Viewed in the harsh reality of the Premier League table, that three points secured against a weak Burnley side might not appear the be all and end all. After all, you’d expect West Ham to triumph against Scott Parkers’ side who are now cut adrift and pretty certain to be heading back to the championship.
The fine lines which can separate survival from failure in this league sometimes come down to the manager’s calls: As much as Nuno was widely slated last week for the wrong decisions against Chelsea, he deserves big credit for the calls he made today with selection, tactics and substitutes.
None braver than recalling ‘the Danish Flapper’ as one of my C and H colleagues calls Mads Hermansen.
For it was a choice, not a change through injury as we were hinting yesterday. Nuno made the call after Hermansen worked his socks off and impressed in training, according to football journalist Ben Dinnery on twitter who reported Nuno’s reason for leaving Alphonse Areola on the bench as being purely on merit:
‘No, no, not an injury. Mads has been working really well, and I think waiting patiently for his chance, so he has his chance!’
A massive call. Credit to the Dane for coping with the spectre of those first four games. And credit to Nuno for sticking with his gut. Can you imagine how he’d have been ripped apart this morning if Hermansen hadn’t have stood up and justified his selection?
One quality save, lots of routine catching and a couple of shaky moments of indecision: Having a decent back line protecting his goal definitely helped and Axel Disasi’s inclusion must have been music to Hermansen’s ears as he viewed a recall with some trepidation.
Hermansen’s game ended with the Dane justifying Nuno’s faith and starting on the road to rebuilding his career. Which can’t be bad at all.
Great whu never bowed to Nuno obsession about another goalkeeper.
Just good to see a West Ham team attacking, getting bodies in the box .
It’s been so refreshing to see Numo playing 2 strikers and 2 wingers .
So many years of one isolated striker at best ! Too many games this season of a false nine !!
Just so glad we have got back to playing football again and looking like we can score goals !
Good call dropping Areola ….he’s a clown and makes too many mistakes
Absolutely, watching a fluid, skillful, attacking WHU team for the 1st time in so many, many years. Like finally quenching a thirst when you forgot to bring any water with you.
We paid a lot of money for the madman and the reason was he was supposed to be an upgrade on Ariola and Fabianski. When you look at his record he’s only played a handful of games but he has the only two clean sheets this season. The three nil against Nunos Forest and the two nil against Burnley.
Burnley were poor, plain to see how they’re on a record run of poor form. I suspected we’d keep a clean sheet so I suspected we’d win 1-0, it turned out to be 2-0.
We did enough to beat them and take the points is what we needed to do.
Man U on Tuesday won’t be as easy but apart from the second half at Chelsea we’re not playing too badly.
Hopefully Nuno is learning. The subs were used better and Kilman stayed exactly where he belongs . We must stop funnelling back and trying to defend a lead . We don’t have the players to do it . Yesterday was a chance to improve our terrible goal difference which might become a significant factor but we started to sit in and defend.A better team than Burnley would have taken advantage again as did Chelsea.
Missed not seeing Pablo & Taty playing together, because of how they interchange positions so freely making it very hard for the other team, I would imagine. Wilson cannot do that, not his style of play either, he is better at other aspects of the game.
Not a criticism, Wilson scores goals and Pablo could then come on in the latter part of the game and press high, helping the team see out the game.
If Areola focuses on dominating the 6-yard as Hermansen did, it’ll get better and better for WHU. They are both working on punching out corners more (tough in crowded boxes). Takes you back when you see a keeper concentrating on catching the ball with 2 hands instead of palming it away – another difference between the 2 GKs.
Yes, we should all give a shout out to Hermansen, Mads if we don’t! He did well and grew in confidence.