West Ham United are building for future progress under Graham Potter, focusing on a long-term vision that blends youth development with an attractive style of play.
With backing from the board and a clear commitment to sustainable growth, West Ham aim to establish themselves as consistent European contenders while evolving their identity on and off the pitch.
With backing from the board and a clear commitment to sustainable growth, West Ham aim to establish themselves as consistent European contenders while evolving their identity on and off the pitch.
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00:00Graham Potter's tenure at West Ham has been a topic of much debate as he navigates the
00:08challenges of managing the club. While there have been moments of promise, the team's consistency
00:13and tactical approach remain areas for slight improvement. Potter has shown a solid understanding
00:19of the squad's potential, but questions linger about his ability to fully harness their attacking
00:24options while maintaining a robust defensive set-up. I spoke to James Jones of London World
00:31to get insights into Potter's current strategy and what he could do to elevate West Ham's
00:36performance in the coming months.
00:42So James, looking at Graham Potter and his tenure in charge so far, I know I've obviously
00:47touched on it a few times and said how tough it is to adapt, especially when you come in
00:51mid-season. A lot of changes, a lot of players maybe used to the former manager and obviously
00:56Moyes was there for a number of years, obviously coming back as well, and the success having
01:01the European trophy as well. So quite a difficult spot to come into for Graham Potter. So let's
01:07look at what's changed the most so far in terms of him coming in and tactical ability,
01:14etc. In Lopetegui's time, you said there wasn't much of an identity and Potter had to make
01:20sure he turned that around fairly quickly. I mean, it seems like he sort of has done.
01:25Yeah, I think that's the key thing that Graham Potter's done since he arrived at the club,
01:31it just feels like the players are all on the same page again. For large periods of
01:36Lopetegui's very short time at the club, there were games when it looked like it clicked
01:41and it was like, brilliant, we're now moving in the right direction. But the majority of
01:45the games were very, very disjointed. The midfield was so sort of unbalanced, the players
01:52being pulled out of position and being found out. You know, Ambosaka is a key example of
01:57that as a player that was regularly the fall guy for defeats and poor performances because
02:02he was always being found out of position because of the role that he's been asked to
02:05play, which just wasn't suiting his talent. So what Potter had to do was come in and really
02:16almost start again, go back to basics and he's done that. There hasn't been a great deal of
02:22change tactically as such, it's just ensuring that the players within those tactics in terms
02:27of formation, the players are doing the things that they're good at and they're capable of
02:32doing. And they're not being asked to play that position or play a certain role that kind
02:38of doesn't really suit their attributes. And that's really the key thing that he's done.
02:42But you know, we've heard word after the Leicester win that just the general morale within
02:50the dressing room is just a lot better and the players are all on the same page. The
02:54players clearly understand what Potter wants to do long term, not just short term, but
02:59long term and in the future. And they've bought into it and they agree with it and
03:03they're excited and want to play for him. And I think what we're seeing now, yes, there
03:07have been some disappointing results on the ground, Potter, but that's to be expected
03:11when you come in mid-season to a team that is massively underachieving, hasn't been
03:16performing well consistently enough. And now we're starting to see the results, back-to-back
03:20wins for the first time this season. And there is a feeling now that we are finally on the
03:27road to perhaps getting back to where we should be in terms of picking up the results and
03:32the wins that we should be picking up.
03:35Yeah, and obviously it's quite tough to judge him after being in for not that long so far.
03:43But is there any areas specifically that you can see that they might need a bit of improvement
03:47on, whether that's short term, long term, looking ahead to next season and achieving
03:52those big ambitions?
03:54Well, there's still large question marks over the striker position. Obviously, we brought
03:58in Evan Ferguson in the summer, sorry, in the winter. He's still really getting up to
04:03speed, only had three appearances off the bench. So it's difficult to really judge him
04:09and judge what he can do, whether one of those is Evan Ferguson, whether he'd make that one
04:14permanent or not. Because we need Jarrah Brown playing out wide and he can't continue to
04:19play through the middle. He's far more effective as a right winger than he is a striker. He
04:23still does well as a striker.
04:25Just reviewing the spine of a team. The rest of the team kind of speaks for itself. There's
04:29a lot of talent there. There's just a few little areas of the squad where we've got
04:35players that can do a job now, but long term, you probably want someone that sort of better
04:39fits that mold of player that grandpa wants.