West Ham have them, the same as every club has them: But ours seem to be the most irksome. Whether it be – in the old days – Bolton’s Kevin Davies or current nemesis Callum Wilson from Newcastle leading the ‘goals against’ Hammers tally with 12: There are irksome, irritating players who seem to love to score against us and always seem to achieve the inevitable and grab a goal, even when we think we are headed for a result.
Yesterday Dominic Calvert Lewin, very much one in the ‘loves to score against us’ category, was kept more or less silent and for that, I do feel West Ham’s defensive duo deserve some credit.
Calvert Lewin has netted six times against West Ham, three in the Premier League and all of those three at London Stadium. You may remember it was Calvert Lewin who provided the winner last season in Everton’s 1-0 win at Stratford. So it was pleasing after the event to look back and find some kind of positive from that performance. The consistency of full back pairing of Todibo and Kilman gives us a foundation to build on now, if not something to shout about as yet.
I lost count of the headed clearances which the two completed successfully: It did feel that Everton were wasting their time with high crosses into the box with Kilman and Todibo looking secure.
Max Kilman himself was actually quite upbeat when speaking to whufc.com, perhaps being relieved after registering the clubs first clean sheet in fifteen games we can forgive him his contentment with the mediocrity of the overall performance. The Hammers £40 million man confirmed:”
We have to take the positives from the game,” said Kilman, 27. “I think our defending is probably the biggest positive – we defended well throughout.
“Going up against Dominic Calvert-Lewin was a tough test for me. He’s very powerful and has a really good leap, so I had to make sure I was ready to go up against him, and thankfully we were able to keep him at bay.
“From a defensive point of view, not conceding is important. It’s something you can build a foundation from, so we need to do that and hopefully we can get more clean sheets as the season goes on.
“I think in the first half we took a bit of time to settle into the game, but in the second half we created some really good opportunities, and were actually unfortunate not to come away with the win, so there were lots of things to be pleased about across the pitch.”
Steady on, Max. we’re all happy that no goals went in – but anyone watching the game would take issue with that last half a dozen words!
perhaps, Martin, you should have said that it was all awful (most it it WAS) so that everyone would have the opportunity to moan at you about all the gloom, doom and negativity. just a thought 😉 seems you can’t win
Fact is that Everton were by far better in the first half and could have gone in with a lead at half time they seem to tire in the second half not being able to beat Everton is a disgrace with the quality we have we should have blown them away and certain people say it was a improvement on what exactly it has to have been one of the most boring games in the league for god knows how long J L is not good enough to be a manager in the premier league the team have no system of play the players are kicking off against each other as well as the opposition just ask spurs and that is down to J L and the way he treats the players his arrogant attitude it makes you wonder why Sullivan is hell bent on keeping he should never have been made manager he’s absolutely awful
Wow ..seriously? …sorry but ur clutching at straws…we got a clean sheet at home to Everton..is that progress.
…we can tslk and talk about this ..but the simple fact is , j lo is an awful manager end of …he will take us nowhere and will just keep falling out with players every week..his man management is the worst I’ve seen …no wonder Milan were going to protest if he took charge…but us mugs did ….this will just drag on for months…..HE.IS NOT THE AWNSER..its like moyes the 2nd ..they need to pay compensation to a club who hsve a young hungry up to date manager who can take us forward…we have no tactic identity at all..the players look like headless chickens..and the work rate and desire is literally non existent…you can tell prob 3/4 of the squad hate him ….
Good and fair appraisal Martin…shame your last 15 words spoilt it.
lol
Positives ? I don’t think that I saw any. Against better teams a clean sheet and a draw might have been a positive but against Everton at home, really. Everton were poor was a marker of just how poor we were.
Exactly