West Ham’s season has been far from smooth, and under Graham Potter, there are growing concerns about deeper mentality issues that could be affecting the squad.
We spoke to James Jones of LondonWorld to discuss whether these issues are symptomatic of wider problems at the club.
We spoke to James Jones of LondonWorld to discuss whether these issues are symptomatic of wider problems at the club.
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00:00Now West Ham's season has been far from smooth and under Graham Potter there are growing concerns creeping in about deeper mentality issues that could be affecting the squad.
00:14While Potter's tactical approach has brought moments of improvement, West Ham have struggled with consistency throughout the season.
00:21The team has failed to deliver in critical matches and there's been a worrying lack of mental resilience, especially when under pressure.
00:30Poor performances in key fixtures has raised questions about the squad's mindset and whether the players are fully committed when it matters most.
00:37Potter will need to address these mentality issues swiftly.
00:42A shift in mindset and greater mental toughness will be crucial if West Ham are to avoid stagnating and turn things around next season.
00:50We spoke to James Jones of London World to discuss whether these issues are symptomatic of wider problems at the club.
00:59So James, looking at West Ham and obviously Falk Krug making the comments to do with the mentality throughout the camp at the moment.
01:09I mean, obviously it's not the best look when you are conceding late goals, conceding goals that turn possible wins into draws or then even losses at times as well.
01:18It's been a bit of a case of unfortunate times for Potter's side in terms of where they go with this mentality.
01:27He needs to turn that around definitely in the new season.
01:30But it's obviously been a bit disappointing for West Ham fans and Falk Krug's obviously come out and said that as well.
01:36So what's your sort of response to Falk Krug?
01:39How are you feeling about his comments?
01:41And are they sort of fair comments as well?
01:43Because obviously, you know, there must be something not quite clicking at the moment due to, you know, the results just turning on their head,
01:50especially so late on in games, West Ham fans must not really be able to settle until that very, very final whistle at the moment.
01:59Yeah, the last couple of months have been very, very frustrating for West Ham fans.
02:05Clearly, Nicholas Falk Krug being another one that's come out, come out after the Southampton game where, you know,
02:10on paper, that should have been a relatively comfortable win coming up against what is currently the worst team in Premier League history in terms of points.
02:19The earliest team to ever be relegated from the Premier League.
02:22You go into a home game against a team like that and you kind of, nothing's guaranteed in football these days,
02:30but you kind of think, yeah, this should be a comfortable three points.
02:33And we're 1-0 up and Southampton equalised in the 93rd minute.
02:37The game should have been out of sight by then and Southampton deserved it as well.
02:40We weren't exactly playing very well.
02:43So when he comes out after the game and is visibly angry, upset, calls out his teammates,
02:51says that they've not got the right mentality, a lot of West Ham fans praised him for that and said,
02:57finally, we've got someone who clearly cares because all season it's been difficult finding any kind of that passion
03:05or that hunger to win games and to do well.
03:08It's been that type of season for West Ham.
03:10So the fans were behind him.
03:11The fans were like, this is what we need.
03:13We need a player like this.
03:14We need someone with this kind of experience.
03:16Yes, he's been injured for most of the season, but that doesn't matter.
03:19The fact is, is that what he says is absolutely bang on.
03:22So there was an expectation that there'd be a reaction in the follow-up game against Brighton last weekend.
03:27And, you know, we came from behind 1-0 to be 2-1 up with five minutes to go.
03:32And we still lost the game.
03:33We conceded two goals in the 89th minute and the 93rd minute and you lose the game.
03:38And that kind of underlined Ful Krug's comments from a week earlier,
03:42whereby the mentality clearly isn't there.
03:44The hunger's not there.
03:45Now, is it to do with the fact that there's nothing to play for for West Ham?
03:50Mathematically safe.
03:52I don't think we can mathematically finish higher than 13th now.
03:55So there really isn't anything to play for.
03:59Is it that just simply the case that the players have just gone,
04:02well, you know, they've got half their mind on their summer holidays?
04:08Or is there something a little bit deeper going on in the dressing room?
04:11The fact that Fulker's come out quite strongly against some of his teammates
04:13suggests that maybe something isn't right within the dressing room.
04:18But it's got to change.
04:19You know, dropping seven points in your last six games to late goals,
04:23there's a lot of negativity.
04:24There's question marks around Graham Potter.
04:26There's question marks around a lot of the players.
04:28And it's avoidable.
04:30You've just got to keep playing for 95, 96 minutes every week
04:33and, you know, doing the basics.
04:35And it's the basics that's cost us, I think, over the last few weeks.
04:38So the fans are behind Fulker's comments,
04:41particularly after that Brighton result.
04:42Look.
04:44And I'm gonna take a look.
04:45Here we go.
04:49OK.
04:52All right.
04:54We're going to wait.