For 60,000 supporters, the highlight of the evening came before kick off, Ludek Miklosko’s life and career commemorated as the West Ham idol’s name echoed round the London Stadium in a pre-game atmosphere that almost equalled in its intensity (although for a very different reason) some of the European nights of Moyes’ era.
And then the game started and the reality of Championship mediocrity kicked in. From the officials and the players.
Nuno’s “horseshoe Hammers” ambled around for most of ninety minutes last night without evincing a clear plan as to how they proposed to put the ball in their opponent’s net.
West Ham passed the ball around sideways or backwards from one side of their defence to the other, playing ‘you have it’ horseshoe – shaped passes around and across QPR’s rudimentary defence, for all the world making their opponents look the tactical geniuses.
Bowen’s moment of quality shone in a turgid game
Granted, the front line was static and the midfield anonymous for large parts. The through ball that creative genius Max Kilman finally conjured up to start off the move which lead to Bowen’s equaliser was one of the few 25 yard forward passes of the night that actually connected with its intended recipient.
Poor fayre indeed.
And yet West Ham should still have won it, as the ref sought to even up his first half howler by producing another questionable, at best ‘soft’ decision to award West Ham a levelling-up penalty. Blaming Bowen would be harsh as the only difference between the two teams’ spot kicks was that West Ham’s goal keeper didn’t move and QPR’s did.
Consequently sixty thousand West Ham fans ambled off towards their crowded trains, no doubt ruminating over the £150 plus that evening of ‘entertainment’ had cost, quite possibly questioning their life choices during the silent, gritted-teeth-late-night trudge through the blackness and the walking traffic lights.
Ah yes. This was the reality of life in the Championship as I remember it. Average, unglamorous and inglorious.
Making team watch Wrexham game 20 times over may in grain it into them how they need to play all the time.
Pacy break outs creating greater number of shots on goal (and scoring).
Nuno knows what to do so why this hankering to live up to his name_Tinkerman.
Ref was awful , Kilman was awful, Walker-Peters was awful , Soucek was a shadow. Bowen’s penalty was terrible. He is not a pen taker . No variety, no deception, no power , no placement , no hope . Are the players at fault ? Do they want to be the laughing stock for everybody watching their feeble displays ? Of course not NUNO IS TO BLAME .
If this is the way we are going to play better get the chequebook out in January. WH will spend close to 50 mill then sack Nuno 3 games in. Back to square one.
We need to bin this loser manager as soon as possible.
How often does he start with the wrong team and tactics? It’s like playing with some kind of penalty before every match.
The only reason why we’re currently near the top of the league is because we have a handful of PL-quality players whereas most other teams don’t.
For this clueless multiple-sacked ex-reserve ‘keeper to win manager of the month for September is truly laughable.
Any muppet should be doing far better than we’re currently doing with the squad we have at our disposal compared to every other club.
I’m really disappointed by the decision to keep this clown on when he had the vast majority of matches to keep us safe last season yet failed.
Ex-reserve ‘keepers are never going to make good managers. Full stop.
He only did well at Wolves as he was heavily financed. Things went wrong there after a few years, too.
Are our players receiving elite level coaching?
Do they possess the footballing intelligence to switch tactics up during match play? Bowen’s penalty was saved due to his body shape being read by an impressive young keeper.
QPR are being defensively coached by an absolute stalwart (Steve Bould) and it shows whenever they are out of possession.
So, I’ll ask the question again.
Are our players receiving elite level attacking coaching?
Personally I think you make a very valid point, something which is screaming out at you from what you see happening on the pitch.
I think even the better players, whoever you consider them to be, are struggling to perform anywhere near their levels with this setup. At an individual player level, tactics, player combinations (mismatched midfield trio), endeavour (taking chances, trying something different/fancy), cohesiveness, quick play, accurate passing, high press, interchanging positions, interplay, quick one-twos, good corners, on pitch leadership, manager’s starting eleven, his subbing or ability to change approach mid-game …. all could be highlighted as poor and not up to standard.
I don’t even have the impression of having watched WHU play a game of football, I’m left feeling that in fact I watched eleven blokes hanging around on a grassy field, doing nothing much.
Martin, you have clearly twisted the penalty descriptions to suit your cause.
You describe Hermansen as not moving for their ‘penalty’ but, quite to the contrary, they only scored because the taker waited until Hermansen moved before rolling the ball into the other corner.
And as for our penalty, if you think that was “soft” and a case of levelling up then you are involved in the wrong sport. A two handed pull of the shirt from behind, it couldn’t have been more clear cut.
Your articles would reach far higher levels if you didn’t try to sensationalise everything.
Oh Steve, thanks so much for your most constructive, highly valued comments. Both incidents happened real time right in front of me.
I just say what I saw my friend.
Glad you appreciated the comments 😁.
Opinions, eh?
The penalty awarded to West Ham was neither questionable nor soft. Pablo was hauled down by his shirt – clear cut penalty.
thanks Martin – disappointing result. C&H have been waxing lyrical all season about not having VAR – so it was probably inevitable that we got undone by a decision that VAR would likely have reversed
Very disappointing performance, back, sideways, back and we are at home. Team were well supported last night but as mentioned got nothing to shout about. Very poor.
It’s the same slow start time after time after time, like just how long does it take before it sinks in to start at a high tempo.
Then we end up in the last twenty minutes out of sight the better team but playing catch up.
It is like going insane.
John,
“It is like going insane.”
I saw my first match in 1962, it has never been any different 😂
Have to agree. Even with talent of Moore, Burne, Devonshire, Brooking etc. we saw a similar pattern week in week out and good off the pitch