By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
I probably should feel more elated about West Ham coming back from 2-0 down at The Den, particularly after going down to ten men late on. But I don’t. I’m still struggling to get past just how bad that first-half performance was.
What surprised me most was that Millwall did absolutely nothing surprising. They were committed, energised, physical, hard in the tackle and backed by a hostile crowd. Of course they were. We knew exactly what was coming, yet West Ham somehow appeared completely unprepared for it.
The players looked genuinely shocked that they weren’t being given time on the ball. Our technical ability deserted us, we withered physically and some players appeared completely thrown by the occasion. As reflected in our player ratings from The Den, West Ham were fortunate to go into the break only 2-0 down.
I still can’t get past that first half
Millwall didn’t need some tactical masterplan to unsettle us. They competed harder, made us uncomfortable and for 45 minutes we had no answer.
That concerns me far more than individual poor performances. Nuno Espírito Santo has West Ham supporters and former Hammers on his coaching staff, so everyone knew what sort of game this was going to be. Yet Alex Neil’s team looked far better prepared for it.
It was particularly disappointing because there had been no shortage of warnings beforehand. Even when Nuno’s starting XI was announced, we knew Millwall would try to get under West Ham’s skin from the start.
West Ham still looked surprised when they actually did it.
Nuno deserves credit for changing it
The positive, obviously, was the response. Nuno recognised it wasn’t working and changed both the personnel and formation at half-time, with Pablo and Mohamadou Kanté replacing Joël Piroe and Kyle Walker-Peters.
Pablo gave us some desperately needed physicality, while Kanté helped drag West Ham back into the contest. As Millwall understandably tired after putting so much into the first hour, West Ham finally started finding space.
Bowen became more influential, Solomon looked far happier after eventually moving inside and suddenly we were the team asking the questions. Kanté’s goal gave us belief and Mavropanos’ equaliser completed a comeback that had looked almost impossible at half-time.
Kanté then went from hero to villain with a deserved red card and, down to ten men, we had to survive another spell of Millwall pressure. His contribution rather summed up the afternoon: he helped completely change the game before his own mistake led to the dismissal.
Kante and Pablo were able it emerge from the draw against Millwall with some credit
Millwall will feel this more than West Ham
There is only one way this afternoon could have felt worse: if we’d swapped the two halves around. Had West Ham gone 2-0 up, played well and then collapsed to draw 2-2, it would have felt like a dagger to the heart.
Instead, Millwall will probably feel that pain. They had us exactly where they wanted us and couldn’t finish the job.
Perhaps that’s the biggest positive West Ham can take. This is a team which had won four consecutive Championship matches before arriving at The Den, including the 6-0 demolition of Wrexham, and even on an afternoon when so much went wrong, we still found a way to take something.
But I’m not coming away from this celebrating wildly. I’m pleased with the character, pleased Nuno changed it and pleased we found a way back. I’m also disgusted with that first-half performance.
West Ham won’t get promoted if they need 45 minutes to discover they’re in a fight.
I saw the result before watching on tele the Irons were ambushed by a bunch of thugs and a incompetent ref that used to officiate in the premier but now doesn’t. If Tierney the ref had dealt out a yellow card to number 14 early when he played havoc with football rules our Irons might not of been sucked into the same tactics. Of course it was going to be a really tough game. Of course the build up would be the same in the next game. My hope is that Tierney is not officiating he never gives WHU a fair shake. As for bagging our players not only them but our whole club had a bad day. Our coach needs to get the Team back on track we must support him were at the top of the Comp right where we want to be.CONYHammers.
Our defense is still struggling. Millwall’s strategy relies on long throws to create chaos in our 6-yard box, and without a strong leader on the field, we often seem like we’re playing with one less player. Disasi hasn’t been properly substituted, and Kilman continues to be a liability, even at this level.
Chin up mate, Spurs fans comments on their team is comedy gold this morning reading from Aus.
Honestly, that first half was rubbish, but Nuno sorted it, and that might be a very valuable point come the end of the season.
But if you’re feeling down, just find a report/fan site where Spurs fans are commenting. Or better, other teams fans are commenting on them.
I’m sure the Spuds will come good, you can’t spend like a drunken sailor on good players and not get better, right?
I watched the game on TV and in the first half, like everyone else I wondered how are we not competing. Yes, we were unprepared. Not because of preparation, but because we were always going to be unprepared for this game. Millwall were the underdogs, but they had home advantage, a packed stadium with an intimidating and energised crowd driving them on. No matter what had been told to our players and management would have prepared them for this. We did well to get something out of this game, and I expect us to show what we have learnt in the return.
Awful performance first half but no surprise. Why can’t our coaches teach the players how to defend set pieces? Just like last season and Charlton this time. Somebody needs to attack the ball. It’s like we’re scared to challenge when it comes in.
Was it really that bad. I never thought we would find this easy. They got a good result in the week at Boro they had home advantage fans baying for blood. Nino made great changes and tactics. He can’t be responsible for players who were overwhelmed first half.
We are second in the league and you’re not happy. Do you actually think we should win every game because that will not happen
You say Kante was a villain for getting sent off. Would you have gathered he didn’t foul the other guy, possibly leading to him scoring and us losing?
The opinions in this lost a credibility when you said Kante made a mistake when he got the red card, I was screaming at him to take him down. For a young man he did well to realise what was at stake and took a red for the team to stop what would’ve been the winner with minutes left. Though he did great.
Other clubs are gonna see this and think that’s the way to play West Ham! Truly shocking display today and fear this could be repeated this season.
Get over yourself lad, how do you prepare them for an atmosphere like that, these aren’t local lads that have been brought up on this derby. They were shocked and intimidated and wall could have seen a couple of reds in first half. They got it together second half with a reset and did well.
Can’t believe how bad we was, lucky not to be 4-0 down 1st half, better when Kante scored, but a terrible performance ⚒️
We didn’t impose our greater quality, the quality players went missing. Pablo came on and battled them not outqualitied them. Kante also went head to head. Austvo looks lively and perhaps should be given a start as Solomon did not look lively until he moved more central.
Is Nuno and his lieutenant that prep the teams, getting his tactics wrong and unable to adjust on the fly for the initial 30 mins really tell me a lot about his ability to lead the team for promotion.
Agree completely Gonzo, still feels like a loss to me and for all our trying to position ourselves as Championship winners apparent we will need to do a lot better to turn that into actual champions.