Will Pugh, West Ham reporter: Injuries and suspensions impacting Potter’s team selection | OneFootball

Injuries and suspensions have impacted new West Ham head coach Graham Potter's team selections, explains Will Pugh, sports journalist for Sun Sport and co-founder of the We Are West Ham podcast, ahead of Brentford's visit to London Stadium.

A lack of available centre-backs has seen the Hammers' back five be made up of four full-backs in their last two Premier League outings.

West Ham are 15th going into Saturday’s game, with a 10-point cushion between themselves and the relegation zone. How would you sum up how things have gone since the last Brentford game?

That is a good question! Not great, I suppose. Things just did not work out with Julen Lopetegui. It is hard to say it was a terrible appointment, but it wasn't a great fit.

I do not think everyone was overawed with joy and excitement when he first came in. The fans were very split by David Moyes; there was a significant number who would have happily had him stay, but there was a significant, vocal number who felt it was time for a change of direction.

I was not ever convinced that was guaranteed to lead to an improvement and it was proved right by the appointment of Lopetegui and the subsequent football.

I think most West Ham fans, whatever side of the Moyes debate they fell on, were reunited again by Lopetegui and just want to forget that period as quickly as they can.

There was contact with Graham Potter in the summer, but I think he was holding out for what he perhaps deemed a bigger and better opportunity, maybe the England job, maybe a slightly bigger club in Europe.

It may be that, in a few years, they are grateful for the Lopetegui period because, without it, the stars may not have aligned with West Ham and Potter.

How has Graham Potter been received and what have you made of how he's got on so far?

I think some fans are pleased and have welcomed Potter because they are just pleased to have seen Lopetegui leave and feel that, whatever happens, he cannot do any worse, so he is a better option and they are pleased at least that the change has been made.

Then you have got those who are even stronger who say this is exactly the sort of manager that West Ham should have. Lots of fans seem to think that he plays the sort of football West Ham should be playing.

I'm a little bit wary about such talk, but he has been fairly well-received so far. He talks well and is saying a lot of the right things, which Lopetegui struggled with as well. Ultimately, they will need a few results in the bag, but he is putting some square pegs in some square holes.

The results have not been amazing since Potter joined, but they just look like a normal football team again and games look a bit more normal, like two sets of 11 normal football players playing in normal positions, doing normal football things rather than what Lopetegui was trying to do!

It is not perfect yet, they have had some injuries as well and stuff is still to click, but it is just nice just watching West Ham do normal football stuff again rather than whatever Lopetegui was trying to do.

There was not too much in the way of ins and outs in January, but West Ham needed a striker and got Evan Ferguson in on loan. Are you excited by that?

Hugely. On the radio recently, I heard someone call West Ham "the strikers' graveyard"!

They have had a terrible record of strikers in recent years and I think that's largely down to recruitment; it seemed at the time they completely ignored the profile of striker that they need.

The ones who have been a success in recent years - Michail Antonio, Marko Arnautović, even Diafra Sakho - are what I call seven out of 10 at everything; they are seven out of 10 quick, they are seven out of 10 strong, seven out of 10 in the air, seven out of 10 finishers.

West Ham need all-rounders in the system they have been playing for the last few years. They had Sébastien Haller which didn't work and Gianluca Scamacca which did not really work.

They have shown before and after their time at West Ham they are good players, but they have very specific attributes and ones that did not really work with the style the other 10 players were playing.

Niclas Füllkrug has been so unlucky and I really, really feel for him because he has actually put the ball in the net a couple of times when he has got minutes on the pitch, but a couple of them have been in defeats so they get quickly forgotten; and then a couple of times he has got back to match-ready again and then got injured. I fancied that he might be a good addition, but it has not quite worked out yet.

Evan Ferguson has missed 11 out of the last 18 months injured, but if they can keep him fit, I think it is an absolutely brilliant signing.

He is a bit of an all-rounder; he is quick, he is strong, he is good in the air, he is a good finisher - seven out of ten at everything.

Which player should Brentford fans be keeping an eye out for?

If I am honest, Jarrod Bowen is proving time and time again, week in week out, that he is by far and away West Ham's best player. Everything he does is everything good about West Ham.

He does lots of the ugly work off the ball, he works his socks off every game - it is such a football cliché, but he really does.

That is twinned with moments of absolute quality. His decision-making is excellent, he is unselfish when he needs to be but, when he's in positions on his own, he can turn water into wine, so to speak!

His finishing is great - the key thing about him is he has got end product - and he torments opponents time and time again.

Lots of fans will talk about how good Mohammed Kudus is, but his stats this season tell a different story - same with Lucas Paquetá. Give me Jarrod Bowen over anyone else in the team every day of the week!

Emerson has also been really, really effective and he gets underrated a lot by West Ham fans, I think.

Crysencio Summerville is back as well and he has shown lots of promise; just a little Brentford nod for you, before he was out with an injury, he was doing exactly what Saïd Benrahma was supposed to do!

What should Brentford expect from West Ham in terms shape and style?

In the last couple of games, they have had to play five at the back, with four full-backs on the pitch - and I do not think that is an overly tactical thing, I think that is just because injuries and suspensions have forced Potter’s hand.

Aaron Cresswell and Vladimír Coufal have been playing the wide positions of the three centre-backs, then Emerson and Aaron Wan-Bissaka have been playing as the wing-backs.

Potter likes an in-game tactical change as well, but he did that at Chelsea and they conceded soon after that, so it does not always work. It is personnel-dependent, to be honest.

With their strongest team, it is a real coin toss between Łukasz Fabiański and Alphonse Areola. They are both really good goalkeepers and they have both been in and out at various points this season, so it is hard to say which one of them will play.

I imagine it will be Wan-Bissaka, Jean-Clair Todibo, Max Kilman and Emerson if he plays four at the back, then it will be Edson Álvarez if he is fit - he was injured for the last game – and Tomáš Souček in midfield.

Then I would like to think it would be Bowen, probably Kudus and Paquetá - if they are both fit - and then Evan Ferguson up front in a 4-2-3-1.

I would personally like to see Summerville play instead of Kudus, but I do not think he will.

What's your score prediction?

I didn't really think West Ham were very good in the away game, but I don't think Brentford had a great game that day either to be honest.

The home side need a win, really, so I would like to think, with it being at London Stadium, they can get it over the line.

They played really well against Fulham and beat them at home a few games ago, then they were awful against Crystal Palace, so it is hard to say, really.

I would like to think they will just nick it because Potter needs a result to keep the goodwill of all the fans on side. Nothing pretty, but I will say 2-1 to West Ham.