West Ham’s attacking struggles mounts on Potter to find solution in summer

National World - LocalTV

West Ham’s lack of goals has become a growing concern, with their attacking struggles threatening to derail their season. With key players misfiring and creativity lacking at times, the Hammers must address their issues quickly if they want to stay competitive. So, what’s going wrong in front of goal, and how can they fix it? To break it all down, we spoke to James Jones of LondonWorld.

Transcript

00:00West Ham's lack of goals has become a growing concern, with their attacking struggles threatening

00:08to derail their season. Despite possessing quality in forward areas, they've often failed

00:15to convert chances, leaving fans frustrated and putting pressure on the manager to find

00:21a solution. With key players misfiring and creativity lacking at times, the Hammers must

00:28address their issues in the summer if they want to stay competitive for next season.

00:34So what's gone wrong in front of goal and how can they fix it? To break it all down,

00:39I spoke to James Jones of London World.

00:41Yeah, obviously, you know, we've mentioned a few times the forward line this season for

00:47West Ham has been very unlucky with injuries, but there still has been that lack of goals.

00:53You know, Fulcrook came in and you thought maybe our number nine here, he gets injured,

00:57Antonio injured, Bowen was injured for a long time and you sort of saw the impact of his

01:02injury when he came back and started scoring goals again. Do you feel that that's an issue

01:08that they've got to address in the summer and get right this time round? Obviously,

01:11they will have players coming back from injury, but you know, as you say, Evan Ferguson hasn't

01:16really quite worked and they want that number nine. I mean, they are gold dust in today's

01:20game, but they do win you so many more games than they lose you.

01:26Yeah, it's still a concern and it will be a concern in the summer to ensure that we

01:31get the right players in. But it's also, like you said, the players that are currently there,

01:37we should be doing better in front of goal. Mohamed Kourdas is having a really, really

01:41poor season by his standards. The hope was that when Mbappe left and Graham Potter came

01:46in, maybe that would invigorate a player like Mo Kourdas and give him a little bit more

01:50confidence and that hasn't happened. Jared Bowen has spent most of the season as the

01:57striker when he's far better as a right winger, far more effective as a right winger, but

02:01he's done a great job in his more central role. He's brilliant and if we can get him

02:07back into the form that he was last season, no doubt we'll be scoring a lot more goals

02:10as a club. So while he's fixed one of the issues in terms of the defensive problems

02:16that we had, he seems to have fixed that. We've now got a problem where we're not scoring

02:19enough goals. So yeah, it will be a worry for Graham Potter, but I think long term,

02:25if he can spend the money wisely in January, sorry, in the summer, then I'm quite confident

02:32that we'll have a side that can be defensively solid, but then also quite ruthless in attack.

02:38But it's going to need a lot of work and I don't think fans should be expecting it to

02:42happen straight away. But there has to be an immediate improvement on what we're seeing

02:45now.

02:46And Evan Ferguson obviously signed in the January window on loan from Brighton. He hasn't

02:53got a start yet. He's not starting games. He's only 20, of course. You said that a couple

03:00of seasons ago and seeing how good he was, it was quite tough to believe how young he

03:03was producing such fantastic performances for Brighton. What's the sort of situation

03:09with him? Why is he not starting games? Why is Potter maybe looking at him and trying

03:14to slowly get him up to speed after coming back from injury, of course, and not really

03:19hitting the heights at Brighton? On the paper, it was a great signing, but at only 20 years

03:24of age, he's got so much to learn and so much more to go. You feel he's got a lot more to

03:29give as well in terms of a Premier League career. What's the sort of situation with

03:33Evan Ferguson and how can you see him fitting in if they are to make a permanent move for

03:39him in the summer?

03:41Well, it is actually quite a surprise that he hasn't started a game for us yet. No-one

03:45expects him to walk straight into starting XI and hit the ground running, given he's

03:50had a couple of injuries. He was out earlier in the season and then by that time struggled

03:55to get game time at Brighton because Danny Welbert was playing so well. He was out of

04:00match practice, probably a little bit out of match fitness, and it's kind of just felt

04:03like, yeah, it's going to take him a couple of weeks to really get back into the swimming

04:06things and re-familiarise himself with Grandpa, who obviously gave him his debut at Brighton

04:10all those years ago. West Ham career, it just hasn't worked. If it doesn't work, I'm quite

04:18pleased that there isn't an obligation or an option to buy in the summer. We can kind

04:23of go, thanks very much, but no thanks, and send it back to Brighton and see what happens.

04:26But he's got a lot of work to do between now and the end of the season to make us want

04:32to pay what I think Brighton want £40 million for him. He's got to do a lot in the final

04:37nine games of the season for us to feel like that would be a worthwhile investment in the

04:42summer.

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