A fairly demoralising defeat

I start this with the caveat that looking at our first five fixtures I said 3 or 4 points would be ok. We will have 3. We must hang in there and hold our nerve even if we are bottom three after ten games. We weren’t terrible today by any means.

But the first four games have starkly illustrated out known strengths and weaknesses and unfortunately our weaknesses are undermining our strong points to a degree I feared but hoped would not occur.

More than anything though today was a very stark example of how hoping to flourish at this level whilst doing it under our “on the cheap” model is hugely unrealistic. We may mock their slightly soulless home ground but West Ham, a club who through most of my supporting lifetime have benn our (perhaps slightly larger but not much) contemporaries are on another level to us and a level we will never attain under Delia. Their £40m striker scored in what was a fairly even first half. Our freebie Drmic missed two sitters at the end from what were equivalent chances.

Godfrey looks great. Aarons, Stiepermann and Buendia are struggling at present with the step up. All our players are technically good enough but West Ham looked quicker,stronger and more athletic across the park. Starting Zimmerman was an error (no hindsight here despite the unfortunate injury) which may cost us longer term.

More than anything though Farke needs to find a solution to the issue that every time we give the ball away the opposition are in on our goal with one or two easy passes. Playing like this we will concede at least two goals against every premier league team with any nous and that will relegate us. Buendia and Cantwell are great but doing flicks on the halfway line needs to be on the back burner until we have more of a foothold in this league.

Posted By: Jim, Aug 31, 19:02:57