Graham Potter is the new manager of West Ham United after a pretty hectic turn of events this week.
After the 4-1 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday no one expected the club to decide then to sack Julen Lopetegui. It will be argued that he should’ve gone months earlier, but going after a loss away to the current Premier League champions wouldn’t have been on many fans’ bingo card.
But he’s gone now and has swiftly been replaced by former Brighton and Chelsea boss, Potter.
Such is Potter’s eagerness to get going, he insisted he wanted to be in the dugout for our FA Cup 3rd round trip to Aston Villa on Friday night, despite only being confirmed as the club’s new boss on Thursday morning.
That kind of willingness to get started straight away has already impressed many fans, as has the things he’s said in the two interviews he’s done so far. Talk of the club’s ambition, the quality of players both in the first-team and the academy, and talk of how passionate and supportive the fans are will already have gone a long way towards forging a relationship with the claret and blue faithful.
But what can we expect from him? We know that long term, if he’s afforded the time and space to do his work, we could be in line for an identity of playing a good style of football that gets results with the right players in the right environment. Short term? No one really knows.
That makes trying to predict his starting XI to face Villa an almost impossible task, but I’ve given it a go anyway.
Potter is known to prefer a 3-4-3 formation but he is also notorious for coaching his players to change formation several times in the middle of a game. He is a manager who demands flexibility and intelligence from his players in order to adapt to any situation in real-time.
As manager of Chelsea, he won his one and only trip to Villa Park 2-0 with a 3-4-2-1 formation, so I’ve decided to use that as inspiration for my prediction.
As you can see from the screenshot of his Chelsea line-up in that game above, my prediction is purely based on the types of players he used for that XI and then using the players we have to try to replicate it.
In that game, Ben Chilwell was used as a left winger but would’ve dropped back into a left-back role and either Mason Mount or Kai Havertz would’ve moved out to the left to make a 4-2-3-1 formation when required.
That’s how I see Potter approaching this one, as per the below predicted XI…
The above formation includes a back three of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo, a midfield four of Crysencio Summerville, Edson Alvarez, Tomas Soucek and Emerson, and Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta playing centrally behind striker Niclas Fullkrug.
This would offer plenty of defensive stability and midfield cover but also allow us to transition to a 4-2-3-1 in attacking situations. That would involve Summerville pushing forward, Wan-Bissaka slotting into his favoured right-back position, Kilman and Todibo occupying a traditional centre-back duo and Emerson dropping back in at left-back.
Kudus would remain centrally, while Paqueta would drift out to the right to add width. Or Kudus and Paqueta could change, with Kudus drifting out wide, depending on their specific instructions.
Having Kudus in a central position, though, has the potential to unleash his true capabilities, especially given he has previously admitted he prefers to play in a central attacking role.
It’s as fluid as I can see it happening, especially in a way that Potter likes his teams to set up.
This is of course, just a prediction, and it’ll likely be way off the mark from what we do see from Potter in his first West Ham XI.
One thing’s for sure, though, it’s going to be a very interesting few weeks seeing the squad adapt to an actual style of play, which is something we didn’t really see under Lopetegui.
