At the end of the day, it is a time of year when cliches, like football matches, come thick and fast. The Boxing Day clash at St Mary’s was the proverbial game of two halves. Following Carlos Soler’s point-blank miss-of-the-match, West Ham rode their good fortune and had Southampton’s poor finishing to thank for keeping the game scoreless at the end of a busy first period. Incontrast, the second 45 minutes was a largely drab and uneventful affair. The single moment of note allowing the Hammers to steal the points through Jarrod Bowen’s opportunism as he was first to react to Niclas Fullkrug’s knock on.
It was Bowen’s fifth Premier League goal of the season, his 100th career league goal in total, and his 48th in the top flight for West Ham. He has overtaken both Paolo Di Canio and Mark Noble and is now second only to Michail Antonio on 68 goals. A fine achievement but a comparatively modest return compared to the leading scorers at other established clubs – and well behind legendary West Ham poachers of yesteryear such as Watson, Hurst, Ruffell, Dick and Cottee.
The win saw West Ham temporarily vacate the cosy familiarity of 14th place when they climbed above Manchester United who lost a few hours later at Wolverhampton. An indication of the congestion in the league’s middle reaches is that the result puts the Hammers just six points shy of European qualification and only five behind the Champions. If there was any sense of momentum building on the pitch, then we could almost believe there was something to play for. In all likelihood, it will be back to 14th soon enough.
Southampton certainly offered a sterner test than they had under Russel Martin, even if the improvement wasn’t enough to constitute a new manager bounce for Ivan Juric. Surely, survival for the Saints is already a lost cause. Juric is the fourth new managerial appointment of the Premier League season. Strangely, no-one has yet seen fit to call on the services of the serial winning Scottish manager. So far, the only managerial bouncing on show has been at Wolves under Vitor Pereira. The one-time West Ham target Amorim continues to struggle at Old Trafford as does van Nistelrooy at Leicester.
Any thoughts of a new manager bounce at the London Stadium have been long consigned to history. The 2024/25 vintage West Ham have been seeing more of the ball, but it manifests itself as a defensive (rather than offensive) strategy. Keeping possession in safe areas as a means of limiting opposition attacks. Increased possession has made no impression on the number of touches enjoyed in the opposition box – or on the level of entertainment come to that. Although the number of shots may be higher, these are mainly speculative and from distance.
Julen Lopetegui’s team selections have become routinely predictable. The only nod towards festive season squad rotation is whether to start with Guido Rodriguez or Edson Alvarez as the holding midfielder in Lopetegui’s increasingly preferred 4-1-4-1 formation. Suspensions being the other major contributing factor in determining starting lineups.
West Ham players were again receiving the wrong type of Christmas cards at St Mary’s Stadium where Rodriguez and Tomas Soucek both reached the five yellow card threshold – emulating Emerson, Soler and Lucas Paqueta – that leads to an automatic one-match ban. It could have been worse for Rodriguez had VAR not seen sense to reverse a red card decision that was as rash and unnecessary as the original challenge.
Personally, I don’t see either Rodriguez or Soucek as any great loss. Soucek, especially is an enigmatic character. Who can doubt his commitment to the cause. But as someone supposedly at the beating heart of midfield, his occasional goal threat does not compensate for the lack of pace, poor pass completion and scarcity of touches. Far too often the game passes him by as he meanders around the pitch like a robotic vacuum cleaner.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka was again the Hammer’s man-of-the-match. Giving lie to the reputation that he offers little going forward, Wan-Bissaka is alone in being able to carry the ball forward and run at pace from deep. Surely, the nomination as Hammer of the Year is already sewn up. Alvarez made a difference when he was introduced and would always get my vote over Rodriguez or Soucek in a holding role. He is the only defensive midfielder prepared to go hunting for the ball.
Elsewhere, Mohammed Kudus had possibly his most ineffective game in a West Ham shirt. His normally reliable instant control deserting him, he was rarely able to escape the close attention of his marker. We saw a few more glimpses of what Fullkrug might offer as an old-style target man. It’s not what is needed though and there are no midfield runners to feed off him anyway. He did, at least, pick up an assist.
The last 15 or 20 minutes of modern games are rapidly truning into a staccato version of musical substitutes. If Lopetegui has any carefully thought-out plan at the start of games, it is all thrown into the air oncehe has introduced a succession of full backs oblivious to where they are meant to be playing. By the end of yesterdays game, 4-1-4-1 had morphed into 7-0-3.
Soucek and Rodriguez will likely be joined on the sidelines for Sunday’s clash with Liverpool by Lukasz Fabianski (following his nasty concussion), Max Killman (injured shoulder) and Carlos Soler (unspecified knee injury). The game will represent the halfway point of the season. West Ham will have then played each of other sides one time. Faced six of the current top ten at home, and four of them away. Projecting the current points per game forward would see us end the season with 48 points, fewer than last year but better than the year before that.
It would take a brave man to bet on the Hammers four game unbeaten run continuing when the runaway leaders come to town for the final game of 2024. West Ham’s leaky defence against the rampant, free-scoring Reds threatens to be the greatest massacre since they started selling chainsaws in Texas. Probably not be a game for the faint hearted. COYI
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