Don’t let us pretend that was anything other than a poor performance. Brentford should have scored four so West Ham were a tad lucky to get away with a 0-1 loss. But at the risk of sounding unrealistic or naive, there is a positive that needs emphasising among the bad news headlines that’ll be doing the rounds this evening.
Ollie Scarles. You won’t get to see much in the highlights tonight – believe me if you didn’t watch that game you were lucky. But at half time, Graham Potter corrected the selection cock up by moving Paquetá back into the central creator role, gave Evan Ferguson a 45 minutes and also subbed Emerson with Scarles in his place,
The youngster immediately looked more capable of handling Brian Mbuemo’s threat on the Brentford right hand side. He stuck to his task for the whole half without losing his man. And he had a couple of shots from corners- one of which was heading in until deflected.
He has greater pace thsn Emerson and I’d argue, is ready to start for West Ham as he’s more combative in the tackle too. Part of the semblance of control that West Ham achieved in the second half was by reducing Mbuemo’s ability to run through the defence: However there was still plenty from Schade and Wissa.
Maturing nicely into a genuine Premier League left back or wing back. ~Told you I’d find something positive.
You are right Martin, Scarles is looking the real deal now and deserves to be a first pick. Very mature and composed for a 20 year old. As I said a few days ago, another Declan in the making there. Soler was worth a try but he is not progressing, Mavrapanos is a dead loss, Soucek is well past his best now, as is Emerson. Guilherme has got to be given more playing time and I can’t wait for Summerville to come back. Kudus and Paqueta, I just don’t know what to say there, but not as good as they should be. From what I saw yesterday, it will be a shame if we cannot bring Ferguson in permanently, he at least looked like he knew why he was there.
I am a big fan of Graham Potter’s but he must take a lot of responsibility for yesterday’s defeat. Playing Jarrod Bowen, our best attacking threat, at right wing back in the first half was criminal.
Soler cannot play left midfield and Potter should know this. Loppy tried him there and so has Potter.
I agree that Emmerson had a poor match but Potter set us up with nobody playing wide left up front. Paqueta didn’t come across to work the channels so Emmerson’s only option was to play the ball square or backwards.
It took Graham Potter about 30 minutes before he realised that his formation wasn’t working and made some changes. By then we were lucky not to have conceded 2 or 3 more goals.
Kudus had a terrible match and should have been taken off much earlier. It is not fair on our Brazilian winger if he is only given a 10 minute cameo appearance.
Completely agree Ian. Graham Potter had 10 days of preparation to coach tactics and formation and analyse all the threats which Brentford posed, yet there was zero evidence of it. Bowen at wing back where he is least effective was criminal. We were completely outclassed and taught a lesson in how to exploit the opposition’s weaknesses, and very lucky not to concede 2-3 more goals. Arsenal will not hesitate to score at will if we repeat these errors.
How on earth can Guilherme be expected to prove himself when he is only given 3 minutes? Scarles needs to start and Casey and Orford on the bench but given meaningful minutes to provide youth and pace which we are sorely lacking.
If you look at Kudus stats yesterday he had 60 touches in the game, but failed to contribute any goal, assist or a key pass. None of his 6 attempted crosses were successful and he lost the ball 16 times. After that dreadful miss from 6 yards it’s time for change.
Worrying times. I believe that Potter can turn things around but he’s got to start being more realistic and ruthless. Scarles should be starting, unless Kilman and Todibo can form a decent partnership sharpish then we have to play a back 3. No pace and energy in midfield so give Irving a go and try academy players, paricularly Potts next season. Mo showing no signs of life, put him on the bench and give him a chance to influence things late on. Make the changes for the next match because we have to get things right for the following game. Time for the manàger to really start earning his corn.
Didn’t bother going thank god – totally cheesed off at the mo’.
It’s ok saying Potter changed it at half time but more to the point, why did he start with that eleven and formation ? Must have seen in training lack of mobility half the players have.
Unfortunately, think the rest of season doesn’t bode well and we’ll be fortunate not to go down thanks to bottom three – although Ipswich showing signs of life.
Not going to judge Potter until the Summer window, but he needs to get his act together now ( as do the players) so we start picking some points up.
Very depressing times…..
I think he has to start. I thought that from his first game against Villa. I was unfamiliar with how good he was and absolute revelation. I think most of our managers need to be a little bit more courageous and give these kids a try and that goes for Guilherme. That first 45 minutes was so bad you could have subbed about 7 players. Giving the Brazilian kid 3 minutes at the end of the game isn’t enough. He needs a good 45 minute stint. I suppose at least GP gave him some minutes as opposed to the previous Sullivan appointed disaster.
Completely agree D how on earth can Guilherme be expected to prove himself when he is only given 3 minutes? Scarles needs to start and Casey and Orford on the bench but given meaningful minutes to provide youth and pace which we are sorely lacking.
If you look at Kudus stats yesterday he had 60 touches in the game, but failed to contribute any goal, assist or a key pass. None of his 6 attempted crosses were successful and he lost the ball 16 times. After that dreadful miss from 6 yards it’s time for change.
Yes, we did learn a lot from that match, two weeks to prepare and we didn’t show up! Mavropanous and Alvarez are both liabilities and not PL standard and no matter how good the coach is, bar three or four player’s the rest are over aged or at most, championship level. Ferguson made an impact and showed his class after missing so much of the season, hopefully, he starts against Arsenal and a team evolves around him. We all live in hope but that first half performance was relegation standard.
As aghast as I was sitting in the first half sitting my seat yesterday, there was much to be pleased with (bar the result) in how Potter quickly changed things and changed the personnel and shape. He’s got a job on his hands but those who know football knew that…… 2 whole years of decline. Scarles and Ward Prouse made a huge difference as did have a no.9
The defence was creaking from the start.The way our defence was easily sliced through like butter from Brentford was unbelievable but something we’ve been used to.
It wouldn’t matter if you had Potter or Guardiola in charge it would still be the same working with this squad because you can’t polish a turd eh?
It’s been a long time since I’ve walked out the stadium feeling upbeat.
The only positive for me is that I didn’t waste my time and money going to another utter useless performance from this highly expensive line up that obviously don’t give a damn about the club ,potter had two weeks to get the tactics right but then rolled out what can only be described as utter rubbish, we need a complete rebuild with players that have the passion that this club deserves