We all knew it was going to be like this, didn’t we? But when the shockwaves of what is wrong with West Ham crash over you in one horrible match, it’s still hard to take.
Still, does it deserve yet another fans’ meltdown? Is it yet another full-on crisis - or just another day at the office for West Ham United?It was a terrible watch at Molineux, I grant you. We’ve all seen a few, but witnessing the 1-0 defeat by the Midlanders - a win that they think has averted the threat of relegation - in all its gory details left our 3,000 travelling fans just a touch distressed. To say the least.
But to find some of the plagiarising, self-important fans websites suggesting Graham Potter, just three months into the job, will be on his bike in the summer is a touch hysterical.
First things first. David Sullivan won’t be axing another manager any time soon. That would make three in less than a year plus a disruptive Technical Director, and, well, he can’t afford it. Laughing stock yes, if we are not already.
Potter was signed on a two-and-a-half year contract with the job of sorting out a West Ham squad that was European champions less than two years ago but now sits just above three of the worst promoted sides to get instant relegation from the Premier League.
He’s obviously experimenting. He had to give Luis Guilherme and Evan Ferguson league debuts sooner or later, to see whether they can hack it. Neither could.
The Brazilian lad looked in a daze at times, not tackling, not tracking, not strong enough. Ferguson, once before a bad injury a £100m player (Brighton having a laugh there) played like an Academy youngster - too weak, easily hustled out of the game and lacking in any real confidence.
That early first-half chance by Jarrod Bowen’s powerful run showed all the lack of conviction you needed to see.
Was he a mistake by Potter? Maybe the coach thought he was over the injury and nearing a comeback. Either way, he’s nowhere near it at the moment.
Mo Kudus and Jean-Clair Todibo were injured, Edson Alvarez had been away winning trophies for Mexico, Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal also just back from international duty. So Potter took the chance to try something different. He has to find out about players.
Laughably, some sites had been crying out for Ferguson and Guilherme to play, as well as Niclas Fullkrug, and when the team was announced it was denounced as a disgrace. Make your minds up, out there.
The squad at Wolves included six players who won a European trophy for us and a couple of others on the bench that night in Prague. These are not bad players, but this season of turmoil has had a draining effect on everyone - coaches, players and fans.
And I would expect a few more sides like this until the end of the season, Potter has got to see what he has ahead of a summer of reconstruction.
With the likelihood that Lukasz Fabianski, at 40, will not get a new contract, the side needs another goalkeeper, two central defenders, three midfielders—all who can be strong, aggressive and quick—plus a complete new front line depart, Bowen obviously the exception.
But, and there’s always a but. We’d all expected better than this. The wholesale lack of pace and competitiveness, the lack of confidence, were all in evidence at Wolves.
We are not creating many chances, and when you sit this deep and are so passive you must take the two or three good chances that come along. And they were all squandered in a much better second-half.
The desire was there at Everton a couple of weeks ago. It was there at Arsenal, Chelsea and Aston Villa too. The fans deserve that, surely. Potter now needs a much better display on Saturday at home to a Bournemouth, a side who play just the style we hate.
High energy, high press, high-speed on the counter and quick to punish mistakes. I’ve watched them twice of late on TV against Manchester City, hounding them to defeat in a league game and then subjecting them to a very uncomfortable first-half in the FA Cup on Sunday until class and skill showed after the break.
Basically you can’t allow them to get a grip on a game. We can and must do better in front of our own fans on Saturday.
That’s not to say that Potter should get too many more free passes as he crawls his way to the close season. It's three wins in 11 so far, and with Bournemouth and champions elect Liverpool next up we could find ourselves fourth from bottom in a blink of a fortnight.
To think some of our fans were upset that David Moyes finished as low as ninth last season. Ninth to 17th, that’s about £1.7m merit money per place, a loss of £13.6m to Sullivan’s kitty and the board are already moaning over the loss of cash that comes from European competition.
Now I’ve little doubt that Potter can turn this around. It’s just not too obvious at the moment. He’s a bright, organised, respected coach and for me a massive improvement on Julen Lopetegui, who seemed to bring chaos, confusion, uncertainty and a clear lack of direction.
Potter deserves to stamp his own image on the squad this summer. His current squad was put together by four previous managers, and looking at the Molineux performance it's in need of major surgery in every department.
I wanted and approved of Potter’s appointment, but wasn't blind to the criticisms at Brighton. Namely that he was too defensive, despite an image of producing progressive football. He was in charge of 135 games there: 42 wins, 46 draws and 47 defeats. A win ratio of 31 per cent and final positions of 15,16 and nine.
His possession average in that spell of three seasons was 51, 50 and 54, it’s about the same at West Ham. So if you are looking for a dramatic change to the style of football West Ham fans crave you are going to be disappointed, if you are not already.
But let’s give the guy a chance. You would say it’s not his players, he’s patching up a persistently injured squad, has to make do with what he has, which lacks pace and guile in midfield and a front line strikers and wide men that - Bowen apart - is woefully inadequate.
He’s switching from a back line of five defenders regularly to four with an over-reliance on mistake-ridden Dinos Mavropanos, and the need to frequently use Aaron Cresswell in a central three, behind a midfield that lacks pace and is constantly over-run by athletic, fast opponents.
The job Potter has got is massive, and there’s no way any sensible board will want to change the direction of traffic now. There are problems, we don’t have a technical/football director. All clubs have them now, and so should we. At the moment, Sullivan is virtually the de facto Director of Football so much derided.
Potter has assembled his own team backstage, with Kyle Macauley his long standing recruitment man. I’m told he is more of a player analysis guy, and that’s not the role that Steidten had. There was no chance of getting Dan Ashworth, Potter’s colleague at Brighton, the ex-Manchester United guy is heading back to the FA. We couldn’t afford him anyway, given the currently state of our finances.
We are a cash flow club, dependant on Sky money and our own generated revenue. There will no doubt be another of those off-season payday loans and anything we can raise from transfers. Looking at the squad at Wolves, 12/13 of those could be on their way in the summer.
That’s the task facing Potter. Frankly I can’t see us having the ability to transform a squad that quickly, even if there are few youngsters who could follow Ollie Scarles into the senior squad.
But as we know, you win nothing with kids. Potter will need experience and quality, so let’s just get these final eight games out of the world. Potter will be here next season.
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