Freddie Potts leaves boss 'angry' as staggering post-West Ham stat emerges

Freddie Potts’ record, since leaving West Ham United for Belgian giants Club Brugge over the summer, is near-perfect.

The Hammers academy graduate has played 14 games for the Black and Blues. He’s won twelve of them, including two out of three in the Champions League.

Potts triumphed 3-0 over Jean-Clair Todibo’s RC Lens at the Jan Breydel Stadium in their most recent European fixture. Before that, Potts helped Club Brugge stun Inter Milan at the San Siro.

Back in August, Potts said he had no regrets about leaving West Ham. How things have gone for him since then will only have strengthened that stance; Club Brugge well placed to secure a spot in the knockout rounds of the Champions League and top of the domestic table with 27 points from a possible 30.

For the first time, though, coach Ivan Leko will have to do without the former West Ham United midfielder.

Freddie Potts picked up his fifth booking of the season already when Club Brugge beat Zulte-Waregem 4-2 away from home on Friday night.

With a staggering 85 per cent win rate in Belgian football, Leko will be praying that his side can maintain their exceptional record without their midfield metronome against fifth-place Anderlecht.

“That is very unfortunate,” Leko sighed, wishing he had removed Potts at the break. “I said something about it for the first time at half-time. And now I’m angry with myself, because you get what you talk about.

“It will be a challenge for the team again, because Freddie has been important to us since day one.”

Potts endured a difficult start to life in Brugge. Many questioned what he really brought to the table early on. But that is sort of the point with Freddie Potts. He seldom does anything particularly highlight-reel worthy. What he does do, though, is the simple stuff, and he usually does it well.

Take the exhilarating 4-3 win at Inter, for instance. Up against elite talent such as Hakan Calhanoglu and Nicolo Barella, Potts won the most tackles [four] and won the joint-most duels [seven] of any player away to the 2010 Treble winners.

Leko sums up the good parts of Potts’ game pretty nicely. If you expect Hollywood passes and the odd long-range screamer, well you’ve come to the wrong place. Watch him for an entire 90 minutes, though, and the effective simplicity of the 23-year-old’s game will shine through.

“Perhaps he wasn’t that attractive in your eyes,” Leko argues ahead of a midweek European clash with PSV Eindhoven. “But he is very important.”

An 85 per cent win rate certainly emphasises that.