West Ham have finally managed to string a run of results together, with many claiming to witness the green shoots of recovery.
As any keen gardener will know, early green shoots can easily be killed off in their infancy by a nasty frost, and I think West Ham’s improvement remains fragile.
It’s a measure of how poor the Hammers’ early results were that two wins and two draws back-to-back have only moved the club up one place in the Premier League.
That being said, nobody can complain about wins against teams West Ham were expected to beat, alongside picking up points against sides who were supposed to beat us.
Julen Lopetegui will rightfully feel pleased about the club’s mini-resurgence, and no doubt the West Ham board will feel vindicated in retaining the head coach.
Lopetegui himself has done a remarkable job, given he had to travel back to Spain to bury his father this month. Not only has he managed to navigate a difficult personal situation, but he also appears to have patched up his differences with Alphonse Areola and Jean-Clair Todibo.
Undefeated in four
Finally, The Hammers can begin looking upwards in the league rather than nervously below, where we currently enjoy a nice buffer zone. But many of the original problems remain.
Without wishing to pour too much cold water on the Christmas turkey, West Ham’s problems in midfield persist. Unless reinforcements are brought in next month, the same issues will continue. While it was good to beat Southampton yesterday, they are comfortably the worst team in the Premier League. Nonetheless, they had several good opportunities against the Hammers’ defence, which any team with a cutting edge would have converted.
Defensive, midfield, and attacking issues remain and must be addressed. As I mentioned yesterday, Lopetegui is very safe in his job and is already in discussions with the club over January transfers.
A few tweaks could see The Iron’s fragile renaissance improve, but the club’s recent record and recruitment strategy make that uncertain.
West Ham face Liverpool, Manchester City, and Fulham in our next three matches. If we can get four points from those tricky fixtures, I’ll start to have a bit more confidence.
I would disagree we have found form Gonzo although we have strung some results together which is good.
Form is something I would like to see, a shape to our play and a way of adapting to different team types and formations, sadly j-Lo just guesses his way through matches seemingly oblivious to understanding what his opponents are doing, would also be good to see a team playing as a team with players in their natural positions, not experiments like Kudus on the left and Bowen through the middle.
If we could string passes together that advance us up the field and emerge into good shooting opportunities that would also be nice.
👍👍
But, the problem is that we most likely will not get 4 points from these three games. Who can predict these results accurately ?; certainly not me, but NO points from them would seem to be a reasonable expectation based on the performances in our last 4 games. Unbeaten ? Yes, but the performances were pretty poor; & I can’t see too much to give me much hope of even 2 points from Liverpool, City & Fulham.
I really can’t believe how you can call this progress….we played 2 awful teams , who by the way should of beat us …we basically got lucky against the 2 worst teams in prem…look at most of sotons results this year..then look.at how many chances that black geezer squandered yesterday….come on ..we looked absolutely dreadful…..all will be seen when we play Liverpool tomorrow……..
PROGRESS ? We are a shadow of our former self, and have.gone backwards a mile …his team managment and tactics ate non existent….what summerville and Co must be thinking is beyond me …they will be crying out for a new manager in private……I’m always up for being wrong..but you only have to watch us play for 20 min to see there is no direction or identity the way we play ….awb and bowen are the difference in most games thats it ……let’s see how good we are against decent teams …..also what happens if Liverpool stuff us 5/6 or 7 nil ……Will the green shutes still be sprouting 🙄
That Black geezer? Ffs 🤦♂️
And you editors let this f*^kwit’s comment pass your censorship test? Good work, fellas, glad to see we’re progressing as a society…
Here’s a sobering thought. Based on what we have seen over the first half of the season, it is possible (if nothing changes in the coaching department) that from the home game against Liverpool to the away fixture at Anfield, West Ham could yield zero points from a potential 42. Unlikely maybe, but possible because if nothing changes at the top soon, we run the risk of being left behind by both contenders and relegation candidates.
It is starting to look like Man City’s home game against West Ham will mark their return to winning ways. After that, every fixture represents a bigger challenge than it should.
Shows how low this club has sunk – clubs expected to beat us….Bournemouth & Brighton.
All got rather sad, to be honest 👎😫
Yep very sad…and people are calling it progress..🤣….LUCKY as fk and awful finishing by other clubs sums it up better …
Yesterday was dire. Play anything like that against Liverpool and we’ll be soundly beaten. Then we’re at Man City who as poorly as they’re playing is poorly for them they’re better than Southampton. The chances of us looking up the table are slim.
Probably the worst team effort of the season. We will be trounced 8-0 by a LVP team that has just adopted the Gunners approach to taking corners.
And the stadium will be full of Scousers as who else bought all the vacant seats?
The WHU rot runs deep.