Declan – yellow carded
Declan Rice is the second Hammer to express his dissatisfaction at the Hammers performance in Denmark last night.
Craig Dawson has made the same point but the skipper decided that he too would offer his view of a performance which left plenty to be desired.
Given the David Moyes approach is based on a strong defensive formation to concede a couple in a five goal match isn’t designed to impress although in fairness the lads were unused to an artificial surface which didn’t make life too easy.
However, in fairness to the home side they showed plenty of life at times and their first goal was surely more than avoidable.
We were also grateful to keeper Areola towards the end as the Danes pressed forward determined to grab a point from a game. Thankfully we held on.
Dec speaking to www.whufc.com made his opinions clear expressing that it was all about game management declaring
He said: “We could have been in control. It’s game management. We have got to keep the ball and keep it moving. We looked fluid after the first goal. We moved the ball well, played between the lines and moved them round. It’s disappointing to concede the two goals.
“The manager won’t be happy. We know they’re not good goals to concede. The main thing is we came here on the artificial grass – which we knew would be tough – and won.
“It was tough. Difficult. Really slippy. We’re not used to it. The ball moves really quick on it. We have to adapt and play on any surface. The main thing is we won and got the job done.
“I’m happy for Craig Dawson. He has had a tough couple of months. I’m delighted he’s with us. The fans love him. We love him.
“We did well last year in the Europa League and went quick out of the group. We want to do that here. We want to close the group as quickly as possible. You can see we’re starting to click as a team.”
I guess that the players all have higher expectations of themselves and each other and want to start flying again, but it takes time for players to gel and understand each other, although there are signs that they are slowly beginning to gain an understanding.
I was fuming during the game at times, but on reflection, I realised that ANYONE who has EVER played on an artificial pitch, would understand the performance. I still remember the advantage teams used to have back in the day when clubs were allowed to use artificial pitches.
Sounds to me like more and more Players are questioning David Moyes tactics. I cannot help but agree with them. Some say that the Subs nearly lost us the game. I say that Moyes tactics almost lost us the game. I saw a comment the other day from Antonio, who said if you concede a goal, Moyes makes you fall back and shut down. This cannot be allowed to go on, it makes things worse, you cannot recover a game by falling back.
We’ve looked more disorganised in defence since Stuart Pearce left.
I thought they made really heavy weather of it and were lucky to get away with it. They kept on giving the ball away far too easily, we’re definitely a bit lifhtweight in midfield!