Potter has to sign Wolves star – Three things learned in West Ham loss
West Ham United fans are clock-watching for this season to be over as their side suffered another Premier League defeat, this time at the hands of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Jorgen Strand Larsen scored the decisive goal at Molineux on Tuesday night (1 April) despite Graham Potter shaking up his side, with Mohammed Kudus missing, Luis Guilherme starting and Niclas Fullkrug making his injury return from half-time.
Tomas Soucek passed up a golden chance in the closing stages to equalise, with Emerson also missing a glorious close-range chance – both emanating from Fullkrug’s impact.
The Hammers remain 16th in the Premier League table with Wolves now cutting the gap a place below to five points.
West Ham Zone takes some of the key points to emerge from the midweek defeat in the West Midlands.
Potter will not stand for any rubbish after half-time actions
If there is one factor to at least encourage West Ham fans somewhat from Tuesday’s defeat, it’s that Potter evidently won’t take any long-term sluggishness.
This was proven by his half-time shake-up, in which he substituted no less than three players: Evan Ferguson, Guilherme and Aaron Cresswell.
Fullkrug made his first appearance since 10 January – his head coach’s first game in charge – in an injury-ravaged season that one feels could have been a fair sight more exciting with the monstrous frontman leading the line all year.
The German seems to be able to create himself a chance out of nothing, and his header hit the bar with 12 minutes to go before later substitute Emerson miscued the rebound just after coming on. He also won the challenge and set up the chance for Soucek to put wide late on.
Carlos Soler and Edson Alvarez joined him in coming on at the break, and the Irons made a marked improvement on their drab first-half display but couldn’t breach the hosts’ goal.
Once Potter has had a full summer with the squad and the opportunity for a blank canvas, it will be interesting to see what he can do at the London Stadium – but right now, his hands are pretty tied.
Mavropanos and West Ham are better off parting ways
There will be a clear-out and significant reshuffle in East London this year, that’s a given.
Konstantinos Mavropanos is one man who could benefit from departing West Ham in the summer window, and the Irons could do with an upgrade.
For the odd excellent game he has, the Greek international just doesn’t perform to the required level often enough and has been a considerable part of a team who have been defensively lacklustre far too often.
Mavropanos did not cover himself in glory for Strand Larsen’s first-half opener, and struggled consistently before the half-time interval despite improving with his team in the second 45 minutes.
On the whole, however, there are better and more organised centre-halves about – and West Ham should look to sell Mavropanos and spend within their means on an improvement.
| Premier League – goals conceded 2024-25 | Goals conceded |
| Southampton | 70 |
| Leicester City | 65 |
| Ipswich Town | 62 |
| Wolves | 58 |
| WEST HAM UNITED | 50 |
West Ham should hijack Strand Larsen – but price tag partly their own fault
West Ham were linked with a move for Wolves frontman Strand Larsen last summer, but reportedly turned down the chance to sign him.
Potter desperately needs new striker arrivals in the summer, with Ferguson only in on loan, and Michail Antonio and Danny Ings out of contract.
Strand Larsen could have been an option, but conceding the winner to him on Tuesday evening has hardly helped their future cause in terms of the price tag Wolves could slap upon his shoulder – at least once they make his loan from Celta Vigo permanent for £25million at the end of the season.
With uncertainty around Matheus Cunha at Molineux, Strand Larsen has potential to become the key number nine for Vitor Pereira when his loan becomes permanent, meaning he would be a tougher catch for the foreseeable future.
Potter now knows first-hand what the Norwegian can offer, but it seems the ship has sailed – unless they can work some sort of three-way deal with Wolves and Celta. It would take huge funds, but they demonstrated with Max Kilman they can shift their financial weight about at Wolves’ expense.