Risky Business: There’s No Reward as West Ham Discover the Price of Adventure at Blackburn

A new dawn but the same outcome as Scott Parker’s Hammers trade sluggish caution for costly chaos in their slide down the Championship Table

Hands up, the storming comeback at Cardiff had me well and truly fooled. Surely, it would be a comfortable victory at Ewood Park with a feast of free flowing football to enthuse over. A renaissance that would simultaneously raise our dampened spirits and lift the team back into the mix of Championship pace setters. Not for the first (or last) time I was left disappointed.

Scott Parker has been saying all the right words since his appointment last Wednesday. And mostly, they were in an order and delivered with a passion that we could understand and get behind. A far cry from Loppy’s baffling Spanglish, Potter’s HR doublespeak, and Nuno’s hollow platitudes.

Here was a man with a vision. Conjuring up images of fast starts, high tempos, hard work, front foot football, taking risks, passing, movement, and running with the ball at pace. The West Ham way redefined.

To the sceptic, this might appear at odds with his record at previous clubs. But innocent until proven guilty in my book. We’ve heard the sizzle, now show us the sausage.

Naturally, all new coaches need time. Unfortunately, time is a luxury that is in short supply where a rapid return to the Premier League is the overwhelming imperative. Especially with a squad left traumatised by a year’s worth of Nuno nonsense.

Parker’s inaugural team selection comprised ten of the players who started the second half at Cardiff with Edvin Austbo replacing Manor Solomon. There was also a minor formation adjustment to 4-1-4-1 with Arne Engels as lone patrol in front of the back four. One enduring riddle persisted: how after 14 games of mishap, mishandling and hesitancy, has Mads Hermansen continued to snaffle the keeper’s jersey.

It is fair to say the Hammers came out of the traps flying. An unexpected tempo and intensity that had Blackburn pinned way back in their own half for the opening ten minutes or so. Although the hosts gained more of a foothold as West Ham took their foot off the gas, the visitors continued to dominate first half possession. Yet despite that dominance and a succession of corner kicks, few clear cut chances were created. The highlight being Divine Mukasa’s quick feet and shot that required a smart save from the Rovers’ keeper. Otherwise, goal threats were minimal in a scoreless 45 minutes which provided the Hammers with a rare clean sheet at the break.

The second period began in much the same vein as the first. A double chance for Joel Piroe and Mo Kante, a Jarrod Bowen header that struck a post and an Engels drive that flashed just wide. A promising start until disaster struck a minute later and shattered the gameplan. Ezra Mayers who had a fine game – so puzzling that he has been overlooked in favour of Morata and Ollie Scarles – tried to be too clever when challenging Fevrier in the Blackburn half as last defender. West Ham had committed bodies forward, but the winger still had plenty to do. By the time the cross came in, seven West Ham players were back in the area. Inexplicably, none felt it necessary to track the run of Blackburn’s top scorer and the deadlock was broken.

Against the run of play, the goal demonstrated the flipside to taking risks. We want the rewards that it brings but there are also penalties. Personally, I’m open to a little risk taking but to make it work, requires being clinical in attack and ruthless in defence. But I’ll take it over the excessive caution of the last four or five years any day.

Blackburn took confidence from their lead and rather than sitting back were more adventurous going forward. Their lead was doubled on 70 minutes. Outmuscled in a challenge, Max Kilman feigned a head injury, Engels protested the challenge rather than playing to whistle, and Mads decided not to bother trying to stop the goal bound effort – scored by one time Hammer, Afolayan. Shoot and you will score is fast becoming the keeper’s motto. Without doubt, a feeble effort all round.

Piroe eventually fired home to reduce the deficit with ten minutes remaining but there was to be no miraculous comeback on this occasion. Parker’s substitutions which had worked so well at Cardiff served only to make things worse at Blackburn. Solomon was anonymous and Tomas Soucek and Lewis Orford dithered as if they had all the time in the world.

We had become all too familiar with Nuno’s chaotic late panic when chasing goals late in the game. Throw on as many tall people as you can and remove any hint of creativity that had previously been on the pitch. The balance between urgency and composure in such situations is a delicate one. Over composure as frustration as blind urgency. It’s not the time for passive possession and taking that extra touch to ensure your passing stats remain impressive. It’s time to get the ball into the final third as quickly as possible but remain composed to create genuine openings, not rely on low-probability pot shots.

In the end, time ran out. The best opportunity was a Soucek header which was unfortunately too close to the keeper. A fourth game without a win and down to ninth in the league. Miraculously though, still only six points behind the leaders.

For a change, the international break comes as a welcome interlude. An opportunity to iron out the tactical and formation issues that continue to haunt the squad. While we saw flashes of an improved mindset in the last two games, the balance of the team still looks wrong.

Areola in place of Hermansen is a no brainer. Would Morata bring greater strength and resilience at centre back? The striker imbroglio is no closer to being fixed than it has at any other time in the last ten years or so. For now, Piroe looks to be the best of a not very prolific bunch. He’s not the type to create his own chances though and requires better service if he is to repeat his previous Championship numbers. That means wide men allowed to weave their magic higher up the pitch with reduced defensive responsibilities. Too often they (Solomon and Austbo) are cutting inside just over the halfway line where there’s nowhere to go other than backwards.

For this to happen, the remainder of the midfield needs structure and reliability. Protecting central defence, supporting the full-backs and moving the ball quickly to instigate attacks. One defensive midfield specialist, one box to box player, and one creative force. Ideally for me, it starts with Edson Alvarez or Soungoutou Magassa back at its base, Engels alongside and one of Mukasa and Kante further forward. Mukasa and Kante both have something to offer but together they are a luxury in an environment of defensive fragility.

Much work to be done then on the Rush Green training ground before West Ham entertain bottom of the table Preston North End on 21 November. As far as I know, the following players will be away on international duty and will be unable to take part: Mavropanos, Soucek, Piroe, Kante, Mukasa, Golambeckis, Hermansen, Solomon and Austbo.

Just two weeks to ensure the players are individually and collectively fit to wear the shirt. COYI!

From Cardiff Chaos to Parker Promise: Now West Ham Must Build on the Fightback

If ever a football match deserved to be described as the archetypal game of two halves, West Ham’s extraordinary 3-3 draw at Cardiff on Wednesday night was surely it. Forty-five minutes of despair were followed by forty-five minutes which might, just might, prove to be the beginning of something rather more encouraging.

Scott Parker could hardly have experienced a more dramatic return to the club. Appointed only in the morning of the game, barely 24 hours after Nuno Espírito Santo’s departure, Parker watched his new team disappear down the tunnel at half-time three goals behind. Jack Moylan had completed a hat-trick inside 39 minutes and a sizeable travelling support had made its feelings painfully clear. For supporters who had watched home defeats against Southampton and West Brom bring an end to Nuno’s reign, it must have felt like more of the same. Indeed, angry travelling supporters were chanting that the players were “not fit to wear the shirt”. I’m not sure if that was intended to mean all of them or some in particular. At that stage you wondered what exactly Parker had let himself in for. But by the end of the game, you wondered whether we had witnessed the first small spark of a revival.

There was precious little in West Ham’s opening 45 minutes to suggest what was coming later. Moylan opened the scoring after 11 minutes, given the space to advance before producing an unstoppable 20-yard finish. Things unravelled spectacularly late in the half. Morato was caught on the wrong side, not for the first time, and conceded a penalty which Moylan converted in the 37th minute. Does Hermansen ever look like he is going to save a penalty? He always looks resigned to conceding a goal even before the kick is taken. Only two minutes later the Cardiff midfielder / striker completed his hat-trick with a header from Joel Bagan’s corner.

Parker had begun his new job at nine o’clock that morning and admitted afterwards that he had met the players for the first time then. He therefore had virtually no opportunity to influence the preparation. But at half-time he finally had their undivided attention. Apparently, according to Arne Engels, he was, not surprisingly, a very angry manager.

And suddenly everything changed. Perhaps we shouldn’t romanticise half-time team talks too much, because Parker himself stressed there were tactical instructions involved. He said West Ham needed to be more aggressive without the ball, become more front-footed and take greater risks, and he backed that with immediate action.

Joël Piroe, Mohamadou Kanté and Ezra Mayers were introduced at the interval, replacing the ineffectual Taty, clearly not match-fit Magassa, and never a left-back in a million years Morato, and the difference in attitude was immediately apparent. West Ham began playing with urgency. Cardiff, so comfortable before the break, were suddenly being pushed backwards.

There is, however, a delicious historical comparison here. In February 2011, Parker famously helped inspire a West Ham side trailing 3-0 at half-time at West Bromwich Albion to recover and draw 3-3. Nearly 16 years later, in his first match as West Ham’s head coach, he somehow found himself in almost exactly the same situation. You really couldn’t make it up as whatever Parker said at half-time it worked.

Jarrod Bowen created the opening for Divine Mukasa, who delicately lifted the ball over ex- West Ham keeper Nathan Trott in the 58th minute. Suddenly 3-0 became 3-1 and Cardiff had something to think about. Seven minutes later Arne Engels scored his first West Ham goal to make it 3-2, and they really had something to think about as West Ham turned up the pressure. Now there was only one team with the momentum. With eight minutes of normal time remaining, Maximilian Kilman completed an astonishing comeback. Three-nil down at half-time. Three-three with eight minutes remaining. By then, wonderfully, we were probably disappointed not to win it.

We shouldn’t get carried away. Parker will know better than anyone that a team with genuine promotion ambitions cannot keep giving opponents three-goal starts. There are still obvious defensive problems to address and the alarming passive nature of that opening period cannot simply be forgotten because of what followed. But football is about confidence as much as formations and tactics. A 3-3 draw after leading 3-0 feels like a defeat. A 3-3 draw after trailing 3-0 feels suspiciously like a victory.

West Ham finished Wednesday night eighth, occupying the final play-off position, so despite the recent turbulence the season remains very much alive. Only six points separate the top 10 clubs in what is a very competitive division. More importantly, Parker has already learned something about his squad and that is they haven’t given up. And they discovered something about him too. When things went horribly wrong, their new manager didn’t hide. He changed personnel, altered the approach and demanded greater aggression. It was quite an introduction. The substitutions were timely and appropriate, unlike those made by his predecessor. Personally I would have liked to see Austbo also introduced at half time to replace Solomon but that was another beneficial change that he made in the second half.

There isn’t much time for Parker to enjoy it. West Ham are back on the road on Saturday, travelling to Ewood Park to face Blackburn Rovers in a 3pm Championship kick-off. Blackburn provide a fascinating test because their home form deserves respect. West Ham, though, have reasons for travelling north with confidence of our own. Our away record has been one of the more encouraging aspects of the season, and the fighting spirit shown at Cardiff should send the players into the Blackburn match feeling very different from the way they entered the Cardiff dressing room at half-time. Incredibly we are still undefeated away from home this season despite two particularly woeful first half performances at Millwall and Cardiff.

There are dangers. Andri Gudjohnsen has been Blackburn’s principal goalscorer, and one of the leading goalscorers in the Championship, while Todd Cantwell is another player West Ham cannot afford to allow too much freedom. But this match is really about us. Parker has had virtually no time to coach this squad. His first match arrived on the same day he took the job. Now he has another game barely three days later. We therefore shouldn’t expect a tactical revolution overnight, but what we can expect is a reaction.

Parker talked upon his appointment about the need for consistency. That is surely the key word now. The spirit and aggression of Cardiff’s second half cannot be something we produce only when three goals down and humiliation is staring us in the face. It needs to be there from the first whistle at Blackburn.

Turn up at Ewood Park playing like the West Ham of Cardiff’s first half and we could be in trouble. Turn up playing like the West Ham of Cardiff’s second half and there is no reason why we shouldn’t come home with all three points. And wouldn’t it be nice, just for once, if we could achieve it without having to come back from three goals down first? Wouldn’t it be nice to take an early lead for once?

Scott Parker’s West Ham are underway. He was a superb player for us and I hope he can be equally as good at the helm. He comes with the reputation of playing dour defensive football, but with a successful three promotions from the Championship behind him, but also with little success in the top flight. Was that totally down to him or the resources at his disposal? After 45 minutes in Cardiff the new era appeared to have begun with disaster. After 90, it felt rather more like hope. Now comes the important part which is proving that the remarkable second half wasn’t simply a comeback, but the first glimpse of what the new manager intends West Ham to become. A much better appointment than Lopetegui, Potter or Nuno I reckon. Give the man I chance.

We all see games differently but for what it’s worth my ratings below are based on how I saw the performances of our players in the game.

Hermansen 5, Veltman 5.5, Mavropanos 6.5, Kilman 6.5, Morato 2, Magassa 5, Engels 7.5, Mukasa 7.5, Bowen 8.5, Taty 1, Solomon 3. Subs. Mayers 7, Kante 7, Piroe 6.5, Austbo 7, Soucek (not long enough)

Unexpected Items In the Baggies Area: Nuno’s West Ham Are Worse Than Abysmal

A second successive home league defeat to promotion rivals sees the Hammers drop out of the top six and raises huge questions about their promotion credentials. Decisive action will be needed to stop the rot.

A second successive home defeat sent West Ham tumbling to eighth place in the standings as the Championship table begins to sort itself out after Matchweek 13. The days of teams finding their feet and getting settled to a new environment are well behind us, and by the time the international break comes around next week, the season will be one-third completed.

Three teams currently trend above the two points per game (ppg) target typically required for automatic promotion (if you allow for Southampton’s four-point penalty). West Ham are not one of those teams. Instead, they are floundering on 1.69 ppg and might well be grateful that six teams make it into the play-offs nowadays rather than the usual four. Points wise, they are closer to the bottom half than to automatic promotion.

Saturday was another case of same old, same old from Nuno and the team. The usual pre-match platitudes followed by a handful of superficial changes to the starting eleven. Pablo and Austbo preferred to Taty and Solomon in like for like swaps at striker and left sided midfield. And Golambeckis replacing the absent Mavropanos in a move that surprised a lot of people. The excitement of a youngster given an opportunity tempered by the knowledge that it would be Kilman alongside him as mentor. Like taking flying lessons from a blind man. It may be hindsight, but moving Morato into the centre might have made more sense – given he’s certainly no left back.

Other than that, Nuno was not to be swayed from his stubborn insistence on the suitability of an archaic 4-4-2 formation. Or from the certainty that all shortcomings are the result of individual errors and not the system’s underlying flaws. On this occasion though he was facing an opponent setup in a similar fashion. Perhaps we wouldn’t be overrun in midfield for a change.

The question on most fan’s minds was whether it would be yet another slow start from the Hammers. The opening exchanges were encouraging but the energy that saw a corner won in the opening 30 seconds and an incisive Austbo run down the left ten minutes later eventually fizzled out into indifference.

A minor adjustment had been made to the West Ham press from the last successful Pablo and Kante outing at Swansea. Kante was dropping into deeper positions in the expectation that Bowen and Austbo would share pressing duties with Pablo. Fine in principle had it been well drilled, but in practice, it lacked a cohesion. Something that was fully apparent in the simplicity of the Baggies opening goal.

An Albion defender drew an initially reluctant Pablo towards him. One simple forward pass to a colleague in acres of space broke the press completely. From there, a further quick pass in the space between centre and left backs split the Hammers defence wide open. The attacker was free, worked out his angles and the rest, as they say, was geometry.

To their credit, the Hammers clawed themselves level within ten minutes. Kante getting the ‘assist’ credit with a smart pass to Bowen, but the goal was more the result of the skipper’s individual opportunism (and suspect positioning by the Albion keeper) than it was to West Ham carving open the Albion defence. A seventh league goal of the season for Bowen.

Level at the break was not a bad position to be in for a second half team. No need for half-time changes on this occasion. An inspirational dressing room team talk, and the three points would be as good as in the bag.

That illusion didn’t last long. Three minutes in, a cross is allowed to come in from the left, no defenders attack the ball, some stand and watch – and it is 1-2.

This time no rapid West Ham response is forthcoming. Attacks are symbolic; frequent touches in the opposition box but not a single big chance created. Nuno sets the random substitution generator into operation, but the game’s equilibrium is undisturbed.

On 72 minutes the outcome is assured. A corner from the left, keeper frozen to his line, opportunities to clear forsaken, a shot from the edge of the box evading Hermansen and settling into the back of the net. Game over.

It is often argued that West Ham have the strongest squad in the Championship. It’s a subjective claim and the table would beg to differ. What is almost certainly true, however, is that it is the most expensively assembled and highest paid. And with the highest paid manager in the division directing them.

Nuno is no newbie at West Ham. Someone still needing time to educate players in the intricacies of his revolutionary methods. He’s a veteran of over 50 games and still nobody can pick out any identity or personality in the way he wants or intends to play. If he understands it himself, he certainly hasn’t convinced the players. Trying the same thing over and over again and wondering why it fails so frequently is not a strategy.

The one mitigating factor is that recruitment at the London Stadium has a long history of lurching from haphazard and disjointed to expedient. A squad assembled with no direction or plan in mind. But it is the manager’s responsibility to get the best out of the resources available. Nuno is clearly not doing that – or even attempting to in some cases. While some notable aspects of the squad’s shortcomings require reinforcements, others already have better alternatives on the sidelines – but are snubbed due the manager’s thin-skinned ego. Nowhere is this more obvious than goalkeeper and defensive midfield.

There is a stat going around on the internet that since joining West Ham Hermansen has not finished a single match with a positive goals-prevented figure – calculated as the number of goals a keeper conceded to the number of goals they should have conceded based on the quality and placement of shots on target. How shocking is that? Essentially, Hermansen is about as effective as one of those tube men you see air dancing outside a discount furniture warehouse.

The rationale for his inclusion is that he is superior to Areola with the ball at his feet. Never mind this has little value in a team incapable of playing the ball through the lines and eventually resort to long balls anyway.

Saturday’s fixture provided an interesting contrast as to how each team executed their defensive midfield duties. The Albion pair were disciplined and patrolled diligently in front of their centre backs. At the other end, Engels and Mukasa were regularly drawn out to cover the full-backs leaving large open gaps through the centre. And this with a defence that needs all the protection it can get.

Neither Engels nor Mukasa are natural defensive midfielders. Engels should be deployed box to box; Mukasa further forward. The obvious solution (to me) would be to pair either Alvarez or Magassa with Engels and for Mukasa to be competing with Kante for the attacking midfield role.

I’m guessing Nuno has greater access to stats and heatmaps than those I can access for free on the internet – so all this should be no surprise to him. His failure to act can only be put down to the intransigence of a man whose decisions are taken for reasons of personal satisfaction rather than in the interests of West Ham United.

We can only speculate what the owners make of all this – assuming there is anyone paying attention to the day to day running of the club. What do they see when they look at Nuno – a competent leader capable of building for the future? Or the imposter lacking in tactical acumen, man management skills, motivation, match preparation and in-game decisions that the rest of us see?

Never in the history of “x games to save their job” has a manager ever truly turned things around. A temporary reprieve is the best it can get. Can anyone look at Nuno’s West Ham record and conclude he is fit for purpose – either for now or for the future. Nuno must go! Do the right thing board members, you know it makes sense. COYI!

Hammers Need a Response as Baggies Come Calling

West Ham return to the London Stadium on Saturday looking to get back on track after last weekend’s hugely frustrating 3-2 home defeat by Southampton brought our nine-match unbeaten Championship run to an abrupt end. The visit of West Bromwich Albion gives us the opportunity to respond immediately, but this is certainly no routine home fixture. West Ham go into the weekend third in the Championship with 22 points from 12 matches, while West Brom are fifth with 21, so a single point separates the sides.

In fact, that makes Saturday one of those early-season games which may eventually prove rather more significant than it appears at the time. Win it and we put the Southampton disappointment behind us, maintain our position amongst the promotion challengers and create a little breathing space between ourselves and West Brom. Lose, and the Baggies go above us. Breathing space! See what I did there? Yes, I’ve taken note of the big phrase in this week’s budget speech.

First, though, it’s difficult to look ahead without looking back at what was an extraordinary afternoon at the London Stadium last Saturday. Let’s get one thing straight before we start looking for scapegoats. West Ham didn’t lose to Southampton because of the referee. We lost because our opening to the game was dreadful.

Southampton were ahead after only two minutes through Kuryu Matsuki and doubled their advantage through James Bree in the 11th minute. West Ham were shell-shocked, but to our credit we responded strongly and Kyle Walker-Peters, playing against his former club, produced an excellent finish to make it 2-1 after 24 minutes. At that point, we really were back in the game. West Ham were firmly on the front foot and an equaliser seemed distinctly possible, in fact I thought it was inevitable. But instead Southampton struck again.

Lewis Dobbin restored their two-goal advantage on 34 minutes after a succession of blocked efforts, leaving us 3-1 down and wondering how, having played some decent attacking football, we’d conceded three goals in little more than half an hour. It was sloppy defending and Southampton punished it ruthlessly. Sky Sports described our defending for the third goal as “lacklustre” and reasonably called the result a wake-up call for anyone who thought West Ham were going to stroll to promotion. I can’t really argue with that.

Yet the afternoon also left me increasingly irritated by something else. The referee was Michael Salisbury, an official with plenty of Premier League experience. Frankly, at times his performance was baffling. Southampton were winning and naturally wanted to slow the game down. I don’t particularly blame them for that. Most teams would do exactly the same thing in their position. What was infuriating from a West Ham perspective was how little appeared to be done about it.

Restarts seemed to take an eternity. Goal kicks, throw-ins and free-kicks became exercises in running down the clock. Players went down, the rhythm of the game disappeared and Southampton were able to take the sting out of West Ham’s attempts to build momentum. But anyone watching from a West Ham perspective could be forgiven for wondering exactly when Michael Salisbury was going to take control. And then came the first-half stoppage time. Two minutes. Seriously? The first half had contained four goals, scored in the second, 11th, 24th and 34th minutes. Four separate goals. Four celebrations. Four restarts. Add the usual stoppages and Southampton’s determination to take as much heat out of proceedings as possible, and somehow the conclusion was that only two additional minutes were required. It was astonishing.

There isn’t a rule which says a particular number of seconds must automatically be added every time a goal is scored, so we can’t simply multiply four goals by a fixed figure. But equally, you don’t need a stopwatch and a degree in mathematics to wonder how a half containing four goals and all the other interruptions that go with 45 minutes of Championship football could possibly result in just two minutes being added. It looked completely inadequate.

And that is where I think referees have to accept responsibility. If a team believes it can waste time without consequence, it will. Why wouldn’t it? It isn’t Southampton’s responsibility to make sure West Ham have enough time to score. It is the referee’s responsibility to manage the game and ensure that deliberate delays don’t simply reduce the amount of football being played. What made it particularly exasperating was that West Ham were chasing the game and beginning to apply pressure. Every little delay suited Southampton perfectly.

The frustration continued into the second half as West Ham tried to find a way back. Eventually Tomáš Souček scored his 50th goal for the club in stoppage time to give us the faintest hope, but it was too late and Southampton held on for a 3-2 win.

So let’s be absolutely clear. The referee didn’t cost us the match. We did a pretty good job of that ourselves in the opening 34 minutes. But that shouldn’t become a convenient reason for absolving Michael Salisbury of criticism either. From a West Ham supporter’s perspective, his failure to get to grips with Southampton’s game management, allied to the frankly ridiculous two minutes added at the end of a four-goal first half, made an already irritating afternoon considerably worse.

I’ll refrain from mentioning Nuno. Geoff did an excellent job with his views on our manager in his review of the Southampton game this week. I agree with most of what Geoff wrote. I found some of his substitution decisions baffling I’m afraid. Kante and Walker-Peters were two of our most impressive players in an attacking sense and both were withdrawn as we were chasing the game. I love Tomas Soucek in so many ways but his lack of pace and graduation from the Carlton Cole school of ball control are not positive attributes. But just as I was thinking that he did score a splendid goal!

In some ways, Southampton might prove to be a useful reality check. There had been plenty to be encouraged about during our nine-match unbeaten league run, but Saturday demonstrated that nothing in the Championship can be taken for granted. Southampton arrived at the London Stadium, attacked us from the start and made us pay heavily for our mistakes. Now we shall discover something else about this West Ham side: how will we react to a setback?

Our recent form remains pretty impressive. Before Southampton, we’d won 1-0 at Swansea and 6-0 at Lincoln, while previous league games against QPR and Millwall had finished level. West Ham’s overall record after 12 Championship matches is six wins, four draws and two defeats, with 32 goals scored and 15 conceded. Thirty-two goals in 12 games confirms that scoring isn’t exactly our biggest problem.

Keeping them out at the other end occasionally is. And after conceding three against Southampton, another lapse-filled start against West Brom would be asking for trouble. The Baggies arrive in decent form themselves. Their most recent match was a 1-1 draw at Preston, which followed victories over Blackburn and Wrexham. They have six wins, three draws and three defeats from 12 Championship matches and have conceded only 13 goals. That last figure catches my attention. West Ham have scored twice as many league goals as West Brom, 32 compared with 16, but the Baggies’ defensive record suggests we shouldn’t expect them to be obliging visitors. There’s an interesting contrast there.

West Ham matches have often provided goals. Eight of our last ten have contained three or more goals, whereas only three of West Brom’s last ten have done so. That suggests Saturday should become something of a battle of styles, with West Ham wanting to get on the front foot and impose our attacking game while West Brom may be perfectly content if things remain tight and uncomfortable. If so, patience will be important, but hopefully please, not too much patience. After what happened last Saturday, I’d rather we didn’t wait until we’re 2-0 down before we decide to start playing.

Remarkably, this will be the first league meeting between the clubs since May 2021. We won both Premier League encounters that season, beating West Brom 2-1 at the London Stadium in January before winning 3-1 at The Hawthorns in May. Our previous meeting, however, wasn’t quite so enjoyable: West Brom came to the London Stadium in January 2020 and knocked us out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 victory. Those meetings belong to a different era, of course. The rather uncomfortable reality in 2026 is that we’re renewing acquaintances not in the Premier League but in the Championship. Hopefully that’s only a temporary arrangement.

One defeat doesn’t suddenly turn a good start into a bad one. We’re third. We’ve lost only twice in 12 league matches. We’ve scored 32 goals. Before last weekend we’d gone nine league games without defeat. There is still a great deal to be positive about. What this Saturday should tell us, however, is whether we’ve learned anything from Southampton.

We cannot spend the first ten minutes defending as though the match doesn’t start until quarter past three. We can’t give decent Championship sides two-goal leads and expect to keep getting away with it. And we need to rediscover the defensive concentration that had brought consecutive clean sheets before Southampton arrived.

I’d like us to start aggressively against West Brom, but intelligently. Get Jarrod Bowen involved early. Encourage Kyle Walker-Peters to get forward again. Let the crowd sense from the opening few minutes that last weekend hurt and that there is a determination to put it right. Above all, let’s score the first goal. After last weekend, I’m not sure my nerves fancy another afternoon spent chasing the game.

Saturday isn’t quite a must-win match. Not in October. But it is the sort of home game a side with serious automatic promotion aspirations needs to win. Southampton gave us a bloody nose and provided a timely reminder that getting back to the Premier League isn’t going to be the formality some people thought it might be. Now it’s our turn to respond.

My ratings from the Southampton game: Hermansen 5, Walker-Peters 7.5, Kilman 5, Mavropanos 5, Morato 5, Engels 7, Mukasa 7, Kante 8, Solomon 5, Taty 5, Bowen 7. Pablo the best of the substitutes.

The Wheels Fall Off Nuno’s West Ham Bus As The Saints March On With All Three Points

When William Shakespeare wrote “expectation is the root of all heartache” he could easily be talking about life as a West Ham fan. But even Shakespeare would have abandoned the discredited 4-4-2 formation by now.

All good things must come to an end, they say. And the same applies equally to bang average things where you have somehow managed to snaffle points despite competing for only half the game most weeks. On this occasion, West Ham’s nine match unbeaten Championship run coming to an end in an act of self-harm against a not especially impressive Southampton side.

Nuno has often made the point about hours put in on the training ground to fix those parts of our game that haven’t been working well. If we are to believe that, then either he doesn’t see the timid, slow starts to games as a problem, or he has no solution to fix it. This despite every Hammers supporter in the world having identified it as our greatest weakness. Just ahead of archaic formation, players played out of position and team selections based on the manager’s ego rather than in the interests of West Ham United.

The more I see of Nuno, the more I see a man completely unsuited to the task of football management. At least that is how he comes across – fragile ego, poor communicator and limited tactical nous. A coach who is incapable of reading the game and adjusting his approach accordingly.

It is puzzling to look back at his periods of relative success at Wolves and Forest and wonder how that happened. Was it mostly down to luck? The happenstance of the right players coming along at the right time? Shades of Bilic with Payet and Moyes with Rice. To misquote Hanlon’s Razor: Never ascribe to great management that which is adequately explained by good fortune.

When you see other managers on televised games, they are either earnestly studying each pass, move and transition or else living every shot, pass and tackle on the touchline. Then there’s our guy. A man with the look of someone who had been out walking his dog in the park and stopped for a few minutes to watch a game. Only Nuno had managed to lose his spaniel as well.

What other explanation can we put the repeated slow starts down to other than team orders from the management. What is it now, 11 of the 15 league goals conceded coming before the half-time substitutions? It could also be poor preparation and a lack of motivation, I suppose. It is hard to imagine anyone being inspired or motivated by a repetitive Nuno team talk.

Team selection for Saturday had no real surprises. Kyle Walker-Peters came in for the presumably injured Joel Veltman and in a rotation of goal-shy strikers Taty replaced Pablo. Otherwise, it was again the same 4-4-2 formation last seen on Match of the Day circa 2004. Conceived in an emergency during the latter stages of last season’s failed relegation fight, Nuno is stubbornly sticking to it in a one-man campaign to have it recognised as a heritage artifact. Never mind that every other manager has abandoned it, that it creates frequent midfield overloads and that elsewhere coaches have opted for fluidity over rigidity.

The situation is aggravated at West Ham by Nuno’s refusal to play a specialist defensive midfielder. Someone whose brief is to break down attacks and protect a back four who need all the help they can get. Although Alvarez and Magassa might usefully fulfil that role, they are both frozen out by the manager’s obstinacy. Loathe to consider those he has fallen out with. Is it not a dereliction of duty to sideline players for strictly personal reasons?

The demands of the chosen formation similarly limit the effectiveness of the wide players who ideally should be the Hammers primary attacking threat. Asked to do too much work across too much distance, they are regularly required to drop deep in support their fullbacks. I’m yet to be convinced by Solomon but he and Bowen should be doing the lion’s share of their work in the final third.

All three Southampton goals were supported by the Hammer’s generosity with midfield space – and assisted by two of the team’s greatest weaknesses – goalkeeper and central defence. Hermansen is a below average keeper, especially galling when there is better on the bench. Clearly Areola is another who has ended up on the wrong side of gaffer. The central defender partnership of Kilman and Mavropanos has long looked suspect with the former taking most of the responsibility for me. Slow motion through our goals against and invariably you’ll find Max spectating and shrugging his shoulders a safe distance away from the action areas.

West Ham ramped up 28 goal attempts and a staggering (for us) 52 touches in the opposition box on Saturday. It is tempting to conclude that on a different day we might have scored six or seven. Yet very few clear-cut chances were created and there were rarely sufficient numbers in the box ready to capitalise. And when shots hit the target, Peretz comfortably demonstrated what a difference a brave, competent keeper can make.

Inevitably, Nuno was forced to yet again make changes from the bench. The half-time change was unexpected – some might say unnecessary, but Scarles looked OK when he came on – as I’d anticipated the ineffective Taty and Solomon would be the ones hauled off. As one commentator put it, if Taty’s not getting caught offside or committing a foul, you wouldn’t know he was there. His presence meant the energetic high press from the Swansea game did not materialise.

The substitutions became more frantic and difficult to comprehend as the game progressed. By the end there was no discernible pattern or purpose to the Hammer’s play. Just put six up front and hope for the best, even though you’ve already taken off any hope of creativity that existed. I can’t think of any circumstances that would justify Taty, Pablo and Piroe being on the pitch together at the same time.

Away from the real action, what a diabolical refereeing performance that was from Michael Salisbury. It’s difficult to be objective with referees when they are officiating your own side, but his calls were more than head scratching. Typically, there is a negative correlation between ball possession and fouls committed (teams with less possession generally commit more fouls) yet Salisbury penalised the Hammers 16 times to the Saints 7.

The one minor positive from the weekend was clinging on to third place. Although now only two points separate West Ham from the side in ninth place.

However, the fundamental problem is that the managerial situation is hugely frustration. Nuno is not the man for the job. Perhaps he will eventually get us promoted one way or the other – although I have strong doubts that he can. But what is crystal clear is that we would be doomed to failure if he was again at the helm in the Premier League. COYI!

West Ham v Southampton: Another Big Test of Our Promotion Credentials

If last weekend’s trip to Swansea was a test of just how serious our promotion ambitions are, then Saturday’s visit of Southampton to the London Stadium provides another one. And after what we achieved in Wales, we should go into it with plenty of confidence.

Winning 1-0 away to the Championship leaders was arguably our most impressive result of the season so far. It might not have had the fireworks of our 6-0 victory at Lincoln a few days earlier, but sometimes those gritty away wins tell you rather more about a side. It was, as Geoff described, a competent performance rather than an outstanding one that reduced their lead at the top to one point. If we had lost the gap would have been seven points. Divine Mukasa got the decisive goal as we made it consecutive away victories and extended our unbeaten league run to nine matches.

Now we need to bring that momentum back to the London Stadium. Saturday’s 3pm kick-off sees second-placed West Ham take on a Southampton side who are just creeping into a play-off place in eighth, but that league position is slightly misleading. The Saints started the campaign with a four-point deduction and have lost just twice in the Championship to Wrexham and Watford. Without that deduction they would be right amongst the leading pack, so this looks like another genuine test between two sides with designs on promotion. In fact, just one point separates us on the field. We have collected 22 points from our eleven matches, while Southampton have earned 21 before their deduction is applied.

They arrive in London after a goalless draw at home to Bolton last weekend, having previously recorded successive 1-0 victories over Norwich and Portsmouth. That suggests we shouldn’t expect another Lincoln-style goal-fest.

There have certainly been some memorable meetings between the two clubs over the years and, overall, and especially in recent times, we’ve generally had the better of them. Before this season, our last meeting at the London Stadium finished 1-1 in April 2025, while on Boxing Day 2024 we came away from St Mary’s with a 1-0 victory.

Go back a little further and Southampton became rather welcome visitors to our part of East London. We beat them 1-0 in April 2023 and 3-1 in February 2020, while one of my favourite recent meetings came on the final day of the 2020/21 season. Our 3-0 victory secured sixth place and European football, although sadly there weren’t the usual thousands of us inside the ground to enjoy it.

Fortunately, I was successful in the ballot and one of the lucky ones to be among the 10,000 allowed into the ground as Covid restrictions were gradually being eased. Two first half goals from Pablo Fornals gave us a comfortable half-time lead before Declan Rice sealed the victory five minutes from the end with a run from inside our half through the Southampton defence almost unchallenged to slot home. It was strange to be at the ground after so long away and even weirder with just 10,000 allowed in to keep us ‘relatively’ separated from each other.

But perhaps the most relevant previous meeting is the one that happened only a couple of months ago. We travelled to St Mary’s in the League Cup on 25 August and returned with a resounding 4-1 victory. That ought to give us confidence, although it probably gives Southampton a little extra motivation as well.

For us, perhaps the biggest challenge is maintaining the standards we’ve set over the last couple of matches. Thirty league goals already demonstrates the attacking talent we possess, but the 1-0 at Swansea showed another side to us. If we are going to get out of this wonderfully unpredictable division at the first attempt, we’ll need both qualities. There is an added incentive as well. Depending on results elsewhere, victory could see us finish the weekend at the top of the Championship. After relegation and all the disappointment that came with it, that wouldn’t be a bad position to be in as we head towards November.

I’m beginning to feel quietly optimistic. Perhaps that’s dangerous territory for any West Ham supporter, because experience tells me what normally happens as soon as we start getting carried away! But six goals at Lincoln followed by a hard-earned victory at Swansea is difficult to ignore.

Southampton will probably provide another uncomfortable afternoon, and maybe that’s exactly what we need. Beat another promotion contender and we really can start believing that this might be more than simply a decent start.

I’ll be watching this game from the hospitality area. I did experience hospitality once before at Upton Park but this is the first time I will have experienced it at the London Stadium. I’ve always sat on the opposite side of the London Stadium so this will be my first experience of sitting on this side of the ground. I must remember my binoculars!

Sinking the Swans: Mukasa’s Sweet Strike Sends West Ham Back Into the Top Two

Two West Ham wins in a week have wiped away the memory of disappointing draws with Millwall and QPR. Although not yet impressing, do they now have a sense of momentum?

While in still feels like the season has only just begun, the reality is we are one more half of football away from reaching 25% complete. The initial blather about marathons and sprints is behind us and the table is starting to take shape. Earlier suspicions of team strength have been confirmed and it’s becoming clear who the main rivals at the top are likely to be – Swansea, Middlesbrough, Birmingham, West Bromwich Albion, Wolves and Southampton. Throw in the Hammers and it’s any two from seven for automatic promotion.

The bountiful autumn harvest of six points from two games on the road – with seven goals scored and none conceded – was a perfect week for Nuno’s Hammers. After disappointing derby draws against Millwall and QPR, they find themselves back in the top two and right on track for the two points per game target. Perhaps it will be a season of mellow fruitfulness after all.

At the same stage last season, Coventry topped the table with 26 points. Ipswich were several places back on 20 while Middlesbrough (24) and Millwall (23) would have considered themselves well placed. Eventual play-off winners were trailing on 18. Nothing can be taken for granted.

A breakdown of West Ham’s games to date shows that, of the eleven opponents faced, seven are currently in the bottom half of the table and four in the top half. Regardless of position, the average points haul per game has been the same for both groups. Of the potential promotion rivals, the Hammers have now played Wolves and Swansea – and won them both in games where they were happy to concede possession. Will the trend be extended into the next two crucial home fixtures against Saints and the Albion?

There’s a school of football management across the ages for whom a 1-0 away win against a title rival is about as good as it could possibly get. An opportunity for a moment’s reflection, to bask in the glory of their own tactical genius. An excuse to uncork a bottle of the finest burgundy and savour a slow, thick, velvety draw on an expensive Cuban Cohiba cigar. I imagine Nuno as an acolyte of that school. Saturday’s win at Swansea carefully catalogued in his mental scrapbook of greatest managerial moments.

The weekend’s fixture was West Ham’s first trip to Swansea since the ground was exotically re-branded as the Swansea.com stadium. Is it true that visitors must correctly select all the squares with traffic lights before gaining entry through the turnstiles?

The game was as cagey as all top of the table clashes invariably turn out. In theory a mouthwatering showdown, but in practice the fear of losing typically putting a damper on entertainment. Opposing managers seeing no shame in a dour drawn game in such circumstances.

Nuno made just one change from the side that had started at Lincoln, with Divine Mukasa replacing Joel Piroe. It suggested a change of formation to 4-3-3 prior to kick-off but that wasn’t to be as Mo Kante was pushed forward into the space behind Pablo. As a high pressing force, it was possibly the most effective pairing we have seen so far. Both players seemingly tasked with giving everything they have for the first hour. The two combined in the build up to the game’s only goal when Mukasa calmly steered home Kante’s cross with the very first shot of the game on 34 minutes.

Kante continues to show a lot of promise making good forward runs and with potential to do the unexpected. Pablo, on the other hand, continues to move in mysterious that are difficult to fathom. Well below par on individual contribution with the ball at his feet, but an unknowable, enigmatic influence on the team as a whole.

A huge contradiction exists in the Hammers goalscoring record. The league’s top scorers by some distance but with the three ‘specialist’ strikers contributing just five of the 30 goals. Makes you wonder what could be achieved with a half decent poacher in the mix?

Swansea eventually came to life after the goal but had little cutting edge. Their record of 16 goals from 11 games is not impressive and may well be the Achilles heel of any promotion push. In the main, the Hammer’s defence dealt comfortably with home side’s attacking threat, although Swansea’s best scoring opportunities came as the result of West Ham lapses rather than through well-worked openings. Still, two clean sheets in a week are not to be sniffed at and the presence of Joel Veltman and Morato provides much needed stability to the backline.

It was interesting that Mads Hermansen had no saves to make in the entire game – thanks in part to poor Swansea finishing and to the intervention of the crossbar. It could be said the Hammers rode their luck at times, but they also carved out the better scoring opportunities.  Swansea grateful to their keeper for making a handful of excellent stops to keep the West Ham lead down to one goal.

With the withdrawal of Pablo and Kante the high press fizzled out, and West Ham retreated deeper into their own half. It’s not a proper West Ham game without a nervous finale and anxiety over the number of added minutes. Fortunately, the boys held on to cut Swansea’s lead at the top of the table to a single point.

It was a competent West Ham performance more than anything else. Neither commanding nor spectacular but it got the job done. Neither was it the West Ham performance of two halves that we have come to expect for the past year or so. No heights were reached but the team remained competitive for most of the 90 minutes.

With Nuno choosing not to field a natural defensive midfielder – due to the ongoing shunning of Alverez and Magassa – special mention should be given to Arne Engels. He has been the unsung hero in his contributions to the team’s efforts in a less than glamourous holding role. Committed, proficient passer, high work-rate and decent set piece delivery. My pick as the next penalty taker.

The next two home games which come at the leisurely pace of one game per week will confirm or otherwise just how convincing promotion credentials are. Let’s hope they are up for the challenge. COYI!

Swansea City v West Ham United: A Real Test of West Ham’s Promotion Credentials

If we wanted to know just how serious West Ham are about bouncing straight back to the Premier League, Saturday afternoon at Swansea should provide us with a pretty good answer. We travel to Wales sitting third in the Championship, four points behind leaders Swansea after ten games. The Swans have 23 points, we have 19, so while nobody wins promotion in October, this certainly feels like one of those games that could tell us quite a lot about both sides.

What a strange week it has already been for us. Last Friday night’s 1-1 draw at home to QPR felt like a missed opportunity, particularly when we were looking to make the London Stadium the sort of place visiting Championship sides wouldn’t particularly enjoy coming to. Then, five days later, we went to Lincoln and won 6-0. That’s West Ham for you. Just when you think you have us figured out, we go and do something completely different.

That Lincoln result was certainly some response, helped of course by Lincoln’s reckless opening to the game, but Swansea represents a very different examination. They come into the match after four successive victories, the latest being a 1-0 win at Millwall, and their record of seven wins from ten league games explains why they are sitting on top of the Championship. They’ve conceded just seven goals compared with our 12, although our 29 goals means we’ve been comfortably the more prolific of the two sides at the other end. So perhaps the big question is whether our attacking threat can break down the best defence we’ve encountered so far.

One encouraging factor is that we haven’t lost away from home in the Championship this season. Our four trips have produced one win and three draws, including that 2-2 draw at Millwall. But there is also the other side of that statistic; if we’re going to turn a promising start into a genuine promotion challenge, at some stage some of those away draws have to become wins.

Trips to Swansea haven’t always provided happy memories. Our last visit, admittedly all the way back in March 2018, ended in a miserable 4-1 defeat. Before that, however, there was a very enjoyable Boxing Day afternoon in 2016 when we went there and won 4-1 ourselves. That win avenged a 4-1 defeat in May 2016 in what was scheduled to be the final game at the Boleyn Ground (but wasn’t of course because the Manchester United game was rearranged).

That’s right you keep reading the scoreline 4-1. Three of our last games against Swansea have finished with that score and in between them we’ve managed two 1-0 victories. Here’s a quiz for you – answers at the foot of the article.

  1. Name the three goalkeepers who played in goal for West Ham in those last 5 games against Swansea.
  2. Name the goalkeeper who played in goal for Swansea in all 5 games.
  3. Name the player who played twice for Swansea and three times for West Ham in those 5 games and scored a goal for both teams (not own goals).
  4. (an easy one to finish) 21 penalties have been awarded in the Championship this season and 19 of them have been scored. Name the two players who missed with their spot kicks.

For me, Saturday isn’t quite a must-win game, it’s far from it. There is an awfully long Championship season ahead of us, and a point away to the league leaders would hardly represent a disaster, in fact I would be happy with that. But there is an opportunity here too. Win and suddenly we’re just one point behind Swansea, whereas lose and the gap becomes seven. That’s what gives this game a little extra edge.

After six goals at Lincoln confidence ought to be high but now comes the harder part. Can we produce that sort of performance against the team currently setting the pace? It will be a totally different game and it won’t be easy but if we can win we will have 22 points from 11 games which brings our average up to two points a game. Over a whole season that would give us 92 points from the 46 games which would be the total needed to be in strong contention for automatic promotion.

And the answers to the questions:

  1. Darren Randolph was the West Ham goalkeeper in three of the last five games against Swansea, Adrian played in one, and Joe Hart in the other.
  2. Lucas Fabianski was the Swansea keeper in all five of the games.
  3. Andre Ayew played twice for Swansea and three times for West Ham in those five games. He scored for Swansea in their 4-1 win at Upton Park in May 2016 and then scored for West Ham in our 4-1 win in Swansea on Boxing Day 2016. Both he and his brother Jordan played for Swansea and Jordan scored one of the goals in Swansea’s 4-1 win in March 2018
  4. Taty and Jarrod Bowen of course!

Friday Night Takeaways: Lights, Cameras But Precious Little West Ham Action

A three week break, a send-off for Ludo, a London derby, and a full-house under the east end lights were not enough to shake Nuno’s Hammers out of their trademark cautious and slow start to a game

Busy Saying Nothing

I wouldn’t normally watch a pre-match press conference except that the international break wilderness left me desperately needing a fix of West Ham related content. No surprise though that it was again a waste of everyone’s time. The whole process is a charade. If a manger has something smart or insightful to say about an upcoming game, he’s not going to tell the whole world about it in advance. And it must be the shortest of short straws for a reporter having to travel across London knowing that any probing question will be stonewalled by a low block of pointless platitudes: “working hard”, “trained well this week”, “no easy games in this league”, “we’re not where we need to be yet”.   

A handout of current injury and fitness updates would quite easily do the job.

Nuno’s major revelation was that the players had been exhausted from playing 11 games in the opening 42 days of the season. A cynic might question whether that should be 11 halves of games as his team are rarely competitive over a full 90 minutes. But nobody asked that question. Still, he assured us ‘the group’ had made good use of the time and had been focusing on all the things that hadn’t been working well – but not slow starts apparently.

The Academy of Slow Starts

I’ve never been a fan of Friday night games. The build-up, anticipation and then following West Ham games has forever been the weekend anchor that the rest of life revolves around. Playing your game before it has really started renders everything else lopsided. Like having dessert before your starter or opening your presents on Christmas Eve.  

On the other hand, evening games under the lights will often generate the kind of magic that even had Nuno’s eyes light up in the presser. Obvious then that returning from a three-week break, faced with a London derby, in a packed floodlit stadium, the Hammers would start the game with all guns blazing. How wrong could we be?

The mother of all shameful statistics from Friday was that West Ham managed a meagre two shots in the opening 70 minutes – both well off target. And not a single shot between the 28th and 70th minutes. How can that be in a passage of play when you are already a goal down – no matter how terrible that penalty decision was?

Weirdly, this is not a new phenomenon. Its roots can be traced back through all the ages of the dinosaurs. From the late Moyesozoic era, through the lesser Lopeteguian and Potterian epochs and into the current Nunolithic age. Periods of great upheaval, tectonic friction, shifting tactical plates and complex mutations. But precious little progress in terms of forward movement or attacking lifeforms. A succession of cautious coaches inhibited by an evolutionary refusal to take risks.

The result is a team which is rarely on the front foot. Wracked with caution. Waiting to react to the mistakes of others rather than making their own things happen. Fearing mistakes and wanting to gauge opponents before daring to act. To the outsider or newcomers, this is the game we now play. It has been baked into the clubs DNA like a hereditary disease – the new West Ham way. And just as it was impossible to draw our way to survival last season, it will be a lost cause this time around for automatic promotion. How Nuno managed it at Wolves is increasingly puzzling.

Split Personality

Three weeks of planning and preparation and the best the manager could come up with was the return of Tomas Soucek. No-one can dislike big Tom. His commitment and effort are second to none. But he cannot be part of any midfield hoping to dominate games. The Championship may lack the technical execution of the Premier League and the first touches maybe far heavier. But teams are packed with athletic, fast and strong players. Soucek is too one paced to prosper in that environment. Without doubt he can be useful in both boxes but is unfortunately a passenger in between. Very useful to have on the bench, not as a starter.   

By no means was Friday’s poor showing all down to Tom.  Or any other individual player come to that. When a team only performs in one half of a game and where you ae regularly forced into making half-time substitutions it has to be down to preparation.

Nuno has one of the best – if not the best – squad in the league yet he seems not to know how to use it or what the team’s identity is meant to be. The playing style lacks consistency or cohesion, communication and leadership are in short supply and mental resilience is flimsy.

Whether these repeated failings are primarily down to the manager or to the players is a reasonable debate to have. After all, we only get to see the results played out on the pitch. For me, in the micro-managed world of modern football, it’s the gaffer who must carry the can. We’ve already seen this season how less talented opponents have used motivation and energy to outplay our more illustrious stars. This forms part of a team’s culture and always starts from the top. Successful teams have players who buy into the manager’s plan and understand their individual parts in executing it. It’s not currently happening under Nuno’s watch.  

The Season Pointathon Update

A second successive draw made it a total of 11 points dropped in the league so far. The haul of 16 points from nine matches averages out at 1.78 points per game (ppg). Assuming the end of season automatic promotion target is 92 points (or 2 points per game) this leaves West Ham off the pace requiring a revised ppg until season end of is 2.05. Eminently achievable in theory but not with Nuno’s current game plan.

From what we have seen, the challenge of the Championship is intensity, not quality. This is where we are lacking and what needs to address urgently.

Ironically, if the players had been practising their last-minute penalties properly, we might still be unbeaten and three points better off by now. Not really deserved but fine margins, I suppose.

Outlook Changeable

Well done to Nuno for winning the September Manager of the Month award. As long as he understands it was for results rather than the nature of the performances that sat behind them. Success in football invariably drowns out all other noises but only the rosiest of claret and blue filters could disguise the reality of how much room for improvement exists.

Apart from the questionable tactics, Nuno’s management style – which feels churlish to me but is usually perceived as uncommunicative – is a huge worry.

His job is to do the best for West Ham using all the resources available to him. If there is conflict or he has difficult players to deal with, then it is his responsibility to resolve matters and extract the required levels of performances, even if he doesn’t get along with certain individuals. Ignoring players or freezing them out for the sake of his personal comfort or hurt feelings is not acceptable.    

This behaviour is not unique to his time at West Ham and has followed him from club to club. His current refusal to use Alvarez or Magassa when the team is crying out for a specialist defensive midfield player should by itself be a sackable offence. Let’s see what happens on Wednesday as the circus moves on to Sincil Bank – or the ProAmpac Stadium to give it its full title – Google Rating 4.4ì “Beer prices are fair, with some quality ones”.

The last time West Ham played Lincoln City in the league was during the Hammers 1957/58 Division Two promotion season. The game in December 1957 ending: Lincoln 1 West Ham 6. A repeat would be most welcome.

The Imps have yet to win a home game this season (drawn two, lost two) but have won three times on their travels to sit mid-table with 11 points from nine games.

COYI!

West Ham v QPR Preview: Finally, Football’s Back

Is it just me, or has this international break felt about three months long? After what seems like an eternity, the Hammers are finally back in action, with QPR making the short trip across London for an 8pm Championship clash. Frankly, I can’t wait. As much as I enjoy following local senior and junior non-league football, I still miss my West Ham fix.

Friday night football under the lights always feels a bit special, and there’s an added edge whenever another London club rolls into town. QPR might not be our fiercest rivals, but there is still plenty of local pride at stake, and with points on the line in the Championship, this is far more important than your average derby day bragging rights.

The biggest question for me heading into the game is what effect the international break will have had on West Ham. Ask ten football fans about international breaks and you’ll probably get ten different answers. Some see them as a welcome pause, others see them as a cruel interruption designed solely to ruin their weekend plans. Personally, I’d like to be somewhere in the middle, but in reality I’m not. While it’s nice to see players representing their countries, two weekends without West Ham is not good.

From a West Ham perspective, there are positives to the break. It has given Nuno and the coaching staff extra time on the training pitch, allowed tired legs to recover (yes after just eight games players are tired already!), allowed Jarrod to watch his wife in Strictly, and hopefully helped a few knocks and niggles heal. The Championship is a relentless division and opportunities to take a breath don’t come around very often. There’s also the chance to reset.

Whether results before the break were good, bad or somewhere in between, three weeks away can help players clear their heads and come back refreshed for the next block of fixtures before we get hit with the next international break (thankfully just a shorter one) in mid-November. We have seven fixtures before then including this one. All games are important but this next run of games includes QPR (6th), Swansea (top), West Brom (5th) and also Southampton.  

With the season beginning to gather momentum, the timing might or might not work in West Ham’s favour. We were in good form approaching the break before a dreadful first half against Millwall had me despairing. But the second half comeback would have left the players on a high and it would have been good to move onto the next game straight away.

Footballers are creatures of habit and rhythm. When a team starts building momentum, the last thing as supporters we want is for everything to stop. Sometimes teams return looking sharp and energised. Other times they resemble a group of strangers who have met for the first time in the tunnel five minutes before kick-off. Let’s hope this game falls into the first category.

QPR will certainly arrive looking to make life difficult. They have made an excellent start to the season and currently sit in sixth on 13 points, just two below us. And like us they have only been beaten once in the league so far this season. Championship matches rarely come easy regardless of league position, reputation or budget. Every side is capable of beating anyone on their day, which is exactly what makes this division both brilliant and entertaining (As well as the lack of VAR of course!)

For West Ham, the key will be setting the tempo early. A fast start would settle any concerns about rustiness and get the crowd involved from the opening whistle. The London Stadium has a habit of generating a cracking atmosphere for an evening game when the team gives supporters something to get behind. Wrexham is the prime example. And let’s be honest, after three weeks without club football, it probably won’t take much.

As we enter another crucial stretch of the season, this feels like an important opportunity. Three points would not only strengthen our position in the table, putting us back on top for a day at least, but also provide the perfect platform heading into the next run of fixtures. The international break is over and it’s time for proper football to return. From a personal viewpoint I’m happy.

COYI!