00:00And it just felt like there wasn't any identity.
00:05Now, under David Moyes, we had an identity
00:07and it was an identity that we didn't really,
00:09we no longer wanted.
00:10We were happy for it.
00:11For a while, we were happy to be known as the team
00:14that were very defensive and very conservative
00:16and 10 men beyond the ball
00:18and beat teams on the counter attack.
00:20And it worked for a period of time.
00:21We wanted a more attractive identity.
00:24And we went from that
00:26to then not having any identity at all.
00:29So it was a frustrating start to the season.
00:31Given the expectations at West Ham,
00:33especially amongst the fan base,
00:34it's so much different now
00:35after what David Moyes achieved.
00:38It needed a manager to come in and really, you know,
00:41grab the ball by the horns and really take the club
00:44where the fans and where the club really feel
00:46as it should be.
00:47Not challenging the top four
00:49or winning European trophies every season,
00:52but challenging in the top half of the table
00:55at the very least.
00:56And Lopetegui, we just lost that under him, really.
01:00It was a very frustrating start to the season.
01:03Yeah, and then obviously Graham Potter comes in,
01:05as you say, a change that probably could have been made
01:08a bit earlier than it was.
01:10You know, he's ready for his second,
01:12you know, well, third shot in the Premier League
01:14in the top flight with another club.
01:17I mean, you sort of have to maybe think back
01:21to his Brighton days rather than his Chelsea spell.
01:23Obviously there was so much going on
01:25with the turmoil of the, you know, the amount of players,
01:27how he said he struggled to even get a training session on
01:30with 40 sort of senior players.
01:33There was a lot going on there.
01:34So you can't really judge him too much
01:36on the Chelsea job, I don't think.
01:38What are West Ham fans feeling?
01:40You know, what's his sort of biggest changes so far
01:43and the biggest challenges that he faced
01:45coming into West Ham after,
01:48obviously, the disappointment of Lopetegui?
01:51Well, first and foremost,
01:52after four games of Gran Potter being in charge,
01:55we've got an identity.
01:57Now, it's not the identity that we're going to have
01:59in a year's time under Gran Potter,
02:01but he's come in and we've got roles,
02:04responsibilities for the players.
02:05It's very clear tactics against Aston Villa
02:07in the Premier League on Sunday evening.
02:10Yes, you know, he hasn't got a striker.
02:13He's got a makeshift defence because of injury problems.
02:15He's kind of come in and already been faced
02:17with a lot of problems,
02:19but the team played really, really well
02:20and probably deserved to win the game in the second half.
02:22And, you know, under Lopetegui,
02:24after conceding in the eighth minute,
02:25we probably would have gone and lost that 2-3-4-0.
02:29So there's the big change already.
02:31He's got the team, you know, playing with a system,
02:33a system that suits the players at his disposal,
02:37and it's working.
02:39Yes, it's going to be up and down.
02:40We're not going to win every game
02:43and we're going to lose a few that perhaps
02:44we felt like we shouldn't lose on paper.
02:46Crystal Palace the other day being the big one at home,
02:50we went into that thinking we've just beaten Fulham,
02:52who are brilliant this season.
02:53We should be beating Palace at home
02:55when we lose that game 2-0.
02:57And it was kind of like,
02:57oh, that's not what we were expecting.
03:01But then you have to take a step back and go,
03:03well, like I said, he hasn't got a striker.
03:05He's got a makeshift defence.
03:06He's got a very slow and ageing midfield there,
03:09which was one of the biggest problems under Lopetegui.
03:11So he's got a lot of problems to fix,
03:13but already just by putting the players
03:16in the right positions and using these players
03:19to their strengths, to their actual qualities,
03:22we've got a team that can compete
03:24against the likes of Aston Villa away from home,
03:28even with four, five, six first team players out.
03:32So long-term, there's a lot of hope
03:34and a lot of promise, actually,
03:35that Graham Potter can come in
03:37and with a few transfer windows
03:39and a little bit of money to spend,
03:41can really build a team that can compete
03:44where West Ham fans and the club in particular
03:46really feel like it can, it should be,
03:49based on the last three or four years that we've had,
03:52and get back into the top 10 of the Premier League.
03:54If we can get back into Europe,
03:55that's what the fans want desperately.
03:57We've had such a great time over the last three years.
04:00And there's now promise and hope
04:03that Graham Potter is the guy.
04:05And there's a lot of fans going,
04:06he should have been the guy in the summer
04:09because look what he's achieved in two weeks.
04:12Think of what he could achieve
04:13if he had the £150 million to spend in the summer
04:16and he'd had the whole season.
04:18So it's still early days,
04:20but there's a far more positive feeling
04:25around the fan base at West Ham now
04:26than there was perhaps, what, three or four weeks ago.
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