As West Ham begin a new chapter under Graham Potter, there’s cautious optimism around what the future could hold—but also an understanding that not everything will be fixed overnight. We spoke to James Jones of LondonWorld to assess Potter’s early impact and the areas he must address if he’s to build a more balanced and ambitious team in the long term.
00:00As West Ham begin a new chapter under Graham Potter, there's cautious optimism around what the future could hold,
00:10but also an understanding that not everything will be fixed overnight.
00:15Potter has brought a fresh approach, aiming to implement his trademark style of control, possession and tactical flexibility.
00:23However, early signs suggested there are still issues to resolve.
00:28Defensive fragility and consistency in the final third and adapting to a new identity remain ongoing challenges.
00:34The squad has talent, but reshaping it to suit Potter's vision will take time and careful recruitment.
00:41We spoke to James Jones of London World to assess Potter's early impact and the areas he must address if he's to build a more balanced and ambitious team in the long term.
00:53So James, looking at West Ham and obviously Falk Krug making the comments to do with the mentality throughout the camp at the moment.
01:02I mean, obviously it's not the best look when you are conceding late goals, conceding goals that turn possible wins into draws or then even losses at times as well.
01:11It's been a bit of a case of, you know, unfortunate at times for, you know, Potter's side and in terms of where they go with this mentality.
01:21He needs to turn that around definitely in the new season.
01:24But it's obviously been a bit disappointing for West Ham fans and Falk Krug's obviously come out and said that as well.
01:30So what's your sort of response to Falk Krug?
01:33How are you feeling about his comments?
01:35And are they sort of fair comments as well?
01:37Because obviously, you know, there must be something not quite clicking at the moment due to, you know, the results just turning on their head,
01:44especially so late on in games, West Ham fans must not really be able to settle until that very, very final whistle at the moment.
01:54Yeah, the last couple of months have been very, very frustrating for West Ham fans.
01:59Clearly, Nicholas Falk Krug being another one that's come out, come out after the Southampton game where, you know,
02:06on paper that should have been a relatively comfortable win coming up against what is currently the worst team in Premier League history in terms of points.
02:13The earliest team to ever be relegated from the Premier League.
02:17You go into a home game against a team like that and you kind of, nothing's guaranteed in football these days,
02:24but you kind of think, yeah, this should be a comfortable three points.
02:28And we're 1-0 up and Southampton equalised in the 93rd minute.
02:32And the game should have been out of sight by then.
02:34And Southampton deserved it as well.
02:35We weren't exactly playing very well.
02:37So when he comes out after the game and is visibly angry,
02:42upset, calls out his teammates, says that they've not got the right mentality.
02:49A lot of West Ham fans praised him for that and said,
02:52finally, we've got someone who clearly cares because all season,
02:56it's been difficult finding any kind of that passion or that hunger to win games and to do well.
03:03It's been that type of season for West Ham.
03:05So the fans were behind him.
03:06The fans were like, this is what we need.
03:08We need a player like this.
03:09We need someone with this kind of experience.
03:10Yes, he's been injured for most of the season, but that doesn't matter.
03:14The fact is, is that what he says is absolutely bang on.
03:17So there was an expectation that there'd be a reaction in the follow-up game against Brighton last weekend.
03:22And, you know, we came from behind 1-0 to be 2-1 up with five minutes to go.
03:27And we still lost the game.
03:28We conceded two goals in the 89th minute and the 93rd minute.
03:31And you lose the game.
03:33And that kind of underlined Paul Krug's comments from a week earlier,
03:37whereby the mentality clearly isn't there.
03:39The hunger's not there.
03:40Now, you know, is it to do with the fact that there's nothing to play for for West Ham?
03:45Mathematically safe.
03:47I don't think we can mathematically finish higher than 13th now.
03:50So there really isn't anything to play for.
03:55The whole feeling around the club would be a lot more positive going into the end of the season and the summer.
04:01The thought would be, OK, you know, at the moment, I think we haven't won in seven Premier League games, six Premier League games.
04:09If those goals hadn't have gone in, it would be one defeat in eight or one defeat in nine.
04:14And the whole, just generally, the whole feeling around the club would be like, OK, we've turned the corner.
04:19Let's get the season out of the way.
04:20We'll go again next season after the summer business.
04:23But instead, there's a lot of negativity.
04:25There's question marks around Graham Potter.
04:26There's question marks around a lot of the players.
04:29And it's avoidable.
04:30We've just got to keep playing for 95, 96 minutes every week and, you know, doing the basics.
04:36And it's the basics that's cost us, I think, over the last few weeks.
04:38So the fans are behind Fulker's comments, particularly after that Brighton result.
