never progress.
100% agree Martin, It’s like Groundhog Day, Every other club, fan, pundit and journalist knows our midfield cannot run and immediately exploits this. Look at yesterday’s game as soon as the changes were made at halftime Lille played straight through us and were in on goal, yet Potter continues to pick these same players expecting a different result. When Fullkrug raced back to defend and actually overtook Soucek and Rodriguez it highlights just how weak we are. Side to side slow then back to the keeper every time just invites pressure and the high press and drives us mad. We are not Liverpool or Arsenal and do not have the ability and certainly not with Areola in goal to play out from the back coupled with his poor distribution, so teams know only too well how to set up against us. Freddie shows real promise, and the signings of Mads and Diouf are very positive, but we must drop Soucek, Rodriguez and JWP and bring in real quality to avoid a repeat of last season.
On another note why was Calum Marshall not even in the squad yesterday despite being at the game?
I’m 75 years old, and without a shadow of doubt beat soucek, rodrigues, ward-prowse in a 50 yard sprint
But does Potter have it in him? If not, they will cost him his job.
What’s wrong with George Earthy in midfield? And where is Olly?
Sullivan will not allow him to be ruthless.
Without backing Potter will fail.
Freebies are not the answer
I quite agree
We need Fernandez,Elliott and I would also like to see Mcatee in an exchange if city come in for Paqueta
Forget Barnes,Luiz,Sterling and Grealish they have not been good for the clubs they are at, so what would they do for us?
Martin – I wasn’t at the game today but we all know the following.
West Ham need. A 10 ten .
But please tell the readers on this site this !!!
Midfielders are all very different .
We have Freddie Potts holding ( Rodrigues or Alverez to cover ) no 8 is where parquet should play ( ward prowse is a good squad player) . And we need a no 10 !
Simple as that !!!
Every fan, journalist, analyst and various others said our midfield was poor last season. We need probably two midfielders. I don’t think Potts is ready to be thrown in at the deep end and needs slowly introducing into the side. If that was our biggest problem last season why wasn’t it the position we addressed first? I don’t understand the logic here at all. Chances are we will not have anyone new for the Sunderland game and you can’t help but think that is a huge mistake by us.
Antonio, Kudus, Ings, Soler, Ferguson have all departed.
From an attacking point of view they are replaced by Wilson and Cummings. Ok maybe we can add Marshall to that, but he wasn’t even a sub today.
Someone please tell me if that stacks up?
Then in midfield, we’ll, apart from Potts, nothing has changed!!
Ok we have sorted goalkeeper and wingback positions. I’m happy with what we have defensively.
But we are still short of 2x quality players….. one box to box fast dynamic midfielder…..and one striker under the age of 23 with pace and promise!!
2 weeks is it til the window closes? Coyi
I don’t think JWP is even a squad player, he’s slow not defensive and not creative. He’s carried for corners and free kicks we never score from. Says everything that Moyes is not interested in signing him when he could at nowhere near £30m.
Rodriguez is worse.
I like Soucek but he is nowhere near the player that first arrived and to accommodate his occasional goals needs a lot more energy and skill around him.
If Potter is serious all three cannot start and only Soucek is a possible sub.
If the midfield issue of zero pace and energy is not addressed we will really struggle again this season and Potter will lose his job. Its inevitable. Just hope its not Sullivan preventing us investing in this area due to his insistence of first selling for fees no one will pay for the deadwood midfielders?