OF course this afternoon’s first home game in front of a capacity London Stadium crowd is not make or break in terms of West Ham’s season. But it could be defining in terms of how ‘our’ West Ham intend to set up and play their football after the meek surrender of two points last week against an average Burnley XI, made to look very good by Nuno’s much criticised change of strategy at half time.
Supporters won’t be forgiving if the Irons continue to sit back and try in vain to soak up pressure.
That simply isn’t the way to dominate this league. As captain Jarrod Bowen confirmed in today’s programme notes, in a thinly veiled rebuke of the coach’s negative strategy, West Ham need to set out their stall to command the division:
“There are things that we can improve on, there are things that we’ve done well that we can take into this weekend and ultimately it’s about consistency, it’s about performances week in, week out and dominating in this league, and we have to earn that right to do that,” he continued.
Demanding a more ruthless approach – Jarrod Bowen
We have to stand tall to that pressure, that expectation that we have of ourselves, and just turn up week in, week out and do our business.”(whufc.com)
Someone needs to paste that into Nuno’s notebook as he heads out to the dugout. Instead of sitting back and trying to defend a two goal lead, the Hammers need to act in line with their skipper’s words and when they have their foot on another team’s throat, keep it there. Plain and simple, go score more goals.
Not in his DNA, Nuno is ultra defensive like Moyes they have one strategy, go ahead and defend.
“We have to dominate teams” what with Nonos tactics of having 10 goal keepers when we’re 1 goal up? Like we did against Burnley, and most of the games last season. Unless the players save his neck, there’s no way we are going to finish in the top two. The sooner he’s gone the happier the vast majority of the fans will.
Begs the question, Ken. Who is it that the vast majority of fans will be happy with? Just the one name.
COYI
Too much negativity Martin. A change of strategy mainly forced by the injury to Pablo, who you do not rate, and the lack of suitable alternatives on the bench. We scored another in the second half but yes failed to react well when the pressure came on. We should start to see a stronger bench from today but for a couple of months we will be a work in progress and we will need to remain behind the team through a few ups and downs.