Graham Potter limps on but West Ham struggles have already revealed glaring issue | OneFootball

So it turns out the West Ham fans were wrong. “Sacked in the morning,” they chanted to Graham Potter during Saturday’s home defeat to Crystal Palace. But he has made it past the weekend. He could limp on into next midweek. Perhaps, in a symbolic move, the final blow will be struck by Everton and David Moyes, the man whose legacy at West Ham has been squandered by his successors and who, of the Hammers’ last five managerial appointments, is the only two to succeed.

For Potter, with the spectre of Nuno Espirito Santo, Slaven Bilic and Gary O’Neil, and with some of the supporters turning on him and nearly all in revolt against the board, it must feel only a matter of time. He has contrived to assemble a worse record with West Ham than Julen Lopetegui, while lasting longer. Perhaps Potter will be condemned by a dead-ball situation. In a league where no one else has let in more than three set-piece goals this season, West Ham have somehow conceded seven. It can be a sign of ineffectualness. It also feels an indication of Potter’s struggles: his previous sides have not been particularly poor at defending corners. West Ham are.

Which feels somehow sadly fitting. West Ham have the worst elements of Potterball, but with added problems that were not previously detected. Their home record is awful, with three straight defeats this season and no wins in eight. West Ham could have considered themselves warned. Ridiculously, Potter’s Brighton won one home league game in the calendar year of 2020; their first in the 2020-21 season came on 31 January, 376 days since the last. An inability to taste victory in front of your own supporters matters more when there are more of them; in West Ham’s case, a difficulty generating an atmosphere at the London Stadium renders it still more significant to have a manager whose teams can rouse the crowd (and not in dissent).

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West Ham have won three of their last 15 Premier League games under Potter (Action Images via Reuters)

It is a recurring issue that, for all his progressive principles and training-ground excellence as a coach, Potter’s sides do not score enough goals; indeed, it sometimes feels like they do not really have a strategy to score them. At West Ham, Lucas Paqueta, albeit under the cloud of his betting charges, and Mohammed Kudus, before he moved to Tottenham, have rarely played to their best under Potter. Somehow, with all the talent Chelsea had, albeit mitigated by the confusion at Stamford Bridge, his team mustered under a goal a league game there (21 in 22). Over Potter’s Premier League career, his teams averaged just 1.09 games per game; or 41 over a whole campaign. This, presumably, is not what the West Ham way is supposed to be.

And, with each job, it feels harder to escape the sense that getting results is not Potter’s strength. West Ham have 23 points from 23 games under him; only Avram Grant has a lower average in charge of them. Overall, Potter’s points-per-game return in the Premier League (1.19) is worse than those of Stuart Pearce, Ray Wilkins, Tony Pulis and Phil Neal and fractionally better than Alan Ball’s. None of them was afforded the chance to manage Chelsea, which ought to boost the numbers (and not merely the bank balance, courtesy of his five-year contract).

In Potter’s defence, there is a theory that his methods need 12 or 18 months on the training ground to bear fruit. But if Chelsea and West Ham do not come with a guarantee of such time, and if it remains true that he did a stunning job at Ostersund, that ended more than seven years ago. In his days in England and Wales, Potter has arguably only overachieved for 13 months; the last 13 at Brighton, following his first two seasons. He has definitely underachieved at Chelsea and West Ham, even if each was in mitigating circumstances.

The chaos at Chelsea was not entirely Potter’s fault; nor was he responsible for many of the host of signings. At West Ham, he is dealing with the legacy of former director of football Tim Steidten’s terrible recruitment. But at each club, there was a need for a manager who could make sense of the madness. And in part, that required a manager with the personality to carry a crowd with them. Instead, he continued West Ham’s extraordinary habit of appointing uncharismatic managers, Moyes excepted. Manuel Pellegrini, Lopetegui and Potter have a shared blandness.

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West Ham fans protested against the owners of the club before the home game against Crystal Palace (John Walton/PA Wire)

If the accusation is that Potter plays vanilla football, a willingness to shift formation is not necessarily a disadvantage. Yet this West Ham seem to lack identity as well as direction. As a club, they have gone from European trophy winners to an unhappy mess in two years: again, it is unfair to only blame Potter, but his passivity means he doesn’t feel the answer to anything.

And it is hard to escape the sense that both West Ham and Potter made the wrong choice when they fell into the arms of each other. It can be understandable that a family man wanted a job within commuting distance of Hove but, tellingly, Brighton opted not to reappoint Potter when they went for the more dynamic Fabian Hurzeler instead.

Yet a man who seemed to attract interest from Ajax and Lyon, among others, should have gone abroad. He could have restored a reputation dented by Chelsea; if he failed, it would not be in front of an English audience every week. Such positions may not have come with a Premier League salary but, instead, West Ham has reinforced the sense that he is not suited to the bigger clubs. Brighton, a relative backwater, with a better structure around him, was a better fit. West Ham may have demanded a force of personality he might lack or a capacity to play more captivating football.

When West Ham appointed him, he smiled: “I apologise that everyone is flipping sick of Graham Potter being linked with this job and that job.” It was a recognition he seemed forever touted for positions, including Manchester United and England. If his time at West Ham ends in ignominy, however, the jobs Potter is being linked with may be altogether lower profile.