I’d be pretty disappointed if I were a Bournemouth supporter this morning. On top for long periods, better chances, more sophisticated movement: Yet a dubious hand ball / shoulder ricochet from Captain Bowen via Kudus’ shot gave West Ham the winner.
Disappointing, too, for West Ham fans was the early hoof-ball from the back towards Fullkrug. There needs to be more to our football than that when Paqueta is absent.
Summerville‘s flashed shot about 5 metres too high was a case of ‘almost’ – but the late change forced upon our starting XI with Cresswell’s injury had something to do with our lack of fluidity. Wan-Bissaka was hastily redeployed at left back with Coufal looking very poor on the right throughout the first half when nothing gelled, we did indeed look like a team who hadn’t played together.
Please, though, note the change when our premier back-passer James Ward Prowse was substituted. Those side-side-back movements of the first half did disappear when Paqueta and Kudus came on. Is it just me that finds this frustrating when Ward Prowse and Soucek between them slow up our forward play with backward passing? JWP offers so little going forward that I find myself wondering what he brings to our midfield, no through balls or insightful switches of play and not much in the way of hold up tackling. His Claret and Blue supporters will no doubt dive in to put me straight.
However, I’m not going to be negative – 1-0 is just fine by me against Premier League opponents, and there were a couple of good performances: Wan-Bissaka, playing on the wrong side, tackled sometimes with telescopic legs and looked a class apart. I suspect when he is properly embedded as a right back he is going to prove a superb defensive signing and offer a lot more going forward. I’m genuinely excited to see such a superb defender wearing claret and blue.
Max Kilman continued his quiet progress, less in going forward today but looking stronger in the back line every outing. Solid and pretty dependable and I see Mavropanos growing in confidence alongside him.
So, good performances from two of our new signings. And a clean sheet. Can’t be bad. And we are in the hat for the next round. We will play better, Lopetegui still has to sort out the best team selection going forward, Fullkrug still looks like the missing piece from the wrong jigsaw puzzle, not fitting in as yet but this is only game 3. We will get better- and with Manchester City on the horizon for the week end, I’ll settle for winning ugly.
Let’s be honest, had that been under Moyes we’d all be screaming to sack the manager. The performance was as woeful as any last season.
I’m still waiting for signs of a new style of play. It mystifies me how we can have so many talented attacking players yet still fail to be an exciting attacking team under two managers now.
At times last night it was like the Alladyce days with aimless long punts up field.
I’ve said I won’t judge J-Lo until Christmas but I’d like to see some encouraging aspects of a new style.
Last night only one team played football and it wasn’t the ones in claret and blue. Thank heavens there was no VAR!
I didn’t see the game due to other commitments, so can anyone tell me why Todibo was hooked at half time?
Thanks.
He got a yellow and looked like he’s not match fit yet.
Martin and Right Peg have got it about right.
Thankfully not a Prem match and lessons will be learned.
Don’t think Toddy was doing too well, but Mav wasn’t much better.
Dreading Saturday – no chance
Seriously… why is the focus on JWP providing nothing when his midfield mate Soucek is a far more guilty party? Like seriously. Just go onto PremierLeague.com and compare Soucek across all his seasons at West Ham to JWP in his one last year.
For big chances created, Soucek has 11 in 168 games. JWP has 12 from 37. Both of them have attempted 2 through balls and both have 7 assists. The difference is one averages an assist every 3 games, the other every 15.
I mean I’m genuinely not even a fan of JWP (actually prefer Soucek despite this comment) but he’s done a decent job for us. You’d think he’s Kalvin Phillips though.
one takes all the free kicks
I was mortified to see JW-P and Soucek selected, and then it got worse with Coufal. Predictably we were awful, no forward passing movement through midfield, then centre backs forcing it from the back long ball style and losing possession. Awful. Embarrassing. Coufal is struggling, as is Soucek. JW-P needs offloading, he is a terrible midfield player, keeps hiding, ineffective. Urgent culling is required, stop picking these poor players.
As many have said – it will take time. Maybe JWP played to put him in the shop window. Against Man City on Saturday I would play Areola ; AWB Mavro Kilman Emerson ; Alvarez Rodrigues Paqman ; Bowen Fullkrig / Sommerville Kudus
I would also take a draw at home
COYI
Mavropanos and Fullkrug are not good enough for the premiership no matter how much time they’re given and they will always struggle at this level. Kilman, Todibo, WBS and Emerson will be doimate and the midfielders will interchange and we’ve great wide players on either flank. They’ve had ages to replace Antonio but Fullkrug is definately not the solution, poor individual skill, no pace or movement to get beyond defenders into space, not even that good in the air on performances so far and has contributed very little. After all this time we still need a decent striker so the search goes on, an Ollie Watkins type ideally, there must be one out there somewhere?
you have no patience. 0 pts
I am disappointed with JWP apart from his first 5 to 10 games has been awful for us, I was surprised we signed him because much like our own Mark Noble he is easy to pass around because he spends his time chasing the ball rather than intercepting it. Am actually wondering if Todibo should be given an opportunity as a CDM, he doesn’t like heading the ball which is unusual in a CB, given his passing range, speed and impressive stats including interceptions in France he could potentially like Dec be converted to a CDM
Winning ugly is a lot better than losing ugly, if we can add it to winning with style will be very happy COYI
Won the game. Gave some players who had not featured some game time. Gave some others who had little or no Premiership experience some more minutes against a PL team. Beat a team who haven’t lost either of their two games in the PL this season (and might well have been above us if not for an unfortunate VAR decision against Newcastle). Dealt with a last minute change before the kick off which resulted in a far from ideal set up at the back. If we were poor and won what does that say about AFC Bournemouth?