There we have it, any post-COVID optimism has completed evaporated as expected. Why do we do it to ourselves?
It’s a vicious circle where we think we are good, we think we can win, we lose all hope after watching us, we get excited for the next game, we think we are good, we think we can win……
PRE-GAME
A Saturday evening kick-off, beers at the ready, missus making the pizzas for dinner, after 105 days we were ready. If only the West Ham players, management and everyone else at the club was.
That’s maybe a bit harsh because at least one person was. I thought the stadium looked well decked out in the claret & blue over the empty seats. Makes me think they should replace all the seats to claret & blue to make it feel a more West Ham!
There was even a glimmer of hope when the Wolves team was named and no Traore to terrorise us. But then I saw our team and realised we have no goalscoring threat with Haller injured. We still can’t be expected to rely on Antonio to do everything.
THE GAME
The game started and we sat back (the players, not me and the wee lad, we were on the end of our seats in anticipation) and let Wolves have the ball for the first 15 minutes. What about actually going out at the start of a game and put the opposition on the back foot? What about giving them something to think about? What about dictating the game? We were at home. We are desperate for points. It was the perfect opportunity to set down a marker for the run in! But nope, optimism completely obliterated!
Wolves comfortably controlled the game. When we had the ball there was no options and the players were at walking pace. Ngakia seemed to constantly give the ball away. I thought he must have already signed for Wolves at one stage!
We did seem to have a chance when Pablo Fornals was played threw with a long ball from Noble, but he seemed to try to take out the International Space Station with his shot!
With that long ball pass seemingly working, we decided to keep doing it when we got the chance. I thought Allardyce had sneaked back in to manage us and the way things are going I nearly wish he had!
Soucek had a chance which looked like it was destined for the net only for a deflection to take it out for a corner.
The second half started with Ngakia having a tame shot at goal. He actually improved a lot throughout the game, maybe he started to realise impressing Nuno Espírito Santo could be a good move.
Bowen had a penalty shout, but it wasn’t given. I tend to think it was the correct decision.
Traore entered the field and it wasn’t long before he was terrorising us. It was him powering down the line and putting in a cross which resulted in the first goal, a header from Jimenez.
Antonio had a chance to equalise after a run with the ball but decided to shoot from distance which we all know he can’t do, and his shot went wide. Although it was closer than his normal shots from outside the box and no low flying aircrafts were taken out.
In the 84th minute the defeat was sealed when Traore walked through our defence to lay a ball off for a cross to the back post which Neves volleyed past Fabianski.
OVERVIEW
I had said to the wee lad before the game ‘If we win this game we will stay up’ and I did believe that would be the case.
If we had of beat Wolves, then we would gain confidence going into our games against Spurs and Chelsea. Decent performances in those games, playing with confidence would have set us up nicely for the run in. But that’s all gone out the window.
In fact, now the complete opposite will happen. We will be lacking confidence and I fear getting completely annihilated in one, if not two, of our next two games. Meaning we face a run in with zero confidence.
We need to be going at teams from the start. Putting them on the back foot and hopefully making them concede early.
But Moyes doesn’t want to do that. When have we under him? I’m not going to go on another rant about David ‘that’s what I do, I win’ Moyes because obviously he doesn’t understand what the word ‘win’ means. He’s done very very little of it since he’s come in! He doesn’t seem to be able to motivate the players.
Anderson can go, I have never seen a more disinterested player in my life! He was awful on Saturday, every single aspect of him showed he didn’t want to be out there.
Antonio was isolated. The lack of ball to him was a concern especially since he was meant to be our scoring threat. He had to go looking the ball himself. And then when he had it, his only option was to put it into the position that he should have been in! Nobody thought to fill that space for him!
Bowen, Rice and Soucek for me look like they want to win.
Rice had to play in a position he hadn’t played in for a long time but seamlessly done it. He is a player we need to keep and build around if we are to ever improve.
Bowen and Soucek look like the type of players who we could build around Rice with. I often wonder if they are looking around the pitch wondering what the hell they have done joining us though.
Ngakia started slowly but really came into the game. I would love to see us get his contract sorted as I think he would also fit well in our side. He is better than Fredericks and will only improve.
We desperately need Haller and Ogbonna back. Ogbonna is a massive miss and Haller just to be the target man that Antonio isn’t. I would prefer Antonio to be our Traore type player using his strength and speed to run at players.
Maybe we should have put Antonio as a man marker on Traore. I would have hoped Moyes would know what to expect when Traore came on. He was always going to breeze past Cresswell / Fornals / Anderson. It wouldn’t have been so easy to get past Antonio.
My optimism is completed gone.
The vicious circle is now just a line – we lose all hope after watching us, we get relegated, the end!
COYI!
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