Lukasz Fabianski has never one to polish a defeat but reckons the Irons were particularly unlucky last night.
Given the number of chances we created and the manner of some of our misses it could hardly be otherwise.
Seb Haller scuffed one top chance when he came on, another effort from Michail Antonio hit the keeper’s knee and of course he was off target with a couple of others.
It would be a harsh critic who rounded on the manager or anyone else in such circumstances and it remains a match from which the irons certainly deserved a share of the spoils.
Now, however, dwelling will do no good whatsoever and it’s on to Carrow Road where Norwich are in Last Chance Saloon and that may not be the easiest situation for the Hammers.
Fab believes we have a real opportunity in front of us and it will be interesting to see how the manager approaches a game which as near as it’s possible falls into the must win category.
And Fab explained at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/july/09-july/lukasz-fabianski-we-have-see-norwich-great-opportunity : “We realise our situation and there is no point being negative and thinking today’s game was just bad luck,” “When you put all the things together, we were unlucky when it came to taking some of our chances today.
“There were some good moments, there were some bad moments, but we have to see Norwich as another great opportunity to get to a strong position in the table and further away from the bottom three, and that’s what we’ll try to do.”
“All the players who were missing through injuries are slowing coming back – Seb Haller, Arthur Masuaku and Robert Snodgrass is not far away – so hopefully in this very important moment, when you are playing games every few days, it’s good to have everyone fit and ready to go.
“Having Seb back, he is a proper striker and he can take a bit of pressure off Mikey because he’s been putting a lot of effort into every game, which will help the team for sure.”
“I think we’re all disappointed with the result and in some ways with the performance. We all knew what was at stake and this game could have put us in a very strong position, but we lost the game so again we are back in a difficult situation. Everything is still up to us, but it could have been a little bit different.
“Obviously we had our chances and we didn’t take them, which was one issue, and in some cases we were maybe a bit rushed with all our decisions.
“Maybe we could have been a bit more patient and creative around the box but, once we conceded, it was in our minds that we had to equalise really quick with something basic or simple and that didn’t happen and that put us under more pressure going into the second half, and we went even more direct when we had time to stick to the game plan.
The problem is we haven’t got a squad. There are too many fringe players who are on the bench but are not trusted enough to take any meaningful part in a match. The result is that the core of the team have now played too many matches in too short a time period. Norwich on the other hand have been rotating. Even though they have been losing we could reach the situation where if they are less fatigued their energy and stamina will give them the advantage. The likes of Rice and Soucek were running on empty long before the end of last night’s game and backing up so quickly again doesn’t look good
I agree, Moyes gets criticised for not using many subs but looking at our bench there isn’t anyone you can rely on to change the game or provide impetus/high energy. The hope for Norwich game is they play a more open and creative style so Wilshire and Lanzini more likely to have an impact.