Two names seemed – deservedly – absent from the long list of players singled out for culpability amongst the anger and consternation felt across fan channels and the wider football media this weekend, as pre-season favourites West Ham slumped to their third home defeat of the season.
Jarrod Bowen, without saying, put in a shift and dragged the Hammers back once with a trademark run and low shot: But two of West Ham’s youngsters both put in solid shifts, despite the result, and are deserving of warmer words than the rest of the starting line up.
A dreadful team performance must not weigh too heavily on youngsters’ shoulders
Edvin Austbø, starting in place of Manor Solomon, injected pace and directness on the left hand side that was deserving of praise -yet his efforts were largely lost amongst the justifiable criticism of the team’s performance.
West Ham’s Edvin Austbø – another one who escaped criticism amidst a crap team performance
This Norwegian does have an exciting future providing Nuno doesn’t decide to evict him from the starting line up after one bad result that wasn’t of the youngster’s making.
Similarly Airidas Golambeckis, in just his second start of the season – only eighteen years old, remember, deserves special praise despite an error and part-culpability in at least one of the Baggies’ strikes.
Playing alongside the tentative Maximilian Kilman would tax the abilities of any decent centre half and it is vital for West Ham’s future that he doesn’t find himself banished back to the u21’s after one start and a result that reflects badly on the whole team.
Mavropanos and Kilman make that kind of mistake every week yet seem to get selected without fail.
There was considerable fan encouragement for the youngster and I’d certainly pick him ahead of Max Kilman on present form.
These young players are the future of the club and need an arm around their shoulders after both put in a shift: The pair should certainly hold their heads up high and expect further first team outings, after neither of the duo let their manager, their team mates or the supporters down.
Golem was at fault for the second, but he’s still learning I guess
Austbø made that shocking pass that West Brom scored from. I’m not slagging but just making an observation that he wasn’t John the Baptist either
It’s all a big mess currently, the scattergun selections and tactics and substitutions every week create confusion and a lack of continuity.
The strikers are struggling to score but they are being switched around every week with different attacking support which makes it harder to hit any form.
The midfield is weirdly not competitive and not supporting defence or attack enough which results in less chances and a more exposed defence.
The defence is leaking loads of goals and none of the CBs, especially Kilman, is good enough. Even Mavropanos needs a better partner to play at a good level. Golambekis at least has the potential to be better than them.
In any confused mess a few players may play well but it doesn’t matter.
I feel like the whole problem with the starting 11 was that we had no presence in the opposition box. Austbo and Bowen skinned their full backs on a number of occasions but had nobody to hit in the penalty area. The opposition flooded our box and profited from our hesitancy. That seems to be the way to beat us at the moment. We need a rethink, and quickly.
Definitely pick Golambeckis he was fine. He was probably amazed by the overall poor standard of play around him. Still no idea why Kilman let that long ball go right past him for their 1st goal. Academy players have plenty to learn I am sure but in certain aspects such as team play/cohesiveness, they are used to better than the 1st team.