Hughie Southon’s Carabao Cup verdict
It always hurts – going over there and getting beat.
Even after all these years it is the ultimate sickener for me. Don’t like the club or the people running it – NEVER HAVE…NEVER WILL!
Mikey missing
What made it so much worse tonight was that here was a Hammers team with Masuaku exposed as a defensive left back, no Michail Antonio, two top centre backs short, the likes of Johnson out of position and Harrison Ashby making his debut matching them blow for blow.
The winning goal was a mess and but for a couple of blinding saves Soucek might have won it for us. And once they got in front Spurs sat deeper and deeper the longer the game went on.
Vladi missing
That’s a huge compliment to a Hammers team in which the cracks are appearing – no Coufal, no Zouma, no Oggy, no Cresswell, no Antonio is too much for us to carry at this point.
I have little doubt that had they been available we would have won because frankly I don’t think this is anywhere near a brilliant Spuds team.
They took their chances and we matched them for long periods but ultimately we are now in a position where we have won just one game in the last five.
Cressy missing
We can only hope that we don’t have to go through the whole of January before David Moyes and the board bring in new players.
A striker, central defender and left back have never been more urgently needed and surely to God the manager knows who he wants with just a few days left until the window opens.
Poor defending for the two spuds goals but it generally starts with players like Masuaku and yesterday Lanzini trying to over dribble and then lose the ball setting the opposition on a counter attack. Inviting pressure on us at exactly the wrong time when defenders are pressing forward out of position.
I thought we played at a much better tempo than in recent games, I found the performance encouraging and the stats bear this out. On another day we could have won it. We can now concentrate on the 3 more important competitions, League, Euefa and FA Cup. We just need to add reinforcements in January, we do have some excellent youngsters coming through who are showing they are more than ready.