West Ham fans suffered a miserable defeat in a blistering cold 15:00 kick-off against Crystal Palace.
Individual mistakes, comical errors and incorrect tactics all resulted in us not even having a shot on target, all in all, woeful performance and match.
If Hammers fans look past the dreadful result itself, some questions need to be raised, that performance should’ve screamed to the board that signings need to be made, and not having a shot on target exclaims that.
The fans have suffered enough seeing Fulkrug, Summerville and Bowen out. But when we go a goal down in a game, we look to our bench and currently only have Danny Ings to try to make an impact.
Ingsy can only provide so much, and in the current situation the squad is in, we need a lot more than just him.
There were very few positives from the match, hardly any in fact. Fabianski had one of his worst performances in his time at the club, giving away the penalty initially, and following it up with a blunder once trying to make the save.
The cherry on top would come before the game was put to bed through the penalty, Mavropanos made a last-ditch tackle which can only be described as simply ludicrous, the high foot challenge saw the Greek international acquire a second yellow card, leaving West Ham down to 10 with 10 minutes to go.
Konstantinos Mavropanos will now miss West Ham’s next game against Aston Villa at Villa Park.
Perhaps this is a delusion, but sometimes moments and opportunities like these for players can make their career. With the suspension of Mavro, it would be assumed that Potter will now turn to Kaelan Casey, our young central defender, who has appeared on the bench since Potter’s arrival.
But it's not all doom and gloom! Lewis Orford also made his West Ham debut, coming on for Emerson in the 56th minute, a proud achievement for the 18-year-old who spoke to the media earlier this season exclaiming how his goal for the new season was to break into the first team and finally make his very well deserved debut.
The smallest of lights we have glowing in the club currently is the promising youth prospects we have for next season, talents such as Earthy, Marshall and Potts will return in the summer, with the likes of Casey, Scarles and Orford already being prepped by Potter for the season to come.
A productive rebuild with the youth is what is needed, and it's what our fans have been crying out for, Hammers fans have desperately wanted a manager to utilise the youth academy and, instead of persistently buying players for mass money, maybe realise that we could have a hidden gem of our own under our noses.
We had a summer rebuild under Lopetegui, which didn't go too well... let's hope the one under Potter is more successful.
Comments
Here we go again
What a glorious future we have with our "star" academy players coming through the ranks. Lets bring back those top kids, Potts, Earthy et al they are needed blah blah blah. I think Declan was the last youngster to come through based on so called merit and lets face it he was an awful CB. Can't remember which manager moved him forward to midfield but that was either a stroke of genius or sheer good luck.
Orford has had half an hour, can't be judged and bringing on Casey against the likes of Watson, Palmer and Wissa for our next games with only Kilman to assist and advise smacks of scraping the barrel.
Yes Scarles looked promising, but I thought Ashby, Longelo, Baptiste, the Reeces Oxford and Burke, Mubama, Ngakia all looked promising as well and where are they all now? Yes, it would be nice if they all came in and became £150 million pound players we can sell but I don't think it's going to happen, Happy to be proved wrong though
Scrap the Academy then Deluded
what's the point of it we spend money to run it nobody any good comes out of it so scrap it as there is always a Rodriguez a Mavrapanos an Ings to be had blimey why hasn't Sullivan sussed it already
Looking at the synergies
Looking at the synergies between us and Brighton under Potter. I think there is at last genuine hope and optimism. Under Loppo, this was never going to happen. He wanted tried and tested. Which turned out to be tired and tested in most scenarios.
Potter has much previous in the youth promotion at Brighton. Under the bare bones current circumstances and needs must. That is a very good asset to have and to use right now.
It seems JWP is out of the picture for a return this window. Cornet 99p, will most likely be called back and sold, or re loaned out as he is not in the rebuild plan.
As for the youngsters I don't know? Potts is currently ripping it up at Portsmouth. Marshall and Earthy are a bit more steady Eddie types at their loan clubs it seems.
However, all the youngsters are really promising. Potter just needs to persuade Midget Porn and the gang that these kids will save us money in the long term. But we do need to go into the transfer market for sure.
Guilhereme looks like he could be on his way to Saudi. Which at 18 years of age is a travesty for the boy personally speaking. On the plus side the rise and rise of Soler and his current acceptance to the Irons faithful is great to see. The way he tear arsed around the midfield once introduced was a total contrast to the 3 showroom dummies who had gone before.
It's a critical time for the Hammers now. That's an understatement. But if ever there was a Manager, who could undertake a full and balanced rebuild. Incorporating youth and experience, it's Potter...