Jarrod Bowen has not played a bad game for the Hammers since arriving at the club.
He’s a typical David Moyes signing – a guy who tore it up in the Championship and has adjusted to life in the Premier League in a real hurry.
He has never looked out of place on the big stage and last night again regularly caught the eye in what was a disappointing outcome to some real energy and effort from him and the Irons team.
With Brighton on the agenda for the 27th, Southampton the 29th and Everton on New Years Day he will be looking for much better.
With two away games in there it’s not going to be an easy holiday period but hopefully with Mikey Antonio restored to the team we shall see a cutting edge so desperately missed last night.
Like most of us he believed we deserved more from the Chelsea game saying: ““At 1-0, I think we were always in the game and in the second half we were pushing and pushing and just waiting for the right moment, but then they scored the second goal which was unfortunate for us, the way the [Timo Werner] shot rolled into Tammy’s feet and he puts it away,” Bowen observed.
“They then scored another one straight away which kind of killed the game, so we feel like we shouldn’t have been on the end of a 3-0 defeat because we played really well with the ball and without the ball as well.
“We had a lot of chances and we limited them playing out from the back and they were just kicking it longer, which was a great credit to us, the way we pressed without the ball.
“I feel at 1-0 we were massively in the game and we just needed a goal, but it didn’t come, then they went up the other end and scored two really quickly which put the game to bed.
“Fair play to them, they’re a really good team and we want to be challenging up against these top teams and after the performances we’ve put in this season, there’s no reason why we can’t.”
A frustrating night, we couldn’t even get a shot on target when we were on top,highlighted by Haller heading a wonderful cross wide of the post. He needs to watch the Chelsea goalscorer to see how to head the ball.
Mark Noble has been brilliant for us but he should not be playing against the top teams. Fornals and Haller continue to frustrate, Haller does score excellent goals but not enough while Fornals defends well but cannot score.
Hopefully last night was a blip, and how encouraging it is to say we were disappointed with the game against Chelsea.
Let’s get back to wing backs and getting the best out of the players with the addition of a central defender, midfielder and striker in the January window.
Although 3 – 0 probably flattered Chelsea, we deserved to come away with nothing. We simply didn’t create enough chances when we got into the final third. Haller has had his chance and blown it, he offers absolutely nothing up top. We’re going to need to invest in a goal scorer in Jan, as I hate to break it to you – Antonio is not the solution.
Unfortunately, although the Hammers have improved in certain areas, we still have this “habit” of conceding late goals in a match with say 15 minutes to go when 1-0 down, ala Man Utd and last night again… We are suspect to any counter attacking play that involves speedy attackers… Gosh please, no more Noble, surely we must move on. Snodgrass or Benrhama would have offered usore… Said it time and time again, we do not have a cutting edge, Haller is not the answer, Fornals battles to put the guilt edge chances away that come his way…. Trouble on the horizon with so many games in quick succession.. Squad not big enough, (ie quality), we look so leggy at times.. I hate to think what might happen if Rice or Soucek get injured, Antonio is becoming a source of much anxiety when looking at his “injury” record.. becoming a sick note unfortunately.. Fingers crossed because tough games on the horizon.. Need a quality striker ASAP..
Bowen has been a great signing. Can play #9 if needed. Is needed.
Still learning and will only improve.
Strange how reluctant Sky pundits were to show or talk about the disallowed Bowen goal. Couldn’t see why it wasn’t good. And why no VAR check? Do they only use it when it suits them?
Has there ever been a more frustrating West Ham player than Haller? Surely when playing as the lone striker, you have to stay central. If the ball arrives in the 6 yard box you must be there to finish it off. Haller was out on the wing quite often.
Why does the ball rarely stick to him when knocked forward?
Why was Noble started instead of Benrahma or Snodgrass?
Why was Noble, who was completely ineffectual in the first half, not subbed instead of Fornals?
When 3-0 down, why bring on a full back when we have an international forward on the bench?
So many baffling questions, it’s given me a headache.
Apart from when Bowen was marking Thiago Silva for some reason on set pieces. Silva got away from Bowen all too easily and scored. Bowen was caught napping otherwise Chelsea wouldn’t have been one nil up.
Silva got away for him twice. Still learning.
Bowen and coufal seem to play well every game. I couldn’t see why the Bowen goal was disallowed. Couldn’t see anything wrong with it. Should have been one all. Then the Declan goal was offside but were talking fine margins. Thought we were the better team fir large parts of the game. There was one moment when Haller was through on goal I thought but he was too slow then decided to cut inside and ran straight into two Chelsea defenders. I think if that had been mickey Antonio he’d have been away from the defenders and one on one with the goalkeeper. On another day we would have won that game. It was never a three nil game. I think we can go into the next game with a lot of belief still. We are still a good team. We are two players away from being a top team.