107 minutes it took for the final whistle to be blown. West Ham’s last home game of the season descended into bad tempered chaos as the yellow card was flourished again and again – I lost count: Hammers players finally – finally you understand after about 75 minutes of limp acquiescence – got some spirit.
Where was that spirit in the first 75 minutes? The truth seemed clear. If Potter had started with the team that was on the pitch for the last fifteen minutes of normal time then the fans might have felt they’d had value for money. And West Ham might have won.
As it was, West Ham were lethargic, slow, lazy, ponderous cautious– choose the words yourself, the game was on Sky for all to see in its glory.
The Hammers played the first seventy five minutes like they had a nine-nil cushion from a non-existent first leg. Nobody cared.
Until Jarrod Bowen produced a true ‘worldie’ to bring the home side back into the game, West Ham were an apathetic shadow of a home side fighting for points. Even the manager couldn’t raise himself enough to change the side against a pacy, aggressive Forest side who ran rings round the Irons in the first half.
I have made it a rule not to write these reports whilst I’m angry – but this week I don’t care. Dreadful . Why it took 20 minutes into the second half to change it: I’ll never understand. Potter picked a negative dull dreary side who produced rubbish football. It should have been changed at half time.
There was a positive – which I’ll share later but for now – I’m glad I didn’t go to London Stadium for THAT. Hopefully they cancel the player ‘walk around’ – it’ll be an empty stadium which is a fitting footnote to a terrible season I would like to forget.
Spot on marked improvement after subs were mad
Lopetegui produced disasters but got us 23 points. Mr. Nice with same players against same teams has improved the defense, but will at best make 20 points. Is being nice enough?
Everyone is rightly depressed but imagine this team starting today
Areola
Soufal. Tossido. Kilman. Wan biska
Ward prowse Paqueta
Kudos
Bowen Fulkreg. Guildnem
We do have good players but need a manager who isn’t afraid to lose . Just like Southgate always was and we have his twin as our manager.
Brady should resign as she recommended Pottter .
But let’s all be honest and last Jan , probably like me , everyone was pleased we sacked Lopitgo and hired potter !
He was meant to be a more attack minded manager .
It simply hasnt worked and won’t work …. He needs to be fired . . I don’t blame Sullivan . It simply hasn’t worked and potter needs to go . All clubs make mistakes . 2 years ago we won a European trophy .
And there lies the route of our decline ….. a certain Declan Rice leaving . There’s the legs and engine room we all yearn for … quite simply he ran our midfield , stopped so many through balls … the list goes on …..
it’s not all doom and gloom … but we do need to get rid of Potter
Agree that Declan has been a huge loss.
Can’t blame Potter for that or for he’s had to work with.
We’ll see next season where WHU and Potter are.
If Steidten had picked Lopetigui or Potter as the manager to take the club forward he would have rightfully got the blame for this shambles and been sacked. Instead he was sacked because of perceived bad signings which may or may not still work out as being inspired signings.
Instead the person responsible for hiring the managers as well as being ultimately responsible for many of the player signings is still here and is unlikely to be accountable for anything let alone handing over the reigns of the club to whom has some actual real professional football knowledge.
Unfortunately I believe that whoever is in charge of the football side of things will have been picked because they are cheap and anyway have one hand shackled behind their back.
The truth is that there is something VERY wrong with our club. And the thing that is the worst of that is the players. We can’t blame it all on three different managers; they may not have been up to the standard required – & that played its part – but it is the players who are simply not bothering to get stuck in until the game is lost who are to blame for our dismal results. I don’t know if we can take the risk, but we should get rid of all of the current squad – with the exception of Bowen, Wann Bissaka, Scarles, Summerville & Guilherme – & start again with some effective new signings & five or six of our youth players (we might have to keep a few of our underperformers in order to bulk up the squad). It cannot be a coincidence that the team have been crap under anll of our last three managers; it must be largely down to the players. So, replace them as best we can.
I was on my way to the match today when the team sheet came through. I thought I know what is going to happen. We will gift them an early goal , create very little then come to life in the last 15 minutes when Potter gives up playing a back five with three defensive midfielders.
So I went home . A wise decision it would seem . Get Potter out of our club !
Do you have the winning numbers for next weeks Euro Lottery, please.
Potter needs to change his ways or get out. With no threat of relegation ,Potter has the ideal opportunity to send out an attacking line up. The players we have are good enough to win games, but are held up with Potters defence minded
tactics. We will struggle against Ipswich playing like this and will end up in another sad loss. It’s proving to be another managerial cock up.
We are getting done week in week out no centre back Kilman not commanding our box No recognized c forward just 2 of the basics before we even start looking to put things right Miles off it
I know these aren’t Potters players and a lot of them are unplayably bad but tactics and selections are so poor unless we play Man U every week we are going to lose. JWP, Soucek and Rodriguez / Alvarez is very similar to not having a midfield. No centre forward. Kudus only plays when he fancies it or to impress a big club. Just scattergun Lopetegui style anarchy. How dies he suddenly change everything with different players next season?
If Lopetegui had performed as Potter has since January, everybody would asking to have him dismissed right now. And yet the club seems to be ready to offer the same gruel next year. This club is turning into a bad farce. There are plenty of good coaches out there. Ask Forest.
Two points.
1. The performances under Potter are better than 90% of Loopy’s.
2. Plenty of ‘good’ coaches, but how many elite coaches?
Nuno was good at Spurs…. err NOT! The coach/manager are not the real issue.
Hi B,
Good points, but elite coaches would never want to come to West Ham. Why would they? The money would not match their expectations and the club is a mess. And you don’t have to be an elite coach to do reasonably well . Look at Fulham.
And if you think that Potter’s tactics have nothing to do with it, I have a bridge to sell you in New York. Reasonable price. Just one previous owner. 😉
The last two home games we have conceded due to individual errors, and going a goal down so early is never going to get the fans are your side.
Potter should have made three changes at half time, not waiting until just after the hour, that may well have seen a much different second half.
However, the refereeing was once again very poor, buying every time their players threw themselves to the ground, and their continual time wasting!
A frustrating end to the season at home, just hope we can get a win next week!
Think Jamie Carragher finally got it when he said “West Ham fans are not angry they are just bored”.
I was nigh on certain that what happened was what was going to happen so I went to a car show instead, as car shows go it was a decent one towards the top of the league and looking lively.
Looks like I made the right choice.
Wake up Sullivan there’s plenty of other things people can do instead, our lives are not devoid of other things.
Difficult to pick out any positives. But yet again Bowen produces.
Paq was a class above
The ref was…..
And the more I see of Guilermo, the more I want to see.
Very concerned about Potter.
What has happened to my W ham unrecognisable No passion no flair no care no idea no identity We fans can see it why cant you We used to go to games excited expectant full of hope Your killing us with boredom CANT CARRY ON LIKE THIS
Starting with a balanced and strongest starting 11 will go someway to having a better first 75 minutes, i.e. the majority of the game. Strikers on the bench and our best player out of position week after week and so on. Soucek and JWP in the middle. Great idea, it’s bound to work at some point.
I was supposed to go today but ended up in a & e instead.
Don’t know which one was worse!
Never going to be easy to get a tune out of a team when many players already know they are not part of the rebuild thats coming.Agree entirely that we have been horrendous in nearly every first half this season and the players only seem to get motivated when they are behind and up against it.It has been a recurring problem and not been solved by those in charge.Huge changing of the guard surely to come this Summer.Its been a horrible.painful season and one to forget.
“the players only seem to get motivated when they are behind and up against it”
And yet, statistics suggest West Ham have not won a single game this season when they’ve gone a goal down.
If someone had told me, following Loopy Lopetegui’s humiliating, abject failure at our club, that the man chosen to replace him would end the season with a worse record than his predecessor, I would have laughed in their face.
Yet this is what we are faced with. Boring mediocrity. Pals say to me, but we aren’t shipping as many goals! But what comfort is that?
We have to watch sidewards and backwards passing, no heart, no urgency, just so we can lose by the odd goal or two instead of three.
By almost any metric we have gone backwards. I’m sick of it.