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Hammers share spoils but there’s little quality

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Irons 1 Everton 1

By Hugh Southon

It wasn’t great and maybe the best aspect of it was that the Hammers remained unbeaten at the  London Stadium under David Moyes after taking one point from a possible previous 18 on our manor under Manuel Pelegrini .

It means we have scored five under the new boss and conceded one but in all honesty this was a game which was there for the taking against a very lack lustre Everton.

Unfortunate we showed nothing like enough quality to take what would have been a vital three points after Issa Diop’s 40th opener was equalised by Calvert-Lewin four minutes later.

To be fair for long periods the visitors showed even less!

However,we look a lot more organised under this manager although it would hardly be possible to remain at the same level as the Chilean but we still carry no real threat up front.

Seb Haller had one of his  his off days and although chances came his way he could make none of them count whils Manu Lanzini is still showing nothing like his best form.

Rober Snodgrass was his usual bundle of energy and although Declan Rice was guilty of errors in the middle of the park he usually made amends and is at least trying to get forward a lot more.

With Aston Villa managing a point at Brighton and Norwich beating Bournemouth the result made little to no difference to our position but one thing is for sure – we will need to be a lot better than this at Leicester on Wednesday evening.

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

13 comments

  • Saul says:

    I must have been watching a different game to some. I thought we were crap. Typical Moyes game; solid but dull to watch. So many long balls up top which Mina gobbled up most of the time. Lanzini was terrible, so lightweight, seemed to be nudged off of the ball constantly and poses no threat right now. Fornals should have stayed on when Masuaku came on and been pushed into the middle where Lanzini was totally ineffective.

    I thought it was such an uninspiring performance. Everton were really poor, missing their best player up front and were there for the taking. Can’t remember anything other than half chances for us.

    Really poor, but atypical of a Moyes team, solid (but then, so was Allardyce)

  • HammerJK says:

    I’m going to disagree with you Hugh. I thought we played well in the first half and but for Pickford saves from Haller and Fornals we could have gone in comfortably ahead at the break. Haller also had a header that went close. To be fair, he probably should’ve buried both those chances.
    It’s just such a shame that Everton scored from what was really their only chance of the game.
    Today’s performance was much better than anything we had seen under Pellegrini in months. Solid defensively, good press and won the ball back several times in the Everton half and created a lot more.
    The same cannot be said for the second half when to be fair the lack of options due to injuries was the real killer for us. Even so we looked the more likely at times.
    Had we taken those chances in the first half, we would’ve been home and dry by half time.
    There has been a definite upturn in performances under Moyes and we are going on in the right direction.

  • Bobbymoore6kev says:

    Seb Haller in my eyes needs a good goalscoring coach, he shows little or no flair or even ideas. Is he really worth all that money?

  • spindoc says:

    Credit where it’s due, there were tangible signs of improvement. The team was much more organized as our host has already mentioned. The passing and movement were more crisp and purposeful, at least in the first half. The team played with more confidence and players were more willing to take responsibility.

    What we sorely lacked in this game was a bit more quality upfront for the final ball.

  • Martyn says:

    Frustrated we couldn’t bury Everton but too much back passing for me. Would love to see someone drive forward into the oppositions penalty area. I would have left Fornals on and taken Lanzini off unless the manager saw something I didn’t.
    Poor Moyes doesn’t have enough skill on the bench to change things so need to put the game away early on.

  • Hammerkip says:

    We would of lost that game under Pellegrini but we need players desperately and I just cant understand why none have come In..yes its hard in this window but not even one ?? Not even any bids either apart from loans..

  • Hammers64 says:

    After all the bluster from the owners and todays protest surely they can now see they need to back Moyes and let him bring in a couple of players at least.We desperately need a striker for starters as again we were so wasteful in front of goal.Its ridiculous that as the home side we are again reduced to playing 1 up top.

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