Geoff reviewed our home draw against Southampton earlier this week, a game against a team that was relegated with seven games of the season remaining. I only saw the highlights. We became just the fourth team to fail to beat them on their travels this season after their win at Ipswich and draws at Fulham and Brighton, our opponents this Saturday.
Brighton sits in mid-table (10th) on 48 points and is one of five clubs who will finish between eighth and twelfth. Bournemouth (8th) has 49 points, Fulham and Brighton have 48, Brentford 46, and Palace 45.
The Premier League this season is separated into five distinct groups. The top pair comprises Liverpool and Arsenal. The next group of five (the “nearly teams”) are separated by just four points; Manchester City with 61, Forest 60, Newcastle 59, Chelsea, and Villa both 57.
Well behind the mid-table group are the “real disappointments,” consisting of Everton, Manchester United, Wolves all with 38 points, Tottenham with 37, and ourselves with 36. The three teams promoted last season have not performed well and are on their way back down.
A table I saw recently shows the points tally of each club in the Premier League compared to this stage last season. Everton has the same points as last time, while seven teams are worse off: Wolves (-5), Villa (-6), Arsenal (-8), West Ham (-12), Manchester United (-15), Manchester City (-18), and Tottenham (-23). We are 12 points below where we were at this stage last season, although we finished in the top half (9th). Forest is at the top of this particular table being 28 points better off.
I’ve just been reviewing Graham Potter’s media conference in advance of our trip to Brighton this Saturday. He began with the injury situation confirming Alvarez will still be sidelined with a back injury while Wan-Bissaka should be back. That’s good news.
He said he “understands the fans’ frustrations” at recent results: “We’re not playing how we want to play but to look at the bigger picture, it’s not so straightforward to change things. You have to accept things and be up for the challenge. I want to support the players, who have been brilliant, and we’ll fight together.” So the players have been brilliant eh?
He emphasised that in the games before he arrived (for the last two seasons he probably meant) the team conceded a lot of goals. His inference here was that they have now tightened up at the back and have been competitive. But not successful it seems.
When asked about our habit of conceding late goals, Potter said: “It’s a number of factors. It’s very complicated. When we came in, we were conceding early goals, and now it’s late goals, but it’s very tough for very different reasons.” What kind of answer was that!
Potter was also asked about Fullkrug’s comments afterlast weekend’s draw: “Sometimes you have to understand that after a game, everyone’s emotional. It should be that way, but when you’re a leader you have to accept the emotion and put things in perspective. Niclas wears his heart on his sleeve and he’s entitled to his opinion. For me, it’s better to have conversations in private. You have to be able to be honest and to think about the team as well.” I think he was saying (in a roundabout way) that he wasn’t too pleased!
These pre-match media conferences often feature responses that may seem bland.
I do wish Potter success and a productive transfer window. He has faced challenges since arriving at London Stadium, but it remains to be seen how his tenure will progress.
Under The Hammers 
TBH he comes across as being a bit of a wet weekend. He will be judged on our summer clear out/buying (which will probably be more down to Sully than anyone else), and then on his first half a dozen games. If the squad is truly changed during the Transfer window, I wonder how long before we get the ‘ they are new players so will take a while to integrate and play in a different style’.
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Once again the last few minutes of our game have been our undoing. Once again the first half performance was poor. Once again we improved in the second half. Once again we lost the game. Thank goodness there are three very poor teams to keep us up. A lot needs to change. We will find out in the summer.
Thanks for your thoughts Mark.
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Hi Richard, an interesting and quite revealing piece. To say we have regressed is perhaps an over simplification, but we sure as hell haven’t improved in two years. More importantly, we have no chance of doing so unless some miracle we get the summer transfer window right. My fear is that Sullivan will once again take over the reins of our recruitment drive and deliver the usual mix of last payday “ stars”, wonderkids that palpably aren’t and Euro- bargains that turn out to be anything but. Our requirements seem at first glance to be pretty straightforward: a young, athletic, pacey striker, capable of leading the line, scoring 12 or more goals and frightening the brown and sticky stuff out of defences. A couple of midfielders capable of moving the ball forward at pace and with the legs to run off the ball when they don’t have it. A replacement goalkeeper capable of leaving his goaline, actually catching the ball and distributing it quickly and accurately. A young man called Mads Hermansen at Leicester would do me fine. A left back that plays left back and not sometimes on the right and sometimes in the centre, and, in a dream world a fast, fearsome and intelligent CB. Should be easy right? OK not, but if we don’t achieve something close, I can see us going down next season. Our terrible performances and likely finishing position will not only cost us money, but make recruitment much more difficult. Good luck to whoever gets to be responsible for it. Off to watch the FA Cup semi in a while. Mike.
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Hi Mike – you are right – we need so much don’t we? So many new players in so many positions but will anything change with Sullivan taking full control of recruitment as always.
We can live in hope. I try to be optimistic but I already have big doubts about next season.
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