That first half had me shaking my head in disbelief. You know when you see the team sheet and predict how the selected team will perform? Yep, I suspect we all did. Zero creativity from the visitors, the home side stroking the ball around : Early on Fulham’s Anderson switched the ball left to right and we seemed surprised- Wan Bissaka didn’t seem to be reading the play across to Iwobi. This pattern was repeated several times in Fulham’s possession-based first half, as the team in black and white took hold of the midfield.
About the only useful contribution from Tomas Soucek in the first half was to head 6 yards wide from an Emerson cross. That was, to my best knowledge, West Ham’s only effort of the half, Soucek meandering around like a ‘lost’ box to box midfielder, usually failing to do so anywhere near the path of the ball.
Neither he nor Antonio did anything to help retain the ball or progress our attack. Gradually we lost ground in midfield with effectively Alvarez and Rodriguez being outnumbered by three lively Fulham midfielders. Mavropanos failed to clear a defensive header which left Traore in on goal with Kilman lagging behind: Traore falling over failed to convince the Referee that a penalty was deserved, upheld by VAR.
Still no creativity – of course, no surprise with the players on the pitch. Exactly what we had all forecast when seeing that line up. Fulham took the lead – another Mavropanos mistake after lagging behind the back line and failing to play Smith Rowe offside and then doubling down on the cock up by jogging back when Smith Rowe chased down the ball and passes through the slow-moving Greek’s legs to be knocked in by Jimenez.
That summed up the first half: Awful defending, awful style, one-nil score and I was mentally pleading for the utterly pedestrian Soucek and Anotonio to be withdrawn for Paq-Man and Summerville at half time And.. Lo and behold, my prayers were answered – Our two changes at half time slowly started to ‘right the wrong’ of the starting choices.
Much better second half – some better possession and gradually West Ham grew into the game. Paqueta was moving the ball around, the hoof-ball diminished and it felt like we might score. Summerville looked bright for a while and Bowen should have scored, good save from the Fulham keeper.
Carlos Soler ‘on’ for his debut at 80 minutes and should have been off 5 minutes later after two yellow offences, the second one somehow going unpunished. He looks a good, combative player but half a yard off the pace. Thanks to the ref for somehow keeping 11 Hammers on the pitch!
Lopetegui chucked on Ings in desperation for the last five minutes: Coufal threw long to Bowen charging down the right, hooking back a cross for Ings to hit low into the corner in the style of – Ings in his heyday! 92nd minute equaliser. How I laughed. Definitely not deserved.
Great strike from – Danny Ings!
I’ll even not begrudge Ings’ £120k a week for this week. 1 – 1 is how it finished, an awful, entirely predictable first half somehow rescued and surely the way to go for West Ham in the future: Next time, please, don’t start the pedestrians.
One of those days where we got more than we deserved. Lucky Hammers. Lucky me that my week-end isn’t spoiled.
What a lucky point!
If I was a Fulham fan I would be gutted!
When I saw the team selection, I thought Moyes had picked it!!
At least he made positive changes and we certainly got lucky.
So far…… I’m not impressed!
If Moyes was still there everyone would be raging!
We need a proper performance against Chelsea!
COYI
I don’t know why people rate Soucek so highly?
Stolls around the pitch half of the time.gets caught in possession,can’t pass.
I do admit he can pop up with a goal now and then but that’s all
I really don’t feel that I need to be patient with a coach that’s been in charge of the Spanish national team and Real Madrid. I’d like some proof at West Ham that he was worthy of those positions.
As I’ve commented earlier, I’m happy with a lose with good team selection and tactics as results will come with the amount of talent at his disposal. In that scenario I have patience. All the talk of gelling is wishful thinking given today’s starting 11.
I agree Andy.
Where are are all the comments on this site about us getting into the Top 4!
# No chance!
A fair report and if anything a little generous to WHU. What concerns me most is that I am starting to wonder about Lopetegui and why so many of the new signings are not starting. Are they all injured? Are they all unfit? In the first few minutes the commentator noted JL waving his arms in frustration. Well, he picked those players so I don’t get why he was surprised that Antonio was doing what Antonio does these days, fall over, walk around a lot and lose possession. There does seem to be a decent team in there, but JL is insistent on not starting with it for some reason.
If Soucek, Antonio, and Coufal were race horses, they would have been put down years ago! We spent over 120 million on new players, Senor Lopo can we play them please!
I make the strongest team Areola, AWB, Todibo, Kilman, Emerson, Alvarez, Paqueta, Summerville, Kudus, Bowen, Fullkrug.
OK, Fullkrug was injured today should make up top easier to balance. Surely our strongest eleven can mix it with Fulham without needing to be overly defensive.
Not much to add here except that as frustrated fans we’re all armchair managers. But for the last 4 weeks all us armchair managers have been calling for a starting line up similar to what came out in the second half.
Immediately there was a difference.
I’m still in the “give it time” camp, but, seriously why has it taken so long to do what seemed so obvious to so many?
Fitness maybe, but that doesn’t explain Antonio or Souček.
I doubt injuries.
I hope these first few games are all about the manager testing the squad and working it out.
If the rest of the season carries on like our first few games have I might have to reconsider my subscription to save my health (wont happen).
It’s been a tough fixture list to start the season off, but this is the EPL, all teams that hope to be in the top half have excellent players. There is no easy game (unless you’re Man City).
Let’s hope we start to build on what we started to see in the second half.
Was hopeful of a top 6 finish this season, be happy with top 10 currently.
Giving patience to a new team and manager only applies if there are changes to the team sheet and style. Neither have changed yet.
Look on the bright side, two away games and 4 points. And against teams that blew us away last season. Does that count as progress?
Now let’s move forward with the new players and style.