If Graham Potter wants to avoid the sack, he has to drop James Ward-Prowse from the starting eleven and start his new signing Magassa. 

There has been a lot of problems at West Ham United this season but the midfield has probably been the biggest one of those, and a lot of that is down to James Ward-Prowse.

The 30-year-old isn’t the same player he was at Southampton, or even the player he was in his first season at West Ham United. He’s never been the greatest player, but he offered stability and tidiness in the midfield and had bags of quality from set pieces.

JWP became known for his set pieces and probably was the best in the world at freekicks and corners at some point. As we all know he hasn’t scored a freekick in his almost two and a half years at the club. His corners have also fell of a cliff after an excellent start under David Moyes, so what is the point in having him in the team?

I’d kind of get having a passenger in the team if he offered a threat from set-pieces, but in reality he doesn’t anymore. So we have a passenger in midfield without any benefits, and with Soucek in midfield too, you can see why we’ve been struggling.

Potter is under even more pressure after the loss to Crystal Palace with many at the club said to be in favour of sacking him and a loss to Everton on Monday night could mean the end of his spell in East London. However, if he wants to change that, he has to make this change.

Not only has JWP been playing badly, he played out of position in the base of midfield against Palace which raises the question, why did we sign Soungoutou Magassa.

The France U-21 International not starting yet would make sense if we were playing well, but the fact we’ve been awful and our midfield has been the main problem for that, there is no reason for Magassa to not be playing. He was a player Graham Potter and Kyle Macauley wanted at the club, so he needs to start playing him or there will be another reason to sack him.