West Ham United are currently in the situation they are in due to a whole multitude of reasons.
However, Graham Potter has to take a lot of the blame for West Ham’s current problems.
Not only was Potter tactically inept, but his man-management was seriously poor as well.
Relegation now seems like a very real prospect for the Hammers, and that should not be acceptable considering where we were as a team just two years ago.
Humiliation at Molineux…
Where does this rank among West Ham's WORST ever Premier League defeats?
West Ham sacked Graham Potter back in September, and the Hammers board replaced the Englishman with Nuno Espirito Santo.
While Nuno is now being tipped for the sack as well, he does seem to be a very slight upgrade on Potter.
The real problem is that the Hammers are still paying for some of the Englishman’s unacceptable mistakes now.
Graham Potter’s two unforgivable decisions before sacking have ensured West Ham’s relegation
First thing’s first, Potter made some absolute clangers during his time in charge at the London Stadium.
The way in which he set up his team was truly bizarre at times, and the lack of attacking intent was frightening.
In my opinion, he took the West Ham job thinking he’d be given a free ride by the Hammers fans but it doesn’t work that way, certainly if the players aren’t playing on the front foot.
Potter should have spoken to Craig Bellamy before taking the job … if you know, you know!
However, perhaps Potter’s biggest, and indeed negligent, mistake while in charge of West Ham was allowing both Aaron Cresswell and Vladimir Coufal to leave on free transfers in the summer.
He did this with the knowledge that both Aaron Wan-Bissaka and El Hadji Malick Diouf would be AFCON-bound from late-December on into January.
Failing to sign Coufal and Cresswell up to 12-month extensions was not only unacceptable but unforgivable, and the Hammers are suffering the consequences of those decisions now.
Sure, the Czech Republic international and the Englishman were well past their best but they would have been able to do a job for 5-10 games this season.
Also, their leadership skills in the dressing room have been badly missed this term.
Due to the lack of options in the full-back positions, Nuno has been forced to play Kyle Walker-Peters at right-back and Ollie Scarles at left-back.
West Ham have major full-back problems
The former Southampton defender is a decent player but he has been found out in recent weeks.
He offers little going forward and his concentration levels defensively leave a lot to be desired.
If you could replace Nuno with one out-of-work manager, who are you picking?
And why?
Meanwhile, as much as we love seeing young players come through the ranks, it’s perhaps time we all had a serious discussion about Scarles.
The 20-year-old is a solid player and he always gives 100 per cent. You can’t ask for more than that from the player himself, can you?
However, what we, as fans, can ask for, is that our young players aren’t just thrown into the team for the sake of it.
How many other Premier League sides would Scarles get into? There’s an argument to be made that he wouldn’t get in any other starting XI in the top flight.
West Ham are in real trouble right now, with numerous problems all over the pitch.
And as underwhelming as Nuno has been since taking over, Potter still has to shoulder much of the blame.
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