By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
West Ham have dropped to 19th in the Championship after three games, and the worrying part is that today’s improved effort at Watford only exposed an even bigger problem.
The 1-1 draw at Vicarage Road was certainly better than last week’s defeat to Charlton in terms of work rate and application.
Unfortunately, that might actually be the most concerning thing about it.
Against Charlton, West Ham looked like a team that simply didn’t want it enough.
At Watford, the effort was there.
The problem was that even when the Hammers worked hard, dominated territory and had plenty of the ball, they still couldn’t beat a fairly average Watford side.
Airidas Golambeckis impressed for West Ham in place of Mavropanos
West Ham Have A Creativity Problem
West Ham won numerous corners and spent long periods camped inside Watford territory.
But what did we actually do with it?
There was no guile, very little ingenuity and seemingly no tactical solution to breaking down a well-organised defence.
Jarrod Bowen and Manor Solomon tried to make things happen from wide areas, but Watford dealt with them reasonably comfortably.
Through the middle, West Ham simply didn’t possess the creativity required to unlock the door.
It’s hardly a new problem. The midfield creativity void has been evident for some time, which is precisely why the arrival of Arne Engels looked so important. He brings quality and excellent set-piece delivery, but West Ham still look short of someone who can consistently open up a packed defence.
Our equaliser rather summed it up.
It came through the sheer persistence of Taty Castellanos, who refused to allow the ball to go out and eventually forced the Matty Pollock own goal.
Hard work rather than invention.
And while there is absolutely nothing wrong with scoring ugly goals, West Ham cannot rely upon persistence and moments of chaos to get through an entire Championship season.
| Pos | Club | P | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | Cardiff City | 3 | 3 |
| 14 | Sheffield United | 3 | 3 |
| 15 | Portsmouth | 3 | 3 |
| 15 | Norwich City | 3 | 3 |
| 17 | Lincoln City | 3 | 3 |
| 18 | Southampton | 3 | 2 |
| 19 | West Ham United | 3 | 2 |
| 20 | Wrexham | 3 | 2 |
| 21 | Derby County | 3 | 1 |
| 22 | Burnley | 3 | 1 |
| 23 | Preston North End | 3 | 0 |
| 24 | Stoke City | 3 | 0 |
The Championship Blueprint To Stop West Ham
Watford offered very little beyond the counter-attack, yet still caused problems whenever they broke with pace.
It increasingly feels as though Championship teams don’t need an especially sophisticated plan to frustrate West Ham.
Find yourself a strong, burly central defender, organise everyone around him and have a few quick players ready to counter.
At the moment, that appears to be West Ham’s kryptonite.
And until Nuno finds a way of creating chances against teams prepared to sit deep, there is very little reason for opponents to change that approach.
It’s something I was worried about before the game when questioning whether Nuno could find a tactical solution at Vicarage Road.
Perhaps the most embarrassing aspect is the league table.
Southampton began the campaign with a four-point deduction following last season’s spying charges, yet are already above West Ham after three games.
That’s where we are.
There were positives at Watford. Airidas Golambeckis was excellent again, following on from his breakthrough performance against Southampton, the application was considerably better and nobody could accuse the players of simply going through the motions.
But West Ham desperately needed a victory and couldn’t find one against fairly ordinary opposition.
Last week we couldn’t win because we didn’t perform.
This time we couldn’t win even though we did.
And somehow, that’s even more worrying.
Unfortunately we’ve been playing counter attacking football for so long our players don’t know any other way. We are not used to trying to unpick the lock of stubborn defences that play the way we used to against a Man City or similar. Only this time we are now the Man City of the championship but without any of the creativity and skill to unlock defences.
Annoying result a win would have put them mid table.
Annoying result had it been a win they would be middle table relieving some pressure.
Until they get some wins the pressure will rise.
Whu not only have problems dealing with quick counter breaks they can’t do the same.
Build up from defence is to slow need to get ball out quicker.
Liverpool were good instance put Salah on halfway line and get ball to him within two passes.
Midfield would then go with him and produce fast attacking momentum.
Whu ham fire power up front need quick approach to get ball up to them.
Nuno formation to rigid he needs some imagination changing it around so they don’t become predictable.
4-4-2 looks to be most unsatisfactory but his stubborn approach won’t allow flexibility.
It’s obvious that the fans are still behind the hammers. But they are definitely not behind NES. The quicker that he is sacked, the quicker things will happen up front. Just get a proper Coach/Manager. If no one else, sack NES and ask Nobes to take it on pro tem until someone obvious jumps up at us.