I wonder when ‘that’ team set-up seemed a good idea. The [Arsenal game](https://www.claretandhugh.info/arsenal-v-west-ham-line-ups-announced/) – perfect. A rearguard action fought with often eight or nine behind the ball. Good solid defending, a cheeky three points stolen from the title pretenders. Against lowly Leicester City: Not so. The warning signs were there. West Ham huffed and puffed, with seven or eight behind the ball, little creativity or goal threat. Nobody pulling the strings in midfield.
And so when the ‘unchanged’ announcement came 75 minutes before kick off last night, I don’t think anyone was enthused – but Hammers fans were prepared to put their trust in Potter.
Trying to look forwards and not backwards (Graham Potter has still only been at the club a little over two months) it is easy as a supporter to be pre-loaded with an almost full ‘underwhelm’ bucket with what came before: Lopetegui’s six months before Potter even started were pretty dire.
There is a lot to sort out and _Potter can only work with the team he was given._
And clearly there is a dreadful skill shortage in midfield. So much so that at the slightest sign of aggression, the Hammers midfield three just drop back and form a line of eight along the 18 yard line to try and repel opponents: From that respect, Newcastle’s goal was a self inflicted wound.
Is it fear, is it coaching, or is it a squad deficiency? West Ham need to find a midfield trio that can better hold off the opposition because last night apart from the late-on advancement of Ward-Prowse into a more attacking midfield role, West Ham offered zero.
Which was fine against Arsenal. Not good against Leicester. And thoroughly boring, dull, ineffective ‘Moyesball’ at its worse last night. Without Areola’s reaction saves that would have been another Lopetegui-like pasting.
Jacob Steinberg in the [guardian.com](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/mar/10/west-ham-newcastle-premier-league-match-report) sums it up, describing Potter’s enforced methodology thus:
_” A necessary departure from the disorder of Julen Lopetegui’s reign, a way to protect a team woefully short of speed, but it has come at the expense of attacking ingenuity. With a midfield of Edson Álvarez, Ward-Prowse and Soucek providing zero dynamism or invention, Kudus and Bowen are doing a lot of heavy lifting._
And I’m thankful I didn’t brave the elements, the railway, the queues and the walking traffic lights afterward to go in person to be ‘entertained’ that poorly in a game when the sole highlight was applauding Michail Antonio’s recovery and his return to London stadium.
And now as Hammers fans we look forward with a sense of foreboding – which demands that Potter needs to change **something** before Goodison Park at the weekend.