Lukasz Fabianski – like most others – was a deeply disappointed Hammer after the draw against his former club Arsenal yesterday afternoon.
The reality is of course that we need another game at the weekend to continue the rhythm we have built up over the season but that is going to be interrupted by an annoying and risky international break.
Quite apart from the usual injury worries we have the ongoing concerns of the pandemic and possibility of players needing to be ultra careful.
Our Czech players travel to Estonia, England fly to Albania whilst the Poles go to Hungary during the next fortnight.
Thankfully, only one away game each but the worries and anxieties don’t relax until the lads are all back at Rush Green and declared free of injury and infection.
Fab travels to link up with the Poles following a draw against the Gunners which has left him deflated and talking to www,whufc.com he explained his feelings.
He said: “The season so far has been really good and that we are disappointed with drawing against Arsenal at home shows you how far we’ve come compared with what happened to us last season.
“We’re not happy with the result. Obviously we started so well in the first half and really dominated the first 20 to 30 minutes.
“Then, maybe we felt confident with being 3-0 up that we weren’t going to get anything against us, but Arsenal really started to pick it up. They started to get the rhythm going and we got punished on a few occasions.
“We sat back too deep and let them control the game too much [after we went 3-0 up].
“We have improved a lot and we want to keep on pushing really strong to the end of the season, keep performing and getting a good amount of points on the board. We want to finish as high as we can.”
Read a few articles today and they all say that the players knew we were sitting back and defending the lead. If they know why do they do it? Admittedly by the law of averages the opposing team will have their opportunities but I was always told that defence starts with the attackers. Wether you’re in your seat or your armchair you can see it happening.
Could it be the managers cautious mind set infecting the players? If the players knew it was happening then obviously, so did the manager. I didn’t notice the manager urging them upfield or to retain the ball more. Why not? We were 3-0 up playing well within ourselves. Why change what’s working so well for us? We went on the back foot trying to defend what we had. Mr Moyes did the same thing from the first whistle last week, happy to defend the point we started with. We just can’t do that against good teams.
I think Moyes has worked wonders for us but we must ditch this negativity that lurks in the background. Think where we could be without this negativity and anxiety continually creeping into our game. 3-0 up? Go for a fourth. That’s what top sides do.
I know people will say Moyes can’t win, but the lack of anyone protecting Cresswell yesterday was so obvious for me.
Arsenal just told their midfielders get the ball wide as Chambers just strolled along unmarked for the whole second half.
All their goals and most of their attacks come from there.
It took me back to last year’s defending when the same problem occurred.
For me Johnson could have done a job in the second half against Chambers.
Oh and one other thing, can someone have a word with Bowen and tell him to stop diving and stay on his feet, he’s getting worse than Grealish.
That left hand flank and corner has been a concern for ages and several teams have exploited it – Villa come to mind (Grealish went over there with success after being blocked-out by Vlad). We need a stronger LB, much as I love Cress he’s so often beaten and currently doesn’t have Oggy there to back him up.
Maybe Arthur will return soon to ease Cresswell’s task.
What puzzles me is when we started we were playing the ball around with little one twos and really dominating. Then 3-0 up we start lumping the ball forward from Fabianski and mates in the hope that either Soucek or Antonio will get a flick on – but to who ? And it didn’t work anyway, but we persisted until we were 3-3, then started to play a bit more.
Not sure why they stopped playing the ball which is when we are at our most effective. The occasional lumped ball can be a good surprise tactic but not continuously. If we have the ball then they don’t should be our mantra and we need to learn that possession is king.
Very disappointing- I seem to be writing that too many times lately!
Hopefully a learning curve experience. We just need to learn from the game. Never relax and enjoy the game until it’s over.
COYI
I still think if accidental handball is not a penalty, then accidental own goals should not be allowed. Same difference? Soucek certainly did not intentionally deflect the wide shot past Fabianski. Awesome Dawson’s effort was a little more dubious. Arsenal’s third should have been disallowed with the game stopped for a head injury – I had a headache!
COYI
I think that’s called “clutching at straws” Taff 😃
As much as I hate saying it some credit must go to Arsenal who changed their tactics and shape to counter our attacks.
well said Graham – good to see some logic such as that on here. There’s two sides on the pitch after all