Mark Warburton claims the Hammers were forced to take a makeshift squad to Cambridge United but was pleased with the result and manner of the performance.
Despite missing Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek from midfield the Hammers easily overcame the League One team as indeed most of us would have expected.
As we reported earlier a number of missed chances ensured that the Us got away with a relatively respectable score line in Greg Taylor’s testimonial, but it would be overly harsh to be unhappy as a result.
In the end several of the regular first team players had a reasonable work out and afterwards Warburton explained the approach to the game and what the manager and backroom staff expect net.
Speaking to West Ham TV, assistant coach he enthused over Bowen and Benrahma’s strikes, as well as the performances of the Club’s representatives at the World Cup, and reassured fans that neither Cresswell’s injury nor Souček and Cornet’s absences are of any great concern.
He said: “It was important to come back and play some good football in a competitive game after the break we have had.
The boys have come in and had three or four hard-working days and tonight was an extension of that.
It’s important now to start preparing for the first game back [at Arsenal] on 26 December, so it was important to get minutes into the boys’ legs and good loading and a good workout.
Some of them had 45 minutes and some had 60 and some of the young boys came on and did well and got minutes as well and did well, so overall it was a really good experience.
Tuesday night was important to get those minutes and now we need two or three days of really good training again before we travel (to Udinese) prepare well for a good test.
It’s all part of our preparation and we have to go there with a good mindset and give a good performance.”
We have gone even more negative since warbutten joined in the summer. From me looking in from the outside he has not had a positive effect on team performances. I think he is part of the problem.