Head Coach Graham Potter says he is still seeking the right balance in his West Ham United team following Tuesday’s 1-0 Premier League defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The Hammers controlled extended periods of the game at Molineux, particularly after Potter switched to a back four in the second half, but failed to take the big chances they created either side of Jørgen Strand Larsen’s deflected first-half winner.
Evan Ferguson failed to convert Jarrod Bowen’s early cross and the captain tested José Sá before the Norway international collected a loose ball and fired in via a deflection off former Wolves captain Maximilian Kilman on 21 minutes.
The home side then grew in confidence and could have extended their lead before half-time. With his own team struggling to break Wolves down, Potter withdrew Ferguson and fellow youngster Luis Guilherme, who was making his full debut, and switched to a back four.
The changes in personnel and shape led to an improved display in the second 45 minutes, led by substitute Niclas Füllkrug, who hit the crossbar with a looping header on his return after three months out with a hamstring injury.
The German’s performance drew praise from Potter, but the Head Coach was ultimately left frustrated as two more substitutes, Emerson and Tomáš Souček, hit the side netting with presentable chances to level late on.
So West Ham returned to London empty-handed and seeking to return to winning ways at London Stadium on Saturday, when AFC Bournemouth are the visitors.
We had a really good chance early in the first half, that if we take that, it becomes a slightly different game.
Credit to Wolves, I think they played well in the first half and pushed us back more than we wanted to be.
We suffered after they scored, which was a bit of a deflection. And then we had to dig in a bit and show some resilience. We wanted to get more pressure on the ball, but we found it difficult.
Had to get in at half-time [at 1-0] I think to just adjust things. And then second half we were a lot better. It was strange because the game wasn't, from our perspective, a good performance from us necessarily, but at the same time we had some chances that we probably felt, if you look at the big chances in the game, it's fairly even, so we were really disappointed with that.
I think we need to attack better as well. That's something we have to do, we know that.
We want to be a bit more dynamic, we want to be a bit faster with our attacks.
I think we need to manage the game a little bit better, understand when we can go forward, when we can go a bit more direct, move a bit more vertical. We're sort of finding our way still with each other and I think it's a bit of work in progress.
Some things have improved, some things have gone in the right direction, but still we need to do more.
[We haven’t had a pre-season, we’ve had injuries to deal with and we’ve just had the international break but] that's the job and there's no complaints.
As I said, we have to do better, I have to do better, that's the life we're in. Our supporters, again, are fantastic and they deserve better and demand more, so that's okay from us. We need to take that responsibility on.
The players, like I said, the response in the second half was one of ‘okay, we know we weren't quite there’ for whatever reason and we need to accept the fact that we certainly changed our approach to the second half.
Then we have to pick the bones out of it and go ‘okay, how do we go forward for the next eight games, try to win as many games as we can and get as many points as we can?’.
In the training sessions and where we've been working, they (the young players Ferguson, Guilherme and Scarles) have impressed me.
The timing, we felt, was a good one today.
It was difficult, we lost Mo [Kudus to injury] yesterday and [Jean-Clair] Todibo as well, so we had to readjust quickly. We felt that Luis could help us in terms of his pace if we won the ball back. We just didn't manage to find him enough times.
They'll get better for the experience. Ollie as well has had a good game in terms of how he dug-in as well. Again, it's all experiences for him.
At the same time, we know we need to get points, so we've got to strike that balance.
[Having Niclas back] does helps the team attack, I think, because it just gives you an option, a more vertical option, a more direct option.
It gives defenders a bit more to think about.
I was really pleased for him, really pleased that he can play 45 minutes and he'll get better and better the more time he gets.
We have to play well [against Bournemouth on Saturday].
That's what we want to do. We want to play well in front of our supporters and get three points. Every game in this league, you can see how it is, so competitive.
As a team, we have to stick together because we're not happy with the result tonight. So, we have to stick together and suffer as a team. That's normal. And then we have to show our character and our quality on Saturday.
