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Episode 046 - A First Loss for Potter / Crystal Palace Match Reaction
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In this episode Jacob and Tom discuss the poor loss to Crystal Palace. Digging into how the game played out and then talking about how they have found life under Graham Potter, this episode is an interesting one.
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Transcript
Introduction and Initial Reactions
00:00:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
Hello guys and welcome back to another episode of the Daily GSPM West End Podcast. I'm joined by Jacob, say hi mate.
00:00:15
Jacob
Hello, how are you?
00:00:16
Global Sports Podcast Network
I'm okay, it's... slightly sad podcast to be honest the Crystal Palace game that we're going to be reacting to today was not our best showing it's really disappointing because I think in the last game we were actually really good I thought we showed a lot of heart we weren't necessarily the best kind of overall tactically astute forward progressive football playing team that we are aiming to be but the last game was good we showed a lot of heart and in this game
00:00:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
We were kind of lacking
Injury Challenges and Player Opportunities
00:00:49
Global Sports Podcast Network
heart, to be honest. It was very lackluster, very underwhelming. A lot of players not really being able to find any sort of rhythm or momentum. What are your kind of general thoughts about what happened?
00:01:04
Jacob
Yeah, I think it was just overall a very frustrating watch for for everyone. um I think we were probably not set up quite right. I mean, a lot of that is down to injuries. Part of doesn't really have a lot of choice at the moment. He's about who he picks. Basically, the senior players we've got are basically all starting at this point. you know It was nice to see a few of the younger boys getting on the pitch, Orford's debut, and Mavropanos Mavropanos going off, just very frustrating, you know, he wasn't going to get a one-match ban now.
00:01:55
Global Sports Podcast Network
I don't know. I guess we'll find out in the in the coming days. But yeah, it's going to be at least ah ah one game. We're going to miss him, isn it which is really bad for us in a back situation.
00:02:03
Jacob
Yeah and we don't know the current um ah current status on Tadebo.
Tactical Issues in Attack and Player Positioning
00:02:10
Jacob
He must be injured, haven't really heard anything about it. um So that leaves us very short and when we already were short. So yeah I mean it was a great start but obviously I think think that result just shows what we need to do yeah through January to try and address the areas where we're really struggling.
00:02:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, it's a really strange game because I don't think we were terrible. And and there were there were parts of our play in midfield that seemed okay. And defensively, we didn't look terrible. But when we're lacking a focal point and attack, it seemed like everything that was being created was created under the knowledge that there wasn't really anything up top to capitalise on it, if that makes sense. It it seems like we were just chugging along not really knowing where we were going which i think is it showed how poor we were in actually creating any sort of clear-cut chances you look at the people that we had up front playing piqueta up front just isn't good it doesn't work he's he's not someone who can lead the line you know there were so many times where he was coming really deep and you know it's been kudos up there as well and he was coming really deep as well and when you've got
00:03:33
Global Sports Podcast Network
these players that want to be on the ball more and they want more influence on the game. It then means that when you actually look at who we've got highest up the pitch, it's very inconsistent who
Impact of Injuries on Team Performance
00:03:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
that person is. And whoever that person is probably isn't very well suited to being there in the first place. You know, a lot of the time it was Thomas Ucek being the highest one up the pitch as well, which isn't really where he's best utilized. You know, um that's why like i'm I'm not really angry at the result. It's just frustrating that we're being held back by lack of firepower up front. How do you think Potter approached the game tactically? um Was it the right way to go with the the sort of three at the back, which became a five and then Peketa up front, or would you have done it differently? like
00:04:17
Jacob
To be honest, I think there was very few other ways he could have he could have really gone about it, to be honest, unless, you know, he started with Gil Herme. You know, we've seen a lot about him recently, potentially um leaving.
00:04:35
Jacob
So I don't know, it doesn't feel like he should really be starting games either. Like he's he's shown very little, he hasn't had a lot of opportunities anyway. and I am slightly surprised that Danny Ings didn't start. I know obviously he's at an age now where maybe he needs to be used more as ah as an impact player. But I think it was very clear to see that that we just didn't have the, you know, we barely had a shot on target in the whole game. And um I think from the outset, we
00:05:15
Jacob
was struggling to see where the chances were going to
Expectations and Future Strategies with Graham Potter
00:05:18
Jacob
come from. We were so deep. And when we tried to get out with the ball, we just we just couldn't. There was nobody there to play it to. And we had very little of the ball. So I don't think Potter can really be blamed and in terms of you know how he set up the team. Because we don't really have many options of of other ways of playing at the minute. you know He's having to play.
00:05:44
Jacob
a five back with a team that already isn't scoring enough goals, you know, it's never going to go well. um And your only real out and out attack is being Paquetta and Kudas. Like, it's not enough, is it? Like, it's not, it's not going to win us games like that. So yeah, there's some work to be done. Definitely. Hopefully we can get at least a couple in.
00:06:08
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, ah it's it's a must, isn't it? You know, like that that attack just is not deep enough and it's not good enough when we've got these sort of injuries. One one thing that did really frustrate me though, watching um and listening to the commentary on the game is how There was such little focus on the injuries that we've got at the moment. It seems like any time the big teams get injuries, it's always spoken about so much, you know, like when Arsenal lose Saliba for you know an extended period of time, everyone goes, oh, you know, it's so difficult to perform without such a key player.
00:06:44
Global Sports Podcast Network
And it's it's the same with a lot of these other teams. But when it comes to West Ham, it doesn't seem like it's actually being spoken about enough. Like we've lost Jarrah Bowen, who's our captain, full crook who, you know, we've not had basically a tool this year who was supposed to be our new striker to kind of fix the striker curse that we seem to have had. Michal Antonio is out, who is also someone who's been a massive servant.
00:07:05
Global Sports Podcast Network
to the club. So yeah, it it's, it's really frustrating that it's not being spoken about enough because you know, the the injuries have really hampered what was already a pretty poor season. And you know, when you do get a new manager taken over, you want him to have all of these players at his disposal, but he just hasn't had that. So yeah, I think we really need some, some big signings, um, in January, because we just don't have the quality to be able to try and achieve anything this season.
00:07:34
Global Sports Podcast Network
OK, we're going to go to Avva and then we'll get back. We're going to continue to talk about this game.
00:08:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, so continuing on this game, one thing that also frustrated me was that red card from Mavropanos. It's kind of and indicative of how he's been this year, isn't it? Like, generally solid. I thought he was okay this game. He wasn't terrible, but just those those little cracks in his game when it comes to decision-making. We see it kind of time and time again where he makes the wrong decision and he you know maybe tries to play out a little bit too much or he makes the wrong pass or he does something a little bit rash and that's obviously it's obviously not cost us because I don't think anyone thinks we're gonna win the game if he doesn't get sent off it just rubs salt into the wound basically how how are you feeling about him at the moment
00:08:48
Jacob
Yeah, I think um it's basically something we've seen from him a lot, especially this season. you know he He definitely doesn't always look the most comfortable and you always think he's going to have at least one error in a game. um And you just hope it doesn't it doesn't cost us. And I think it basically just leaves us in ah in a bad position for the next game where we've only got one proper centre back. And yeah, you know, he's just, um I think yeah at the start of the season, it was kind of a toss up between him and Tadebo, but I would edge more towards Tadebo now, you know, even though we don't know the current fitness status of him. um I think when Tadebo does come back, I think he'll be he'll be in there the majority of the time, basically.
00:09:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, I agree. I think we just need to pick a quarterback pair and we have to stick with it. You know, like we don't, we don't have the, the amount of competitions where we're going to be able to rotate and give everyone all the game time that they want.
Youth Development and Team Dynamics
00:10:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
It is just difficult when.
00:10:04
Global Sports Podcast Network
the team isn't playing well because you wanna change stuff, but how much should you chop and change and how much should you just stick and hope that improves? And I guess only time will tell whether that's Graham Potter's tactic or not. um The next thing I wanna talk about is the youth. Obviously, we we spoke about that a little bit. the The youth that was brought on relatively early into the game, um Orford and Scarls both came on. And I think they they both did really solidly, to be honest, you know being thrust into quite a an awkward situation where we were playing very tentatively and the game was still there to be won but we weren't playing very well at all so the fact that they were trusted and given the opportunity to play was really good and they didn't look out of place which
00:10:47
Global Sports Podcast Network
I think if a youth player isn't up to the speed or isn't up to the physicality, it becomes apparent very early on. And both of those guys, I think, did really well. So I'm glad that they were able to come on and make an impact. I'd like to see them get put into the fold a little bit more, particularly Ollie Skarles, because he has been so good. I rate him very highly. The way that he, um ah particularly against Fulham, the way that he came on and played that left-back role, I think he was really, really solid. and i would like to see that competition between him and Emerson kind of slightly take a step up. And if we are playing against a team that we think we should be, then I think maybe starting because he's, I think he's only going to get better and he's, I think maybe a slightly more defensive option than Emerson. So it's always good to change it up. And that competition is really good. How, how do you think they did?
00:11:42
Jacob
Yeah, it's never a ah bad thing to have um somebody like him to call on, you know, he's, he's only young and not played a lot of games, but he has impressed when he's been in there. And I think, I think it just comes
Current League Standing and Managerial Impact
00:11:57
Jacob
down to not having a lot to lose and, you know, the team going for a bad spell and, you know, he, he's not really,
00:12:08
Jacob
being part of those performances. So when he comes on the pitch, he kind of wants to show, you know, I can have an impact on this team, which is an aging team as well. You know, a lot of our, a lot of our players are above 30. Now you look at Emerson and, and so foul, you know, it's definitely a time where, where he can sort of go out there and show what he can do to hopefully stay with us in the future. You know, we've seen it a lot where We build a player up somewhat and then they we just get rid of them for cheap. and We haven't had a huge amount of homegrown talent that have stuck with us and, you know, ended up being one of our ah star players. It hasn't happened really that I can remember other than, you know, really Declan Rice. There's very few others, maybe Ben Johnson, but I wouldn't really call him a star player. And then, you know, he's gone now anyway. So yeah, I think.
00:13:08
Jacob
definitely Sculls has impressed and I think he he does deserve some and time out there, definitely.
00:13:15
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah and we have such a rich history of creating brilliant players so I don't see why we don't give them more opportunities and I think that's been one of the really frustrating things over the past few years is how little we have utilised the Youth Academy because we've done really well over the past few years, the younger age groups at West Ham so definitely when we need them we've been able to rely on them so I think If you're using them when do we desperately need them, they've then earned the opportunity to get more game time generally. And I think it's is's going to be really sad for me if we sign some players that then boot these Youth Academy guys down the pecking order again, because that's the sort of thing that's going to make them want to move on. There's something we've seen happen time and time again, the Youth Academy players wanting to leave to go to other academies because they know they're going to get better opportunities or they're going to get better development. and
00:14:06
Global Sports Podcast Network
we really need to hold on to these guys and utilize them when we need them because you know like in in this Crystal Palace game obviously not the result we wanted but both the guys that came on did a good job and they they clearly want to play for West Ham and they're hungry for it and they didn't look out of place at all so yeah definitely something we need to focus on. I think my my final thing with the game is Where does this stand us in terms of how we feel about West Ham right now? Because obviously still very fresh under grain potter, injuries everywhere, some some tough games coming up, but what can we really expect of West Ham coming up now?
00:14:46
Jacob
Yeah, that's that's a difficult one. I think maybe the the victory we got, like you know, the time for last gave us a little bit of false hope that it was going to get a lot easier and, you know, be a lot more positive. But it's, you know, Grand Potter still has the same players to work with. He's got more injury problems as well. So these are all things we need to take into account and you know it's it's so early to say really um I think we all have belief that you know he can turn it around a little bit and hopefully get us a top 10 finish because i think I think that's still on the cards I don't think anybody's worried about relegation I think i think we're safe from that so
00:15:45
Jacob
I think we just need to try and get finished as high up as possible. Um, top 10 would be lovely. Um, but yeah, there's, there's a lot of work to do. And I think Potter, um, you know, he knows what he signed up for, but you know, he's, he's got his work cut out definitely. Um, and yeah, it just seems like every week we've got a harder test than we had before, you know,
00:16:10
Jacob
um we've not picked up as many points as we should have against the the lower teams and now we're coming up against villa and you know we know how good they can be when they're when they're firing so that's going to be a tough one hopefully we can just not lead goals like we have done um but yeah we've just we've just got to have faith for now and and try and think positively and hope that you know, we can have a so strong second half of the season.
00:16:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, I completely agree.
Potential Signings to Strengthen the Squad
00:16:47
Global Sports Podcast Network
Okay. We're going to go to our second advert and when we get back, I want to dive into a little bit more grain potter chat.
00:16:56
Global Sports Podcast Network
points
00:17:16
Global Sports Podcast Network
So we've seen Graham Potter after a win and after a loss. We've seen the way that we've played in both games and we've heard a little bit about you know his thoughts about West Ham generally and how he wants to approach this, I don't know if you'd call it a rebuild, but kind of salvaging of the season. How do you feel about him now we've seen him after a couple of games?
00:17:40
Jacob
i'm I think he is definitely what we needed from the start, to be honest. I think um once we once we ah we get our full strength team back to where it was, I think we'll we'll be in a much better place. I think realistically any manager that could have come in at this point would be struggling right now. You know, if we were with David Mois still, he'd be struggling right now, just because we have very little attack in output. Like we, we don't have anyone we can really call on. We have to just basically hope and pray for, you know, moments of magic and you can't rely on that to win you, win you any Premier League games. So, um,
00:18:28
Jacob
I think we have to just give him time. I think he's been kind of shown from the start that his's his approach is different to Lopategi. He seems to have already started to build some relationships with players, which is great. And I think if he's got ideas of who he wants to bring in, I think they've just got to back him, basically. I don't know if you how many sort of rumours you've heard. um But obviously he's he's been around the Brighton set up, you know, being Tottenham manager, not Tottenham, sorry, Chelsea manager. um And, you know, this is this is a good thing for us. If he's got anybody that he wants to bring in, and we've just got to hope that the board will back him to do that. I know we've already spent so much money.
00:19:21
Jacob
and But it's kind of a dire situation really where it's not through anybody's fault, really. You know, obviously our team still wasn't quite deep enough when everybody was fit, but they they surely are aware of of the changes that have got to be made um and the additions they've got to add. Otherwise with we're going to be having the same chat every week, I think, aren't we?
00:19:47
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, I don't think Graham Potter would have taken the job unless there were some assurances that he would be able to bring some people in in in January. I'm not not saying there's going to be any like huge signings because you know we did spend a lot of money in the summer. But when things do go as south as they have done for us this season, you want the owners to maybe dig a little bit deeper into their pockets and put a little bit of cash out you know just so we can sign a few more players that we need it's not like we've got a load of players that aren't playing well it's we've got a small squad that has been depleted by injuries so we're really struggling to
00:20:29
Global Sports Podcast Network
feel the team where everyone is in their most kind of natural position which is a really difficult way to win games and the fact that we were even even able to win that game against Fulham i think is is testament to the desire that the players do have and i think maybe attributed to new manager balance maybe you could give it to Potter kind of either way i'm not too fussed um It's just a difficult situation to deal with in any other way than signing small players. you know like that You can't put a price tag on Jared Bowen getting injured and replacing him with someone else. That's that's not really a way you can solve that situation. All you have to do is just try and sign someone to to fill the void the of the goals that we are missing. So hopefully we go on to do that.
00:21:24
Global Sports Podcast Network
um I also just really like Graham Potter's demeanor. He seems a little bit more kind of self-assured and calm, which is something I really like.
00:21:33
Jacob
Yeah.
00:21:34
Global Sports Podcast Network
And I think that's something we need. You know, he has been around the block in England, which I think is I think it shows in the way that he deals with the press and the way that he is kind of around the club. I also like the fact that he has then also done it in other countries, which that mix of understanding the the English football setup, understanding football in this country, like to a, I'd say a higher degree than Lopateki also mixed with his ability and his own personal desire to go abroad. I think i think it shows what sort of a guy he is and it comes across you really well. and
00:22:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
he He genuinely seemed really excited when we have scored in games, which i think I think is testament to how he feels about the club. So generally, I'm really happy with him. Yeah, I just hope that the board can back him to an extent where he is allowed to do a little bit of business on his own. And I would also imagine that he's come with ideas of players that he would sign to kind of write the ship, you know, because he's had a long time out of football management to think about stuff. and these sort of managerial appointments don't happen overnight there will have been conversations happening for a while and he will have come with like a presentation about what he feels like he can do for the club so in that sort of a presentation i would imagine he would have said oh i've got this player and this player in this prayer i think we could sign aren't going to break the bank because he knows that we spent a lot of money in january in the summer but
00:23:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
would be good January signings to try and increase our performance this season and I guess only time will tell but I'm still relatively optimistic about it it's it is tough with all the injuries but When there are so many injuries, I think it's is not really, it doesn't make sense to get sad and down about it because there's not really a lot we can do. It's no one's fault. These things just happen. We have to try and ride the wave of injuries and hope that we get these guys back sooner than anticipated. I know Jared Bowen's injury recovery is going really well and he's spoken online about how he's itching to get back. So the sooner he's back, the better. And hopefully these these January signings come in quick as well because
00:23:47
Global Sports Podcast Network
One thing we have done in the past is leave signings very late in the window, which never really goes well.
Closing and Listener Engagement
00:23:52
Global Sports Podcast Network
So hopefully, yeah, we don't want to do that.
00:23:52
Jacob
punning punning by
00:23:55
Global Sports Podcast Network
We want to get some, some good quality value for money plays in as soon as possible so we can integrate them into the squad and get them playing for us ASAP.
00:23:56
Jacob
no
00:24:05
Jacob
hundred percent I guess we'll see shortly hopefully you know there's not a huge amount of January actually left now so you know we hope we can get them in the door and They can have an immediate impact, but we shall see.
00:24:22
Jacob
Um, thank you.
00:24:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah. I hope we actually, I was going to say, I hope we actually signed someone because yeah, like you say, it is still pretty, you know, there's not a huge amount of January left.
00:24:24
Jacob
Yeah.
00:24:32
Global Sports Podcast Network
So yeah.
00:24:32
Jacob
Yeah. It's, um, it's all up in the air a little bit at the moment. There's a lot of, a lot of interest, but not a lot of, uh, you know, concrete offers or anything like that.
00:24:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah. We need to pull the trigger on someone. We have to.
00:24:44
Jacob
Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure we will. And we'll see it soon. cool So thank you all very much for watching or listening to this episode of the Daily GSPN West End Podcast. Say goodbye Tom.
00:24:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
Thank you guys.
00:24:59
Jacob
um Please rate this podcast five stars and check out all the social media that's linked in the description. Also there is all the other GSPN network podcasts that you can check out if you want to. Fantasy Football Pod, Women's Football,
00:25:14
Jacob
wrap-ups in multiple different languages and there is all the other Premier League team daily podcasts as well. So thank you for listening and we'll speak to you soon.