Remembrance day at London Stadium. West Ham had good cause to celebrate the absence of VAR in this division in the first few minutes as Mukasa’s dreadful lunge and an Engels clumsy hand ball both went un-noticed and unpunished inside their own penalty box or else the Hammers may have been behind with the first ten minutes once again.
Remembrance Day appropriately marked at London stadium
With young Airidas Golambeckis starting in place of Mavropanos, you sensed the home crowd would be hugely relieved to see out the first half without conceding: Max Kilman getting a yellow card for an unsightly lunge on 16 minutes only adding to the Hammers’ sense of back-line jeopardy.
Whether that yellow card caused Kilman to drop off more – who can say – but almost inevitably, another few minutes was all it took for Albion to take the lead thanks to the Irons’ lazy, loose defending, allowing their opponents to play through them once again with a simple tap in finish following good WBA build up play.
Could have been worse, in truth, as there was almost a second a couple of minutes later as the ball flew just over Hermansen’s bar.
Consequently, the boos rang out even earlier than last week.
Fortunately, West Ham had Jarrod Bowen to rely on to try and pull them out of the brown smelly stuff: Beating his full back on the outside he fired in a deflected low shot with his weaker foot, to bring the Irons back into a game they had no right to be on level terms in at 30 minutes.
Bowen’s first involvement of the game finding the Baggies’ net. And that was how the half finished with a couple of scares at both ends. No changes at the break – which in itself was a surprise.
More pathetic defending and the Baggies were immediately back in front after the restart. Engles and Kilman between them failing to land a challenge on Jimmy-Jay Morgan who slotted past Hermansen from the left. All that half-time talk gone out of the window inside two minutes. West Ham needed to react immediately so the whole stadium demanded – where were the changes, Nuno?
Piroe and Solomon for Mukasa and Pablo was Nuno’s response on the hour mark. Walker-Peters went close as the chances racked up. West Ham eighth as things stood on 66′. Worse followed as Walker Peters popped a thigh muscle, forcing Nuno to bring Joel Veltman back ahead of schedule, along with Soucek and Castellanos at the same time – Kantė and Golambeckis departing. All five changes made with 20 minutes to go.
And another opposition corner poorly defended, another loose ball, another spectacular volley, another third goal conceded.
West Ham 3 – 1 down.
Despair in the crowd. And on this keyboard. More boos. Nuno stood, static, deep in thought as another modest opponent was made to look like a table-topper thanks to his line up, his tactics and some terrible defending. Max Kilman – and his manager – are going to cop another shedload of criticism for this effort. West Ham’s third London stadium loss of the season and six goals conceded in two consecutive home games. Managers have been fired for less.
As all of the comments and editorials point to is the lack of the managers input during the game to change personnel/tactics in the face of being overrun.He took us down and is clearly incapable of getting a tune out of a very talented group ( I have avoided the term ‘team’)
First of all our loss today can be summed up with one word. ATTITUDE! Players play like they have won the game 30 seconds after the kick off. They are 5 /10 yards off the pace. This is what happens. We slowly pass the ball out of defence, their defence marking and set up we move the whole team up, they win the ball back, have runners to pass to while our players thinking oh we lost the ball, and where is the player I should be marking oh collecting the ball! Too late got to chase him and tackle from behind. In short we move the ball too slowly, forwards don’t move for the ball over the top because they know they will never get a pass so the opersition knows whats coming, we loose the ball and we are not switched on to defend in any shape or form. Secondly Kilman needs to go, when he’s not in the team defence is better, and it doesn’t matter who plays with him. Sorry blame all lands on Nuno here especially the attitude section because it’s his job to get the players up for it.
I don’t know why I am surprised at what is happening at WH as NES did it all the same last season and look what happened. The boss may be good at making money but he and his lackies don’t know how to run a football club because if they did NES would not have been kept on after what he did to our team last season.
The first goal was almost a mirror image of one that Swansea scored against us last week. So we learnt nothing from that game then!
Very depressing Martin – there seem to be obvious things that we should do – if we don’t turn this around soon then automatic promotion will be a distant dream
The fans will call for Nuno’s head – but the question is who is really in charge in the boardroom – I would love to see the back of Sully but he still has his money in the club so might feel that he has a say in who the manager should be – the man who appointed Avram Grant, Pellegrini, Loppy, Potter and Nuno.
let’s hope for a good week away before the International break
COYI
1 point from last 3 home games and undefeated away something seriously wrong
Thanks to Santo’s complete lack of nouse and putrid team selections, we are laughably easy to play against. As soon as the team sheet goes in with Pablo the donkey as sole striker, teams know we’ve surrendered the first 60 minutes before the game has started. They know if they press us, our players panic and just don’t have the technical skills to protect the ball.
I’m saying it loud and clear. Santo needs to go. Don’t forget, he is the manager who took us down, and several of this season’s wins we haven’t deserved. This is not heading in a good direction. Please let him go!
We will win nothing with Kilman in the team . AGAIN HE WAS A DISGRACE . He was fundamentally to blame for two of the goals . He has zero defensive ability. Never seen a worse player picked so many times . Of course it is not his fault. It is the people who brought him and the Manager who picks him .. Golembeckis didn’t put a foot wrong but gets hooked . Kilman never put a foot right and stayed on …. Time to go Nuno.
Relegation showing 3 goals conceded again again and again THIS CANT CONTINUE We are going nowhere under Nuno QPR HOME 1 POINT SOUTHAMPTON HOME 0 POINTS WBA HOME 0 POINTS HOW MUCH MORE PROOF IS NEEDED WE NEED A CHANGE OF MANAGEMENT THE DAMAGE HAS SET IN IT NEEDS TO STOP RIGHT NOW
You keep with your 4-4-2 Nuno and promotion will be out of reach and we can say goodbye to Jared.
The priority is to sign TWO NOT ONE striker . Keep setting up with the same old, we can expect another defeat against Cardiff. For now Areola should replace Hermansen, and 4-3-3 or my preference 4-2-4 is the way to go
Enough is enough. He has to go. Sack this incompetent fraud NOW!
The boos at the end told it all, there was virtually nobody left to boo but there were boos. Concede three and you’re almost certain to lose. That was poor, we’re not good enough.