West Ham: Graham Potter leaves door open to new signing amid centre-back shortage. Injured Jean-Clair Todibo won’t return soon as Konstantinos Mavropanos ban adds to defensive headache
Honeymoon over: Graham Potter was unable to prevent his West Ham side being beaten 2-0 by Crystal Palace. Graham Potter has left the door open to the possibility of West Ham signing a new centre-back this month. The Hammers head coach bemoaned the club’s shortage of options in central defence.
Konstantinos Mavropanos will serve a one-match suspension following his dismissal for two yellow cards in Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat by Crystal Palace, while Jean-Clair Todibo is sidelined with a lingering calf strain.
West Ham are already in the market for a striker in January, and new manager Potter was unable to rule out a centre-back also being targeted.
“We’ve got a few challenges to fix, but that’s normally why you end up at a football club in January: because there’s things to do,” he explained.
“We’ve got some options there internally. And then, of course, we’re always looking for options to help the team.
“JC [Todibo] is going to be a while before he comes back, so there’s no immediate solution there. It’s a calf strain and lower-limb issue. He’s going to be a bit of time yet. We have to look for what we have.”
Potter praised Palace for their performance at the London Stadium and lamented his side’s “leggy” display.
“I think Crystal Palace played well, they deserved to win,” he admitted. “We were a little bit passive and looked a bit leggy. We were unable to sustain long enough attacks.
“We’ve got to accept the fact we’re trying to implement some new things.”
A triple substitution on 56 minutes saw Potter hand 18-year-old midfielder Lewis Orford his senior debut in midfield, while Ollie Scarles came on at left-back, having been handed his first domestic start in Potter’s opening game in charge.
“I thought he was good; neat and tidy,” Potter said of Orford.“He’s impressed in training. Everybody at the club is speaking very highly of him. I think him and Ollie were positives. On a day when there weren’t very many, we’ll have to stick with those.”
