By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
West Ham are second in the Championship. Quite frankly, we are lucky to be in that position considering the way the Hammers started the game at The Den.
Clearly, West Ham rescued the situation with a far more committed second-half performance. It left me wondering what exactly was said at half-time to wake the players up and make them realise they were playing in a derby.
Perhaps the more important question, however, is what wasn’t said before the game?
West Ham were bullied by Millwall
Millwall may have provided the blueprint
Millwall’s intensity, fight and bite appeared to surprise almost everyone in that West Ham team. As I wrote in my post-match reaction, the Lions did absolutely nothing unexpected, yet Nuno’s players looked completely unprepared for it.
Hopefully, it was just a one-off. However, there must be a concern that Millwall’s tenacity has provided the rest of the Championship with a blueprint for how to unsettle West Ham.
Get in our faces, compete for everything, deny us time on the ball and see whether the technical quality disappears. It certainly did during an appalling first half, as reflected in the player ratings from The Den.
It’s worth remembering just how different this looked from the 6-0 demolition of Wrexham. Given time and space, West Ham’s attacking players looked almost impossible to contain. Millwall denied them both and, for 45 minutes at least, we had no answer.
| # | Club | P | W | D | L | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Swansea | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 17 |
| 2 | West Ham | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 15 |
| 3 | Middlesbrough | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 15 |
| 4 | West Brom | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 14 |
| 5 | QPR | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 13 |
| 6 | Stoke City | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 13 |
| 7 | Bristol City | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 13 |
| 8 | Charlton | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 12 |
| 9 | Wolves | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| 10 | Birmingham | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 11 |
Second place isn’t too bad at all
All that being said, second place at the first opportunity to draw breath in what will be a hectic Championship season ain’t too bad at all. West Ham have 15 points from eight games and currently occupy an automatic promotion position, despite producing a first half at The Den which was probably as bad as anything we’ve served up this season.
That should provide some perspective. This wasn’t a disaster and the comeback demonstrated that there is plenty of character and quality in Nuno Espírito Santo’s squad, even when things go badly wrong.
But if the Hammers have serious designs on staying in that top two and securing automatic promotion, they must wake up and realise this is a league in which everybody has to battle and earn the right to play.
We have excellent footballers capable of rescuing games, as they demonstrated against Millwall. But West Ham cannot lose sight of the basics and fundamentals — or forget to compete.
If Nuno’s boys are drawn into a war, they must at least be ready to fight fire with fire.