West Ham’s 6-0 Win Over Lincoln Cannot Disguise An Awful First Half

West Ham United beat Lincoln City 6-0 last night, and if you didn’t watch the game, you could be forgiven for thinking Nuno Espírito Santo’s team had produced an outstanding performance. Six goals, a clean sheet and three valuable Championship points. What’s not to like?

Well, quite a lot actually. Because for much of the first half, West Ham were absolutely dreadful against a Lincoln side reduced to ten men after just two minutes and nine after 22. I would go as far as to say that Lincoln were the better team during those opening exchanges, despite their enormous numerical disadvantage.

The eventual scoreline was emphatic, and there were some excellent individual contributions after the break. But I don’t think we should allow six goals against nine men to disguise what was an incredibly worrying opening 45 minutes, particularly after the problems we’ve already witnessed against Queens Park Rangers.

West Ham Somehow Made Nine-Man Lincoln Look Competitive

The game began with a warning that West Ham hadn’t particularly prepared for Lincoln’s biggest weapon. Within the opening minute, we had deliberately put the ball out for a throw-in rather than simply passing it back to Mads Hermansen.

Given Lincoln’s ability to launch enormous throws into the penalty area, that seemed a rather strange decision. Even after Tom Hamer was dismissed for a dreadful challenge on Joël Veltman in the second minute, the home side remained perfectly capable of causing problems from those situations.

Hamer’s challenge was reckless and potentially leg-breaking. Fortunately, he didn’t make the sort of contact that could have caused a serious injury, but the red card was entirely justified.

At that point, West Ham should have taken complete control of the game. We had superior players, an extra man and almost the entire match remaining.

Instead, we somehow allowed ourselves to be dragged into Lincoln’s agricultural style of football.

Lincoln were understandably direct. They launched the ball forward, competed for second balls and attempted to make the contest as scrappy as possible. With ten men, they didn’t have much choice.

What I couldn’t understand was why West Ham seemed so willing to join in.

Our passing was dreadful, possession was repeatedly surrendered and there was precious little evidence that we had players who had recently been competing in the Premier League.

Mohamadou Kanté and Arne Engels struggled in central midfield, although I would give Kanté some credit for continually trying to find inventive passes. Unfortunately, one of his most memorable contributions was missing an absolute sitter from Bowen’s corner after 21 minutes.

Pablo Felipe also missed an excellent early opportunity, while Manor Solomon repeatedly gave the ball away cheaply. It was difficult to decide which West Ham player was performing the worst.

Then came Lincoln’s second dismissal.

Conor McGrandles brought down Jarrod Bowen as the West Ham captain advanced towards goal following a defensive mistake. After 22 minutes, Lincoln were down to nine men.

Surely that would settle everything?

Not immediately. Incredibly, Lincoln still managed the next attempt on goal following another long throw.

By the half-hour mark, West Ham hadn’t registered a single shot on target. Against nine men.

I found that absolutely disgraceful.

Bowen Was The Only Player Offering Any Real Threat

One player who deserves considerable credit is Jarrod Bowen. Even when everybody around him seemed incapable of controlling or passing the football, the captain was trying to make things happen.

He looked sharper than his teammates, repeatedly attempted to create openings and delivered several dangerous balls into the penalty area.

Unfortunately, his teammates weren’t making particularly good use of them.

Joël Piroe attempted an ambitious backheel but failed to make proper contact, while Solomon completely miscued a volley after Bowen had picked him out unmarked.

West Ham eventually began to dominate territory, but that was hardly surprising. By the closing stages of the first half, even our central defenders were camped around 30 yards from Lincoln’s goal.

And yet we were still struggling to create a proper chance.

It was difficult to escape the conclusion that had Lincoln retained eleven players, West Ham would have been in serious trouble. Indeed, based on what I’d seen, I couldn’t imagine us winning the game against a full-strength opposition.

Thankfully, Bowen’s delivery eventually made the difference.

His corner in the 44th minute was met by Konstantinos Mavropanos, who finally put West Ham ahead.

It was an enormous relief, but hardly a moment that erased everything we’d witnessed beforehand.

As I argued in my Lincoln match preview, Nuno needed his team to demonstrate considerably more attacking urgency than we’d seen in recent matches.

For 45 minutes, they did precisely the opposite.

Austbø Transforms West Ham After The Break

Nuno made a tactical change at half-time, replacing Morato with Edvin Austbø and allowing the Norwegian to operate as an extremely attacking left-back.

Solomon moved into a more central position, and almost immediately West Ham looked like a completely different team.

Austbø’s goal was absolutely sensational.

Cutting inside from the left, he unleashed a right-footed effort from around 16 yards that swerved and dipped beautifully beneath the crossbar.

It was a wonderful piece of individual skill and, frankly, the first moment of genuine attacking brilliance we’d produced all evening.

Suddenly, the floodgates opened.

Arne Engels, who had endured a dreadful first half with some particularly poor passing and set-piece deliveries, produced an excellent slide-rule pass to Bowen.

The captain controlled the ball, cut inside and shot. His effort took a couple of wicked deflections, the final one off Lincoln defender Sonny Bradley, before ending up in the net.

West Ham were three goals ahead, and Lincoln’s resistance was finally disappearing.

The fourth goal again owed plenty to Austbø.

He played a delicious pass to Taty Castellanos, whose attacking run forced a corner. The Norwegian then delivered the resulting set piece for Pablo to head home.

It was a very good contribution from a young player who had provided more attacking quality in a few minutes than West Ham had managed throughout most of the first half.

I was also delighted to see Airidas Golambeckis given an opportunity. He’s got an excellent first touch, and I genuinely believe there’s a big future ahead of him.

Souček Shows His Remarkable Finishing Instincts

Tomáš Souček then took centre stage, scoring twice after coming off the bench.

There’s something quite remarkable about Souček. Put him in central midfield and his first touch and passing technique can look decidedly questionable.

Put him in the opposition penalty area, however, and he suddenly transforms into an incredibly clinical finisher.

His first goal was particularly impressive because he actually started the move himself before getting into the penalty area to receive Bowen’s pass.

His first touch was excellent, and the delicate, curled finish was even better.

The second came in the 88th minute when Max Kilman delivered a cross into the box. The Lincoln goalkeeper appeared to be impeded as Castellanos fell on top of him, with the loose ball eventually reaching Souček.

From around six yards, the Czech midfielder took a quick touch past the goalkeeper before smashing the ball high into the roof of the net.

Two goals, two very good finishes and another reminder that Souček can be an extremely useful attacking weapon.

Six Goals Cannot Hide West Ham’s First-Half Problems

Of course, I’m delighted West Ham won the game. We needed three points, particularly after the consecutive draws against Millwall and QPR, and the result puts us in a much healthier position ahead of Saturday’s trip to Swansea.

As I wrote in my assessment of the promotion race, West Ham cannot afford to keep drawing matches while Swansea and Middlesbrough collect victories.

In that respect, the result was exactly what we needed.

However, the performance raises questions which a six-goal victory shouldn’t automatically answer.

We’ve already discussed West Ham’s worrying habit of starting matches slowly, and this was another example. The difference was that Lincoln handed us an extraordinary advantage before the game had even settled down.

The second-half performance was much better, and there were certainly positives in Bowen’s attacking intent, Austbø’s excellent contribution and Souček’s finishing.

But let’s not pretend that scoring five second-half goals against nine exhausted opponents is the same as dismantling a team on equal terms.

Nuno deserves credit for making a tactical change that improved West Ham considerably. Equally, I don’t think he should escape scrutiny for how poorly his original team performed.

Saturday’s trip to Swansea will be a completely different examination.

I suspect they’ll be considerably less accommodating than Lincoln, and West Ham simply cannot afford another first half like that.