West Ham United climbed out of the relegation places after producing one of the most extraordinary defensive displays you are ever likely to see in a 1–1 draw with Manchester City.
If I have witnessed a defensive performance like that before, I genuinely can’t recall it.
The sheer effort put in by this Hammers side to repel a hugely talented Man City team was nothing short of incredible.
City’s title-chasing attack repeatedly crashed against a brick wall made up of Jean-Clair Todibo, Konstantinos Mavropanos and goalkeeper Mads Hermansen for 97 relentless minutes.
Perhaps it’s slightly unfair to highlight just three individuals in what was ultimately a complete team performance. The others will get their due credit in the player ratings and in the days ahead. But those three stood out in a display packed with courage, discipline and concentration.
West Ham’s Defensive Wall Stuns Guardiola’s Side
Todibo’s reading of the game was as good as anything I can remember seeing from a centre-back. His pace, anticipation, composure and calmness on the ball produced one of the finest defensive displays in the Premier League this season.
Remarkably, he may not even have been West Ham’s best player.
As for Konstantinos Mavropanos, I’m already looking forward to diving into the numbers tomorrow to see just how many duels he won when I go full geek mode with the statistics.
But even without the data, it was obvious he was in full Gandalf mode when it came to dealing with Erling Haaland — effectively telling the Norwegian striker: “You shall not pass.”
Of course, there was also the small matter of Mavropanos scoring the goal which lifted West Ham out of the bottom three. Not bad for a defender who was also the FA Cup penalty shootout hero earlier in the week. Quite a few days’ work.
And then there was Hermansen.
Earlier this season a senior club official famously told Claret & Hugh that the goalkeeper was “a waste of £15 million.”
All I can say is that “Velcro gloves” Mads now looks like an absolute bargain. His willingness to catch crosses rather than punch them spread calm and confidence throughout the entire back line.
In truth, it was simply incredible stuff from a group of players who look like a band of brothers.
And that kind of team spirit is something we haven’t seen at West Ham for quite some time. Lovely stuff. COYI
Gonzo although we both correctly guessed the score I for one was not expecting what I see last night. Once we went 1 nil down I thought it was all over and a 3 or 4 nil result was coming our way. The team, no the squad were outstanding, everyone of them worked their socks off to get the result. Proud of them all.
Finally have a WHU team not giving games away through mistakes or poor selections by a manager, players who are fit for purpose and never look outclassed and are up for the fight with quite a bit of attacking skill talent in the team (Summerville, Bowen, Taty, …) which makes you dangerous against good opponents.
We do need a midfielder to play quick triangle passes with Fernandes, someone who will receive a pass from him, turn and move forwards (and vice versa), pass out wide/assist, etc. If Potts could strike up a good rapport with Fernandes on the pitch, that would add a lot to the makeup of the team (and he would see more playing time), but this is not happening – at least so far.
A weird game where some performances were excellent and 2 or 3 quite poor.
Hermansen great saves but looks tiny. Todibo,Mavro,Disasi,Diuof (his best game for us ) excellent. AWB awful. Soucek and Fernandes good.Taty quite poor,Pablo average, Bowen excellent. Strange.
How Mav’s head is still on his shoulders after the hit he tools from Haaland’s shot I’ll never know.
How he got back onto his feet and played out the final few minutes, I’ll never know.
I suspect when he wakes up in the morning he won’t know either! Probably have zero recollection of it.
Hope he gets checked out, the replay made it look brutal.
So much for the modern players being snowflakes.
Amazing effort all round, and the 1000 messaged from my Gooner mate seems to prove it!
Great defensive performance from three at the back. Also Souchek got his head on anything coming into the box. Fernandes ran back in to make some crucial last minute tackles. Proud of them all.