Those in charge at West Ham are understandably receiving a lot of criticism after the 2-0 defeat to Brentford, and there are two big issues that the owners have not addressed, which could ultimately see them get relegated.
The West Ham performance on Monday night at the London Stadium was poor. Just like West Ham, the Bees are in a relegation battle. They had not picked up a single point away from home this season until their victory last night.
Brentford could have been three or four goals up by the time the half-time whistle blew, and Nuno Espirito Santo now knows how big a task he has to keep the club up.
Brentford managed 16 shots in the first half, all in the West Ham penalty box, with five of these shots being on target. This highlights the club’s first real issue: they have no backbone.
The centre-back partnership of Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo simply isn’t good enough. They were struggling to win aerial duels against Brentford, and they could not deal with 5ft10 forward Dango Ouattara aerially either, which is a huge issue. They lacked leadership and chemistry, and this was easily exploited by their opponents.
The lack of backbone continues into midfield. The central midfield partnership was 25 year-old Andrew Irving, who has only 16 appearances for the club, alongside 30 year-old Tomas Soucek, who looks to be past his prime. The pair could not compete physically with the opposition and this meant that West Ham could not get out of their half.
Their other big issue, which has been a huge reason for their downfall over the last couple of years, is the fact that they don’t have a striker good enough for the Premier League.
The Hammers managed seven shots yesterday, with just one on target. They had no big chances and their expected goals were 0.35xG.
Niclas Fullkrug is injured and their only other senior forward option is Callum Wilson, who has struggled since joining in the summer.
The board sanctioning the transfers of two injury-prone forwards in their 30s over the last two seasons emphasises how bad their forward signings have been. It has now left West Ham in a situation where they are having to play attacking midfielder Lucas Paqueta up top, and this nullifies some of his strengths.
If you do not have a consistent goalscorer, then you are going to struggle in the Premier League and it’s no shock that West Ham have only managed six goals in eight matches this season.
The Hammers are still just three points from safety, but if they fail to beat Leeds on the weekend, then they will definitely be one of the favourites amongst football fans to be relegated.
Bookies have cut the Hammers’ relegation odds to 11/10 third favourites after the latest setback last night, and to back West Ham being relegated you should look to MyBettingSites, who have compiled a list of UK betting sites to use.
No doubt some of the blame can be directed at Nuno after last night’s performance. He picked a starting lineup that many were confused by, and decided to bring on academy forward Callum Marshall instead of Wilson. However, you can see that all the current issues are coming from mistakes made by the owners over the last few years, and these mistakes are increasingly looking like they will get West Ham relegated come May.
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