From the first minute when Max Kilman was outsprinted by Hoyland who then, typically, fired a shot against the post and wide, West Ham were a distinct second best. Fair enough, this was a friendly but as the commentators kept ramming home, just three weeks to go before the real business starts and the Hammers have found no answer to last season’s shortcomings.
Three at the back, Rodriguez and two wing backs ahead, Soucek and Ward Prowse as midfielders and Bowen plus Fullkrug was the deployment. And unsurprisingly the Hammers were undone in the first half by Manchester United’s high press and their own goal keeper. Alphonse Areola had a dreadful first half giving away a penalty inside 5 minutes after dropping the ball for the first- and then passing the ball back to the opposition allowing Fernandes to pop the ball past him for the second.
Nothing has changed for West Ham: Unsurprising since apart from Aguerd, this was pretty much the same side that finished last season. And the same faults remain.
Midfield is a creative free zone. ‘Soucek, Ward Prowse and Rodriguez’ is still an axis of evil, short on pace and guile. Bowen played the first half as an isolated striker as Fullkrug headed back in a vain search for the ball.
Bowen’s second half goal from a traditional right wing position was a light in the darkness, beating his man on the outside and firing in with his right foot. Typical Bowen and somewhat flattering the Hammers with a goal back. Good to see Paquetá (for Fullkrug) and Potts ( Rodriguez) get on the pitch for twenty minutes. Mavropanos for Todibo completed the changes.
Nice to see Preston Fearon (lively enough) , Luis Guilherme (who had one really good effort on goal) and Ollie Scares (safe as houses) get on for ten minutes but the overall end result was still a loss to a poor Manchester United side.
No front man for the last 20 minutes meant Wan Bissaka had no target on the couple of occasions he got into a position to cross. Same as Diouff on the left. No striker, no change from last season. Without a front man running in behind, there’s very few teeth to this West Ham attack. Second best, lots of huffing and puffing but no end product. Which is where West Ham ended last season.
It’ll be a different story when the PL begins. These games are for Graham Potter to try stuff out and see where our season is going to come from. No worries just yet.
COYI
I am old enough to remember when we bought Phil Parkes from QPR for what was then a World record fee for a goalkeeper, to replace the hapless Mervyn Day. If I’m being honest, I thought it was a joke being played on me by a Spurs supporting workmate, But the Evening Standard placard outside the building where I was working in at the time confirmed this shock piece of news.
This signing, and the later acquisition of Paul Goddard, strangely from the same source, proved to be the final parts of John Lyall’s master plan, heralding a period of cup finals trophies promotion and bloody good football.
The moral of the tale is, sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate. Nuff said.
Well said Dudley.
Fair bit of panic below, but this is pre-season and, as has been mentioned, MU are a bit ahead of us in preparation.
I don’t disagree that the current board are a nightmare (can any other team have spent so badly?) or that a midfield of Guido, JWP and Soucek is not going to cut it, but I don’t understand the Soucek hate. He scores crucial goals, gives his all and that deserves a bit of respect. He just needs better, faster, more creative players around him and its not Potters fault the club wasted the Rice windfall – God knows what state we’d be in if we’d been able to sell Paqueta for £85m.
Thought we were much better when Potts, Fearon and Paqueta were on, which was encouraging, but it was also just after MU changed the whole team, so need to keep a bit of perspective. Also thought Diouf looked really promising (can’t believe the article called out Aguerd as the only change 🙂 ).
Fingers crossed some players move on and we can buy a bit of quality, but I’m not giving up on us yet.
Re Diouf.. Yep, well spotted. In my defence, that was written at a very, very, very silly time of the morning, un-caffeinated. At least there’s no likelihood of anyone claiming our articles ever being AI generated.
I do think I’m seeing an improvement in Areola’s ball-playing ability with his feet. Fundamentally, he’s a really good goalkeeper. I also think the players are starting to settle into Graham Potter’s system. It’s starting to look really good.
Bet 365 are offering 11/2 for us to go down. Rather generous on that showing
ManU have spent one hundred and thirty million in the window so far. They won’t have another season like last years, more likely top six or eight. Areola’s mistakes cost us the game. Strangely, by the time the substitutes were on we looked to have more strength in depth than they had. Getting through this pre season tournament without any significant injuries is going to be key. When we kick off against Sunderland there will likely be two if not three new faces in the starting line up.
This isn’t just no change from last season, but with no replacement for Kudus being signed or even identified, we’ve regressed massively. How the club can’t see we need an urgent midfield overhaul is beyond me
It seems like there is not enough money to try and fix everything altough virtually everything needs to be fixed.
The defence including goalkeeper isn’t good enough and probably we can only get a keeper and make the best of Tobido, Aguerd, Mavropanos and Kilman whatever that is.
At least the full backs look good.
Rodriguez, JWP and Soucek are just not good enough and can’t play. Slow and not creative or defensive. At least one energetic quality midfielder is essential if the academy players can step up but really two required.
Of course a younger mobile CF and not Callum Wilson.
Would not be at all surprised to see basically this team start the season and a relegation battle follow.
Maybe Potter had some reasons to play such a bad midfield but if the main solutiyis the academy players then they need to be playing ASAP and as much as possible.
At times in the second half yesterday we saw a glimpse into the future under Potter. A good passing game, good movement and exciting performances from Fearon, Potts and Guilherme.
It was painfully obvious that we need a new goalkeeper and I’m still unsure about Todibo and as you say if Fullkrug didn’t have to track back to showthe midfield how it should be done, then we might have had a more attacking presence upfront.
But I have a bit more hope for the future now. Man United looked good in the first half yesterday and if we can get one or two more signings in the right areas, we could have a good season as long as the youth players get their chance.
No player ratings Martin?
No John, I don’t think the prospect of sitting up half the night for a ‘friendly’ to do player ratings was sufficiently appealing. We’ll save the player ratings for the serious stuff in August.
If they can’t inject some pace into midfield then it’s going to be a very tough season. The championship beckons I fear.
At the end of the day we lost to a team who finished below us in the league Still given away stupid goals Kilman a very poor signing at centre back And if the manager cant see this and change things we are in big trouble and shouldnt be at the club I know it’s a friendly but the pattern soon sets in and keeps repeating itself
I feel that was a wrong summary of the game .
For 70 mins we were absolutely dreadful.
Back 3 didn’t work , midfield too slow and dreadful . Souckek must have touched the ball 5 times all game ….
And then on 70 mins it happened .
We changed to a back 4 , Malvapronpsas came on for the hopeless Tobipdo ….
Dan Potts ,Preston Fearon, Paquete , Luis Guerlene all came on and suddenly we looked a team and were unlucky in the end not to get get back into it .
Up to then we could have been 6-1 down – we were that poor !
Potter has to learn quickly and I’m concerned he keeps making the same old mistakes .
Back 3 isn’t working ….. when Summerville is fit , where does he play ? … u can’t play wing backs and wide men !!
And Summerville and Bowen are wide men and our best players !!
Our midfield should be Potts ( holding) Paqueta ( no 8 ) and we need a no 10 creative player ( but Fearon looked really good but will need time )
Forget Rodrigous , Alvarez – both too slow for the premier league and just slow our game down !
Soukek an impact player if we need a goal at best as a sub to come on .
Ward Prowse a squad player !
Need a keeper and hopefully the Leciester keeper arrives soon !
And another striker ….
But Potter has to realise he must start 4 3 3 …..
I’d agree that the first 70 minutes was dreadful, Potts defo better than Rodriguez. More on Fearon later
Hi Martin ,
It’s really important for fans who couldn’t see the game last night to understand that Potter went to a flat back 4 for the last 20 mins .
Also important to praise Malverpronas for his pass which led to the goal …
In my view he did more in 20 mins than Topdio and Ageuard who were both came off when he came on ….
It was Soucek who made the pass for the goal. There was a good run and pass from Mavropanos at the end, but Bowen’s shot was saved.
Spot on Ian
Potter’s obsession with a wing back system will take us down.
Who’s this Dan Potts fella?
When are we going to stop playing Soucek. We need youth and pace in the team this is getting distressing already
It’s going to be a long long season and it’s the same every year. My heart drops when I see that midfield. Surely there’s no reason why we haven’t got the players in we need by now and sold off the dross ?
Totally agree that Sulivan may be the root of all our problems. But why does he persist playing JWP in midfield. I didn’t see the game but surely Potts would be a better choice.
Areola is appalling, been saying it for years. He gave both the goals away, hes not.commanding hes just a liability. Todibo looked good in first half. Need another striker, need a new midfield, we have no creativity. Thought we played alright in the first half but we need signings to improve the first 11 if we are going to do anything
It was awful, the team is awful, stupid mistakes which have nothing to do with pre-season, lack of pace, lack of creativity, lack of any attacking threat unless it comes from Bowen. Very very worrying with 3 weeks til first game of the season and seemingly no idea on new additions to solve the issues mentioned above other than someone who will just take up space and is past it. You cannot get away with not strengthening every year on the PL and so far we have weakened the first team only.
It’s pretty obvious that Westham will be relegation contenders this season writing is on the wall potter has no answer for this underperforming team and no real money to change things starting with the same dross as last season going down unless things step up
Remember don’t blame the manager! Hasn’t got in any of the players he really wanted due to the poor financial handling of the club by Sulivan and Co. This is what I expected and next will come the relegation fight. Believe me if thought last season was bad it will be worse this season.
Yes but hopefully gives the powers that be a hurry up on other signings. Puzzling why Rodriguez is seen as a better bet than Potts unless it is an effort to put him in the shop window. We will hopefully have a reinvigorated Paqueta or a creative alternative in time for the start of the season but the lack of decent defensive cover in front of our centre backs is almost as worrying as the striker situation. But I still have hope!
Definitely shop window mate
One man to blame who won’t use a DOF and pay for a decent manager – the heart of a team. SULLIVAN OUT
Well said, Gaza – bang on.
As you say, until this Dinosaur departs we are going nowhere other than the Championship.
Thought it was 2 poor sides. Until or unless we bring in midfield athleticism we won’t improve, we looked far better when Potts and Fearon were in there. And Areola just confirmed he can’t play the role Potter wants. It’s pre season, too early for judgement but seeing the same stuff repeated does make you worry.
And it will still not change the boards mind on transfers