Graham Potter lets rip at West Ham players after opening day embarrassment

West Ham suffered a bruising 3-0 loss to newly-promoted Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, cranking up the pressure on Graham Potter just one game into the new season

Graham Potter slammed West Ham’s players for failing to do the ‘basics of football’ in their nightmare opening-day defeat. The Irons were hammered 3-0 by newly-promoted Sunderland, who began life back in the Premier League with a dream result.

Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris is already a fifth of the way to matching Potter’s tally of a mere five Premier League wins since he was appointed by West Ham in January. Two of those were against sides who were ultimately relegated last season and Irons fans are fearing the same for their club this term.

The hosts took the lead after 61 minutes through Eliezer Mayenda before Dan Ballard and Wilson Isidor made it a comfortable margin of victory. Potter was furious with his team’s display and challenged them to ‘really improve’ on the basics ahead of Friday’s home game against former club Chelsea.

“Very disappointing,” the West Ham manager bemoaned to Sky Sports post-match. “The second half was not good from us in terms of the basics.

“First half was quite good, we controlled the crowd and were unfortunate not to score. The first goal was always going to be important. Basics of football we have to really improve.

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“It is the first day, we know these things can happen as much as we don’t like it to happen. We have a big game on Friday, we have to react and do a lot better.”

In his interview with club media, Potter doubled down on his scathing assessment. “The result is obviously bad for us, and the second half was really disappointing,” he continued.

“In the first half, I thought we were good. I thought we did lots well in terms of quieting the crowd down and creating some opportunities. We could have scored, I thought, but nevertheless, we felt okay.

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“We started a bit slow in the second half, and from out of nowhere, a goal goes in and it becomes difficult. It was a game where probably the first goal, especially here with the environment, was going to be challenging for us. But we tried to push.

“But in trying to push, we opened ourselves up. The second goal’s a poor one – a mistake leads to a cheap set-piece, and then we didn’t do the basics well enough in the second phase. We haven’t done the basics well enough – it’s as simple as that, and we have to improve that.”

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