Chicharito has told the Hammers players that they simply lost to a better team at Old Trafford and must now “improve and keep working.”
The Mexican striker said: “Of course, it could have gone better for me and for us. Nobody wants to lose 4-0 on any pitch in the world, but they were a little bit better, more ruthless and after the second goal, things went very positively for them.”
“They are Manchester United and they finished us off.
“We did everything and we tried to play as well as we can, but Manchester United pushed us a little bit back because they are a great team.
“We had chances even after they scored their second goal, when we had a header from Arnie which hit the crossbar.
“It’s the first game of the season and obviously we are not happy with the result. We played a team who were in better form than us. We can say a lot of stuff, but that won’t change anything if I say it.
“We lost to a better team and now we have to improve and keep working.”
A timely and well-intended comment from Chicharito..
While we were taken to the cleaners, we did travel to Manchester with a somewhat weakened team; when Lanzini, Antonio, and Kouyate return, we will stronger, and I hope, more creative and inventive!
That said, it seems that Bilic is back to his old tricks again, by employing the counter-attacking 4-2-3-1 formation. This can be a great formation, if you have defensive midfielders like Paul Pogba and a lone-wolf striker like Ronaldo.
Chicharito was isolated in this game, and our midfield was very weak.
Surely Bilic must be aware that Chicharito needs a second striker to be most effective; furthermore, he has to do something to strengthen the mid-field, where many contests are won and lost; perhaps we should start the game with a 4-4-2, a 3-5-2, or possibly a 3-4-3.
If Slav insists on using the wrong formation for the players he has, we will run into the same problems encountered last season, except the Exit Door may open sooner than expected.
On the positive side, Zabaleta played quite well, and it was wonderful to see Sakho make his long-awaited return. If his fitness holds up, he could make a very good striking partnership with Chicharito. I expect the presence of Sakho, and the speed of Antonio to improve our chances against Southampton!
Good Post!
Just shows how much we miss Our Lanzini! We don’t have midfield players capable of taking 1 or 2 on and creating space for Arnie and Chico.Antonio’s pace alongside Lanzini with Arnie and Chico making runs is what we need.
Good post max, matic played in as the 1 , 3-1-4-2. Swept up everything 😉
Carvhalo if he comes can do this job 😊
Let’s go do the saints , if not then we have a catch up game again and the sewers will be overflowing 😕
Agree Well said Laz.Matic bossed that game why Chelsea sold him to a rival is maddening. Hopefully if one thing from this game it shows how much we need A proper DCM and will get Carvahlo here looks promising. And only reason we didn’t stick with back 3,that saw us beat Spurs and 7 games only 1 lost at end of season is Zab isn’t a Wingback. Going against Lukaku and Man U should have been Back 3 with Rice who was best part of game with Marko.
If Carvalho comes in I would like to see a 4-3-3 deployed with Lanzini on left of Carvahlo getting in behind Marko and Chicharito think that would work well against more defensive teams.
Good posts Max and Laz agree with both, glad to hear Little Pea’s good advice, one other undeniable truth is that we concede less goals when James Collins plays we have to be harder to beat, we will score goals and beat the mid and lower table teams but if players aren’t going to track runners or put their bodies on the line to make blocks then we will struggle against the top six.
I also would like to see Ginge in the back line instead of Ogbonna but i think yesterday, even if we’d had Winston, Ginge. Ogbonna and Fonte in the back, we still would’ve been hard pushed to keep out that onslaught. I know we were missing key players and it’s not the ideal way to kick off the new season but it’s out of the way now. It was a big ask to try and get anything from this match. If anything, next weeks opposition will feel like a breath of fresh air.
Its been a good tester and shows our weaknesses and exactly where we need to put in more work. For me the worst player yesterday was probably Obiang. He gave away almost every ball (which lead to the first goal). Was weak in the tackle and just totally lost in midfield. Not a glimmer of the player he showed himself to be last season. Hurry back Cheick & Manu, get Carvalho in there and then we can build on a more sure footed & creative midfield.
Personally, I was pleased to see Rice getting 30 minutes or so. He came on, wanted the ball, and looked assured on it. He was quite easily brushed aside by bigger, stronger players though, so will need to improve his upper body strength, but it’s great to see him being blooded in the first team. Let’s hope we don’t end up back in the lower third again, as if we are after 4 or 5 games, I fear the youngsters might have to sit out yet another season…
Rice was best part and Marko was surprisingly one of best defenders:)
We’ll said little pea ……. but why on earth play him up on his own?????
Did we really not learn anything from last year.
We give the ball away, no-one can keep possession for more than 10 seconds.
Rice looked like the only one who has the ability to control the game outside of Lanzini and the ONLY positive out of the game.
Ayew is simply awful and I said the same last year – pound for pound probably our worst signing.
Can Bilic change his negative way of playing?
Only one game and United looked good, but we have to be better than this.