26 Comments

Irons back to bad old ways as classy Wolves win

 

By Hugh Southon

 

Wolves 2 Irons 0

No comparison between the two sides… Wolves sharp, regularly finding their men, blinding pace at times, getting forward quickly and with a real finishing edge.

West Ham, meanwhile, showing all their old frailties, passing sloppily, labouring their way forward, surrendering possession and never l0oking like getting back into it once they had gone behind.

After Saturday this was disappointing in the extreme but if I’m honest it came as no surprise as I reckon Wolves are one of the most under-rated teams around.

The biggest problem of course was the absence of Michai Antonio as without him there is little soul in the team and certainly no real threat.

After we had fallen behind in the first half it would be fair to expect some sort of reaction. Instead the Hammers returned to the bad old days and once again the manager – rightly – will come under pressure.

His problem clearly is that given his belief in attacking football he has produced a team which tonight showed no progression at the required pace at all.

On top of that you look at  £45 million striker Haller who has become frighteningly poor and a second striker in Ajeti who offers less and less with every appearance.

Fornals looked better, Rice had a decent game and Anderson was far more involved but this will do nothing to quieten the voices of those who want the manager gone.

However,  whilst I always believed we would lose this one I fully expect us to beat Arsenal next Monday and thus Pellegrini will no doubt get another stay of execution should that be the case.

Worrying days again!

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

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

26 comments on “Irons back to bad old ways as classy Wolves win

  1. Sack the Board. When will it occur to them that other from the perspective of lining their pockets they have zero talent for running a successful football club.

  2. It was back to the same old predictable game plan once Antonio was ruled out .slow ponderous and just waiting for the opposition to score from yet another defensive mistake. Hope we can force an equalizer before the inevitable 2nd goal kills the game.Saturday win never changed my feeling MP should go ASAP

  3. Have to agree with you Hugh, we lack speed & class. It was a frustrating game to watch & although Anderson had a better game he needs to be far more creative in attack imo, to see Pelle sitting on the bench & just shaking his head comes across as there is no idea of how to change & get the best from the players. I look at Wolves & am a bit envious.

    • Get grandpa out now, he is totally clueless, same team same result same performance same mistakes same tactics
      If the board change nothing nothing will change, he has to go, he has spent fortunes and every player has got worse, we lack everything but mostly passion tempo and pace.

  4. I don’t think that we should get too downhearted about this, Hugh. True, we lacked a cutting edge & were a little worse than Wolves – but they are a very good team. There were decent performances from Anderson, Fornals, Balbuena, Rice, Martin, Fredericks, & Cresswell – although, none of them set the place on fire. What might have made a difference was Antonio. I thought that this performance wasn’t bad; Wolves are a better team than us & will finish higher than us. Judging from this performance, I think we will finish about 14th – a little disappointing considering our early season form. I don’t think that this result makes Pellegrini’s position any worse, in itself. But, we have to raise our game against Arsenal !

    • “I don’t think that we should get too downhearted about this, Hugh. True, we lacked a cutting edge & were a little worse than Wolves – but they are a very good team.”

      For the purposes of reality, rather than your misplaced optimism, replace “Wolves” with nearly every other team name and you will then see that practically every team playing West Ham are made to look a very good team.

      For the purpose of clarity, the object is that WE look a very good team. Instead we seem to go out of our way to make every mediocre team’s season for them; and without them breaking too much sweat, in the process.

    • A relatively sane analysis from kcockayne and one I concur with. I think the change in formation with Anderson in a free role has helped. We look more solid with Ogbonna/Balbuena partnership and a decent goalie. My concern right now is the final third where without Antonio we are utterly toothless. Wolves are better than us and will finish higher than us so to lose to them is not unexpected.

  5. Agree Hugh, Rice did ok, Anderson looked better in a central position and we desperately need Antonio back for Monday night. As usual we get rolled over by a tidy but unspectacular team not only because we are sub standard in technique and work rate but also because we are so pathetically lightweight in challenges all over the pitch. Whenever we scrap for a loose ball it must be 90% of the time that the opposition simply brush our players aside! In the Spurs game we saw Anderson totally bottle out of a challenge in midfield and this evening Yarmo didn’t want to know a 50/50 ball dropping between him and the keeper. He took his eye off the ball completely like a frail 12 year old and made no challenge at all. This type of attitude is sickening for the fans to see, most of whom would literally give their right arm to be out there battling for WHU. We need a manager who can instil some aggression and will to win and it’s clearly not Pelle.

  6. Just shows how toothless we are without Antonio.Need someone of his ilk bought in January as backup because it never looked like we would score tonight.On a plus side Fornals was good tonight.Word to the board.We could have bought Dendoncker,Traore and loaned Cutrone.Thats the 2 goalscorers and the man of the match.Why the hell we never got Traore when he was available from Middlesborough is baffling as he and Antonio could be brothers in style of play and looks come to think of it.Some terrible decisions at board level again and they keep coming back to haunt us.Pelle walking a tightrope again.They either back him or sack him come January.Invest in the team up front please.

  7. Now TWO points from bottom three…..!!!
    One good performance in nine games
    How long a length of rope does Pelle need?

  8. RUBBISH absolute rubbish that’s why the Chelsea game was bitter sweet..one decent game and back to rubbish…all we did was try to not get stuffed and hardly looked a threat .so this is what it has come to ..gone are our lofty ambitions n o w we just try to stay in a game against wolves..I still wAnt him gone Chelsea made no difference to me…awful plse stop trying to dress it up ..

  9. 18 months into pellers reign. Played wolves 3 times . Lost 3 scored none. For a side only in the league for that time ,they remain miles ahead of us.

    When he took over did anyone think that at this point in time our main stalward first team players would be snodgrass noble and Antonio? Pretty sure most of us thought with the money spent since they would be lucky to be in the squad at all. Yet they are practically the core of the team. Not much progress hey.

    It’s not working.

    Out

  10. Phil Thompson on sky sports had it bang on when he said that west ham will always turn up against the big six clubs but against lesser clubs they won’t and this is the mentality i and other supporters have had to endure for years.
    To be honest i’m f*****g sick of it.

  11. No overreaction from me , we tried I just think without Antonio’s pace-we cant get forward quick enough. Sure you can blame Pelligrini if you want but we sold all our strikers without adequate replacements and weren’t given the money to get quality additions . I think we will beat Arsenal but need additions in January . COYI ⚒

  12. The amount of space Traore and Doherty had in the first half was frightening. Pellegrini has no idea defensively or any creative vision with our attack. He has to go!

  13. It’s so frustrating we need to start building again and start from replacing at the top

  14. This was disappointing, specially Mrs Brady stated the board spent over £200 in last 2 windows which wasn’t correct. Also this is a wolves side that only got promoted 2 years ago and we haven’t progressed since we got promoted back up. I really think they need to sell up, specially looking how Leicester have also progressed.
    I will always support this great club, even though I’m in Oz.
    I am truely fed up with not enjoying watching these guys, enough is enough

  15. I think that we have to resign ourselves to a long hard season – with or without Pelle. I was encouraged by the effort and existence and execution of a plan against Chelsea and did not wactch last night so cant really comment. Maybe Haller would do better with a different manager (like Arnie did with Moyes) or maybe he is just not suited to the Premier League. Maybe we would have been better off keeping Hugill and not signing Ajeti and maybe not

    I still think that our priority in January should be an energetic DM – and perhaps a pacy striker

    After the comments of two players for every position I think that our squad is in fact quite thin – if Rice were to get injured we would be doomed (as bad as we were under Avram Grant if Scott PArker had not missed the last 10 games or so we would have probably stayed up – things were looking up after beating Liverpool at home and drawing with Spurs away)

    How much the PL has changed is shown by the fact taht we can now look at Arsenal at home as a winnable game

    COYI

  16. I seriously think we could face relegation unless there are some drastic changes. This manager and many of these players are not up to the job. The January window is crucial.

    West Ham fans are very patient. In other countries they would have pickets in front of the owners’ and players’ homes.

    This team needs some passion and aggression every game, not just once a month. I don’t think Pelle knows how to do it.

  17. It was an expected defeat. Against a team in their second season in the Premier League. I think all any football fan wants to see is stability matched with progress. At West Ham we’re seeing a little stability but zero progress. I like Pellegrini as a man but I also liked Bilic too. That doesn’t, unfortunately, translate into them being the right men for the job. I’m struggling to find ANY reasons for Pellegrini staying on. No progress, no tactical awareness, no way of getting the best from each player on a regular basis. It’s sad

  18. As Nicola said in an earlier post – it starts at the top and Sully and Gold have no idea how to run a football club.
    This “stay of execution” for Pellegrini will get this club relegated.
    Anywhere else, he would have gone by now.
    Shocking performances, shocking attitude by the players and shocking recruitment.
    Club stinks from top to bottom.

  19. The win over Chelsea cheered us up with and gave us some hope of another away win .
    But , it wasn’t to be and never looked likely against a quick well organized and sharp team like Wolves . I can’t see any reason to give Pelligrini more time . Waiting to see how we play against Arsenal & Southampton is pointless because it’s obvious no matter how we play , good or bad we shall always revert to being slow unorganized and blunt with MP presiding over the team . Surely we can’t be serious when our team performance relies just one player in the form of Antonio . That’s ludicrous . No no no it’s just not on . Pelligrini has to go now .

    • The problem is that the owners need to get a manager known for his attacking, aggressive style and a Director of Football who can identify good players with potential to grow.

      I am not convinced the owners have the skills to identify and attract such people.

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