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Dismal Hammers second best in Germany

Altona 93 3 Irons 3

Winston-Reid-714445You don’t really want to read too much into pre-season matches because a very poor set of results can often be followed by a top start. Any player will tell you that. The opposite is also true!

However, when a Premier League team is undone by a level four German team via a couple of set pieces, have their captain sent off for bad mouthing the ref and end up scrambling their way to a 3-3 draw, it’s very hard indeed not to find many positives.

Not even the 75th minute arrival of Javier Hernandez, who promptly saw a typical shot cleared off the line, can take away the sour taste left in the mouth.

The side ended up scrambling their way to a 3-3 draw courtesy of an own goal and demonstrated that the targets set at this stage are a little way off being been achieved.

For the record the goals came fromย : Brisevac 5, Thiessen 39, Stode 58 for the Germans with the Hammers grabbing theirs viaย Martinez 6, Ayew 53, Du Preez 72(og).

This is no place to go into depth on the run of play, nor have I any appetite to do so, because frankly – apart from Winston Reid’s foul mouthed outburst which saw him sent off on the stroke of half time- the Irons didn’t look that interested until they went 3-2 down and had to give it some. I except Marko Arnutovich from those comments – he looked terrific.

But the reality is the Hammers were horrible at the back, lacked invention in midfield and created few chances. Yet here we are one friendly game away from the start of the season at Old Trafford and although we are still two or three key players down there can be no excuses for this performance other than the fear of injuries.

That is understandable but the memory of those lack of chances created and the dreadful defending for those two set piece goals just won’t go away.ย As for Winston – not good enough mate even if the ref was a bit harsh.

Next it’s Manchester City on Friday and as things are it’s hard to look forward to that one. Here I am on the back foot and the season hasn’t started.

Yes, I could be over-reacting but after this game we need something a little bit special in Rejkjavik in three days time if we aren’t to spend the next week to ten days in the usual state of high West Ham anxiety.

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

12 comments on “Dismal Hammers second best in Germany

  1. For those brave enough to watch the hammers play Man City it is being shown on Eurosport 1 ( Channel 410 on Sky) starting 3pm

  2. Lol High anxiety,you crack on Hugh but as long as there is beer in pubs whats to be anxious about in life ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

  3. Until lanzini gets a partner in midfield to help create chances its gonna be same as last year!
    We are poor defensively still , zabba can’t cover back post as he will always be out jumped , 3 good quality centre halves are needed, oggy IMO is the pick of the bunch ish? Chieck ,antonio, and sakho need to be in this side , we need to score more than what we conceded because we are gonna conceded bundles IMO , west ham v manc city on Friday is a huge game make no mistake , we will need to get a result before we play their sisters !! As I can see a heavy defeat , what the hell does ayew bring to the table ? Yes he scored a well taken goal but the rest of the game he was pants ? He’s a passenger the injury jinx is a odds on fave for the bookies every year ๐Ÿ˜Ž keV get on it mate ๐Ÿ˜‚

  4. It isnt all bad the pre-season gives the armchair managers a chance to hone their match thread skills before the big kick off lol.

    They must have Bilic shaking in his boots.

  5. Who cares it was a friendly. We have played 25 players over 4 or was it 5 matches, changing whole sides at half time on occasion. I never watched the match because I had better things to do than to watch a workout. If I’d wanted to watch a workout I’d have put of the wife’s exercise dvds on but as it was the pub was open. Chill out people, it don’t matter, nor does ManC on Friday. Manure matters in a couple of weeks.

    Anyone remember Avram winning 12 out 12 matches preseason? We went down. I rest my case.

  6. Same as John,i was having a few after work shandies.Cant stand preseason friendlies they bore me shytless.

  7. I think I am really going to enjoy this season. Some of the optimism on here earlier today was getting me really depressed. All that stuff about top six finishes, top class players joining & god knows what else. I was getting worried that there would nothing to moan about, but now I really can’t wait for the season to start. Sack Bilic. Sell Carroll. And Noble. Shoot the owners. We are doomed. Pour me another Guinness to drown my sorrows. Ah bliss-another football season awaits ….

    • Lol not long too wait 64 and you will be happy as a pig in shyt again for 9 months ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚

    • Sounds fabulous H64 count me in for a good old moan up about nothing important ๐Ÿ˜€ ๐Ÿ˜€ ๐Ÿ˜€

  8. C’mon, these games mean very little.

  9. Yeah I watched it and thought offensively we created loads of chances, our defence was poor in the first half and a little better in the second, I think Altona actually played pretty well, we need to tighten up, Martinez looked superb allbeit against 4th tier opposition he was a real handful took his goal brilliantly and could have scored another, Chicharito on another day would have had a hatrick and earned us a penalty in less than half an hour, I actually think the midfield of Obiang and Fernandes was very good both passing the ball well, Declan Rice got his positioning wrong for their third goal jumping underneath the ball but he had only just come on and then he made a superb goal line clearance, I have watched all the preseason games now and have to agree with what many have said Declan Rice has been superb, I would argue in midfield he has been a revelation and could easilly play alongside Obiang because he appears to have good judgement in staying back or going forward and he has a real turn of pace, I was actually complaining to myself a lot about Andre Ayew who was a headless chicken then he scored that screamer, for me he should never be played as a number 10 he is a winger if he sticks to that and doesn’t get drawn infield too much he will probably be better for us. I hope they give Martinez a shot against City it would be interesting to see if he can be such a threat against a good team, for a 20 year old he looks to be something special. Let’s be honest two of their goals and one of ours should never have been scored, it was a game with more substitutions than any I can remember and it was played at breakneck speed. I am worried about the centre of defence who refuse to close the ball down but other than that there are encouraging signs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see us get hammered by Man City because of that unsettled defence but if we learn quickly from these mistakes we can look forward to the season.

  10. Best part was Martinez nice goal w His left foot. Expect him yo stay in squad. Masuaku looked better than Cressie.
    But I agree w 32 attack isn’t our problem hasn’t really been except for lack of striker and Dimi leave think Ryad should be Snod or if Feg is sold replacement.
    But we needed a CB still think we do one experienced in mid 20s maybe and fit. With Reid and Ogbonnas injuries and Fonte is hit and miss. Think Slav will go back to back 3 again but offensively think back 4 is better and wouldn’t mind seeing Toni and Chicarito play together in a 4-4-2

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