The Millwall blueprint – let’s call it that – seems to be the perfect way to get at West Ham’s achilles heel.
It isn’t as if it is anything new. Even more than a year ago, under Graham Potter West Ham looked panic – stricken at the back with Hermansen, Mavropanos and Kilman -along with Jean Clair Todibo – making a terrible start to the Premier League with eleven goals shipped in the first three games, seven from set pieces.
And at times this season, panic still reigns. Opposition teams know exactly how to get at Nuno’s wobbly defence. Winning games – crucial to West Ham’s promotion aspirations – is virtually impossible if you keep giving away one or two goal head starts.
Neither Kilman or Mavropanos get their heads onto the ball from set pieces, ‘standard practise’, sadly, and another goal conceded: This time against Millwall
When the next team up to face West Ham already know exactly how to expose their vulnerabilities, then there’s something very wrong in the Irons’ preparation and set up for these second tier matches, just as there was last year when the same weakness got them relegated.
Former West Ham player turned Lincoln assistant manager Chris Cohen summed it up perfectly:
“We need to threaten the opposition, we need to create some chaos in their penalty area ” (weareimps.com)
…We have to fly into the next game…We want to create some chaos in West Ham’s penalty area and see if they’re able to live with us at our best levels.”
Cue long balls and set pieces, then, reigning down on Hermansen and his centre backs. It isn’t rocket science and as West Ham fans we’ve sat and watched time and time again as teams have exploited the Hammers’ vulnerability against high balls. It seems the message has got out there – even as far as Lincoln – and now it’ll be standard fayre for the rest of the season.
And for Nuno’s promotion aspirations, he’d better find a way of instilling a bit more ‘warrior’ into his defenders who seem unwilling or unable to dominate their own box or else, as Cohen calls it, ‘the chaos‘ will continue all season and the vital points required for promotion will drip away with each scrappy goal conceded.
Apart from what you say MT and debating who should play in defence, must also keep opponents at arm’s length and not get pinned back into our own half conceding corners & long throw-ins, one after another.
you need to defend and then to push up the pitch and pin them back. We all know this, so not saying anything new. Against PL opposition very difficult, but we ought to be able to take the game to Lincoln and help out the backline in this way, as well.
Teams are so well practiced & trained in pressing high up a pitch, it is not easy to counter, but we should be able to with the quality of player we have for this division – over to the WHU manager & coaches to show this is the case.