Well, after three weeks of no football for West Ham, we finally got our fix last night in the form of a 1-1 draw against Queens Park Rangers at the London Stadium. In terms of the result, it was far from ideal, but not exactly terminal. The Hammers remain in the mix at the top of the Championship and, should we beat Lincoln in the next game, the likelihood is we’ll be in first or second place.
However, it’s worth taking a look at the nasty habit which seems to permeate almost every West Ham game at the moment. Nuno Espírito Santo’s team are slow starters, often needing to fall behind before finally showing any urgency. It happened again against QPR, when the Hammers produced a dreadful first half before eventually waking up after the break.
Don’t take my word for it. Nuno himself admitted in his post-match interview: “We didn’t play well at the start of the game.” Unfortunately for NES and West Ham, this is not an isolated incident and probably deserves more than just a passing comment from the gaffer.
Bowen missed a penalty to give West Ham an undeserved win
West Ham’s Slow Starts Are Becoming a Habit
Call it what you will, a trend or a habit, but the repetition is so concerning that the reasons must be identified and addressed now.
We’ve seen it before, whether it was the painfully slow start against Charlton, the lack of urgency at Watford or the first-half performance at Millwall.
And as I wrote in my reaction to last night’s QPR draw, West Ham simply cannot keep relying on second-half improvements and substitutions to rescue poor performances.
Could it be that the pre-match team talk lacks gusto? Perhaps our own pampered players need to feel that they’re in the brown stuff before actually pulling their finger out. Or maybe it’s tactical?
Whatever the answer, it needs sorting, and sharpish, because West Ham won’t be able to keep offering opposition teams encouragement and expect to make comebacks.
Nuno is just like the other managers. Yesterday’s man. Did well with Wolves and thinks the world has stopped spinning.
Plays older players who must have been knackered after international matches and starts Soucek in the wrong position having not played a real match with the team yet? Musaka floated around like a toilet turd and didn’t get pulled until late. Why?
No answers then from the comments on here.
It’s pretty bewildering why we start the way we do.
Maybe we need a specialist game starting coach😊
Stop messing around at the back and get forwards quickly. Once the ball is out on the wing, get runners into the box and launch it the mix.
We’re just so ponderous passing the ball around our own 18 yard box. A bit of ooomph – like we saw against Wrexham – and the goals will come.
Effectively, do what QPR did; defend in numbers and break quickly. There are no points for possession!
Most of our problems are because of the clueless cowardly multiple-sacked ex-reserve ‘keeper loser manager.
Everything about his starting XIs, tactics, and charisma is turgid and negative.
The bloke relegated us, yet we have fans parading around with t-shirts with his face on them.
No wonder we’ve always been an unambitious failing loser club that everyone laughs at with the type of supporters that we have.
We deserve to be light-years behind Fulham, Palace, Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth.
Wake-up and smell the coffee. We’re one of the best-supported clubs in Europe, let alone England.
We’ve been taken the pee out of by owners decade after decade after decade.
We should be a far more successful football club than we are, and mediocrity shouldn’t be acceptable for a club with our colossal fanbase and huge crowds.
Oh no! It’s happening again.
And again. We must wake up and not be so respectful and ponderous. Forget the academic playing around at the back and keep our forwards in the thick of it. Get the ball up the field. We are not playing against the aristocrats of world football and hoping to give them a game. We need to overrun these Championship teams at home and away.
We must play players who know each other in a comfortable system. Bring on the dynamite and ignite at the kick off.
COYI
….and the main picture is the reason. It is true that there is not only one reason for West Ham’s problems, but by far the biggest reason is Nuno. The reason he is paid millions is because his job is to see the solutions to HIS team’s poor performances in real time and implement the corrective action immediately, not ignore them and then wonder why he is still seeing the same performance over and over. Change for the sake of change is never good, but nor is ignoring the bleeding obvious.
The bloke isn’t good enough , end of!
Looking on the brightside until we play the reverse matches there are no other London clubs to play. Charlton should have been at least a draw QPR could have been a a win so there’s 3 points in those two games. Millwall we got lucky but could still have won. Watford rubbish. So hopefully the results are not to bad with the Middlesbrough win which would have been better as a draw but it eases the wolves game in hand. Beat Lincoln and Swansea and get back on track.