West Ham’s season has been a rollercoaster, with major changes shaking up the club. From player departures to inconsistent form, the Hammers have struggled to find stability. Now, all eyes are on Graham Potter, the man tasked with turning things around.
With European ambitions slipping away, Potter must rebuild confidence, tighten the defense, and get the attack firing again. Can he bring West Ham back on track, or is a bigger rebuild needed?
Our sports team are breaking down the key changes this season and what Potter must do to revive the Hammers.
With European ambitions slipping away, Potter must rebuild confidence, tighten the defense, and get the attack firing again. Can he bring West Ham back on track, or is a bigger rebuild needed?
Our sports team are breaking down the key changes this season and what Potter must do to revive the Hammers.
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SportsTranscript
00:00So, James, looking at West Ham and their season so far, it's been a bit of a strange season
00:09in terms of how West Ham fans might look back at this one. Obviously, so much success over
00:14the last couple of seasons, the back end of David Moyes' tenure. Then they depart ways
00:19with him, bringing in Julian Opetegui, a manager who has had incredible experience at some
00:25incredible jobs, managerial-wise, in the likes of Spain and Real Madrid. Obviously, you know,
00:31Kep Wolves up in the Premier League as well. So, he had been in the Premier League prior
00:36and clearly wanted to continue and test himself at a bit of a higher level with more of a
00:41budget to work with. That didn't work out. How do you sort of, you know, and obviously
00:45Graeme Potter comes in, we'll get to Potter, but how do West Ham fans sort of review this
00:49season so far and what it's presented? Because it's maybe not gone 100 per cent to plan.
00:57That's an understatement. I think a lot of fans towards the end of David Moyes' time
01:02were feeling like they wanted something new, they wanted something different. They were
01:08fully appreciative of what Moyes had achieved, beyond anyone's wildest dreams, what he did
01:14at the club. But towards the end, that second half of last season, there were cracks beginning
01:19to show in David Moyes' West Ham. It just felt like we want a nicer style of football.
01:26We want to be able to go to games and still get the results, but then kind of also be
01:31entertained. We were no longer being entertained.
01:35And the Lopetegui appointment baffled a lot of fans. Yes, he has pedigree. He won the
01:42Europa League with Sevilla, he's managed Real Madrid, managed Spain, as you said, Kep Wolves
01:47up, but he kind of didn't fit the profile that a lot of fans really expected the club
01:53to go for when it comes to moving away from what we were expecting and what we were getting
02:00under David Moyes. But there were a lot of fans that were going, OK, he's not really
02:04the profile, but let's just see how he gets on. Let's give him a chance.
02:08He even said before he was appointed in an interview somewhere that he felt like he had
02:12unfinished business in the Premier League after the way that he'd left Wolves. So I
02:17was clinging on to that going, OK, well, if he feels like he's got unfinished business,
02:21he's going to hopefully hit the ground running and he's going to be a success. And it just
02:25didn't work. And within three or four games, it was very obvious that he wasn't the right
02:28fit. He spent around 150 million on some good players. One or two players are still question
02:34marks over, but the majority of that business was very good. And it just didn't work. And
02:40I think the club left it too long, probably could have made a change a month or two before
02:46they eventually did. But there were just times when we didn't really understand what the
02:51tactics were. We didn't really understand. You could tell the players didn't really understand
02:56what they were doing half the time. Aaron Wan-Bissaka was being deployed as a right
03:01winger half the time, even though he's most known for his defensive work, his defensive
03:06ability. And he was being played well up the pitch, way too far, being caught out of
03:11position. And it just felt like there wasn't any identity. Now, under David Moyes, we had
03:16an identity and it was an identity that we no longer wanted. We were happy for it for
03:21a while. We were happy to be known as the team that were very defensive and very conservative
03:25and 10 men beyond the ball and beat teams on the counter attack. And it worked for a
03:30period of time. We wanted a more attractive identity. And we went from that to then not
03:36having any identity at all. So it was a frustrating start to the season, given the expectations
03:42at West Ham, especially amongst the fan base, is so much different now after what David
03:45Moyes achieved. It needed a manager to come in and really grab the ball by the horns and
03:51really take the club where the fans and where the club really feel as it should be.
03:55Well, first and foremost, after four games of Gran Potter being in charge, we've got
04:01an identity. Now, it's not the identity that we're going to have in a year's time under
04:05Gran Potter, but he's come in and we've got... There's very clear roles and responsibilities
04:11for the players. There's very clear tactics against Aston Villa in the Premier League
04:15on Sunday evening. Yes, he hasn't got a striker. He's got a makeshift defence because of injury
04:21problems. He's kind of come in and already been faced with a lot of problems. But the
04:26team played really, really well and probably deserved to win the game in the second half.