Statistics alone can never fully explain a game. For example, passion, commitment and confidence are difficult to quantify. They can be interpreted, with the help of visual evidence, but they cannot capture the full essence of a match.

In my opinion, confidence is currently our biggest problem. Our lack of confidence is evident and no player is beyond criticism.

Many books have been written on the psychology of mastering confidence and the world’s most iconic sporting institutions invest heavily in the pursuit of psychological control.

This is probably the most important area that we need to address, and it is incredibly difficult to do so.

Game summary

I want to start by summarising the key passages of play. Every West Ham fan that I have spoken with, or have read comments or articles from, has explained their concerns, anger and displeasure at our performance against Southampton.

I was equally upset and perplexed by the result, but for the sake of variety, and maybe a little devil’s advocate, I thought I’d look at both the good and bad sides of the defeat. Below summarises some of the key moments in the game (leaning slightly on the optimistic side):

*Zaza should have been awarded a penalty after being taken down by Cedric Soares
*Zaza provided a good flick on from Payet’s corner and Antonio was inches away from connecting with what would have almost certainly been a goal; making it 1-0
*Zaza later had another opportunity with a poorly connected close range shot that was cleared off the line
*Until Austin scored, Southampton had no chances on goal and we kept a solid shape and looked better defensively. After the goal, we lost shape, confidence and discipline
*Adrian could have done better with Austin’s scuffed shot but it was certainly no routine save
*Antonio was at fault for the first goal and his poor defending almost lead to a second if not for a great save from Adrian. Antonio failed to track back on both occasions
*Kouyate was at fault for the second goal, giving the ball away cheaply on the edge of the final third. This was poor and costly
*Tadic’s goal was executed with precision. The one-touch pass from Austin was delivered expertly but was still a low percentage pass. Perhaps it’s clutching at straws a little, but there is no denying that Southampton – along with most teams – would fail a move like that more often than they would succeed. The gap between the defenders, in which the ball was threaded, was very tight
*Arbeloa was a little slow getting back in line and this played Tadic onside for the goal. These are the small, yet costly, errors that are currently plaguing our season
*Adrian also missed the ball when rushing out, allowing it to run past him for Tadic to score. It is hard to be too critical here but a keeper would want to connect with the ball in a situation like that when rushing off his line
*Feghouli cross finds it’s way through to Payet who hesitates with his first shot but still crafts an effort on goal that gets blocked. Feghouli’s follow up shot is then blocked by Bertrand’s hand. This was missed by Moss and should have been a penalty, our second of the game. With the right set of circumstances, it could well have been 2-2 at this point
*West Ham overloaded Southampton’s final third with Antonio’s best moment of the game. He tore down the right flank and pulled the ball back to Payet who looked certain to score. Payet, unfortunately, drags his shot wide. How many times did we watch him bury those last season? He will again
*Goal three was poor from Reid who allows his man to get past him in the box. A fortunate deflection followed from Adrian’s save which to fall to Ward-Prowse. 3-0
*It should be noted that Adrian made two excellent saves in the match, which lesser keepers may not have

The stats

There were three areas in which Southampton were superior throughout the match.

Tackles

Southampton tackled us off the park winning 19 to our seven. Noble and Kouyate were shadows of their combative selves contributing one tackle between them. In contrast, Southampton’s central midfielders Oriol Romeu, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Steven Davis won 10 tackles.

Southampton started with a 4-3-1-2 formation, which changed to a 4-1-2-1-2. With both formations, three players are tasked with holding central midfield, but also dictating the tempo of the game. We allowed them to do this too easily by exerting too little pressure on them. Kouyate, Noble and Lanzini – who contributed 0 tackles (so we can match up three for three) – were poor in this department.

Passes in the opposition penalty box

Southampton were allowed too much time on the ball, a sign of nerves and lack of confidence from our defence and midfield. Not for the first time this season, our players have backed away from the oncoming attackers and allowed them time to pass or shoot. The image below shows our seven successful passes to their 19.

Both teams attempted 25 passes inside the opponents penalty box, highlighting how our hesitancy and inability to find a pass when it counts.

Chances created

Another area of dominance from Southampton was the number of chances created. West Ham managed eight to their 15.

11 of Southampton’s 15 chances were created from the edge, or within, our box. Six of our eight chances came from long passes or crosses and corners, with only two coming from the edge of their box – one just inside and one outside.

We struggled to penetrate with the ball on the floor and our crosses were failing to find their target, with Southampton’s defence performing their duties well. We connected with eight of our 28 crosses but couldn’t impose ourselves aerially. In contrast to previous games, we struggled creatively with Payet, Lanzini and Antonio all off-form.

Conclusion

A lack of confidence has the team playing with no fluidity or instinct. They seem to be questioning every decision they make, leading to hesitancy and restricting the tempo of the game. This, in turn, caused errors and so far we have been made to pay dearly for most.

Bilic mentioned in his post-match press conference that the team had been focussing on fixing the fundamental problems faced in previous games. He, nor Noble, could bring themselves to show anything other than utter defeat and deflation, recognising that the problems of previous games were far from remedied. This, combined with a makeshift defence consisting of Arbeloa – a right back – playing left back, and Nordtveit – a defensive midfielder – playing right back, lead to more defensive inconsistency and errors.

In my opinion, there is little Bilic can do about the performance of the players when on the pitch. We do not see them in training every day and I’m certain they perform well when secluded from the eyes of the world and the pressure of the stadium, fans and cameras, so he must believe in the team he selects. No manager willingly sets out to lose a match.

When those players are on the pitch it is their job to perform their duties. Currently, they are not doing that well enough. Lack of confidence, as well as other contributing factors, have combined to create the situation we are in.

Where Bilic has to be held accountable is in his tactical decisions, as well as the aforementioned team selection.

In our current form, it is difficult to accommodate three attacking midfielders. Payet, Lanzini and Antonio are all excellent attackers, but they offer little defensively. Dropping one to bring in a more defensive midfielder like Obiang or Oxford – in a 4-1-4-1 or 4-3-3 – would allow the team to defend in numbers and compress the space on the pitch while at the same time afford the front three more freedom. They will need to defend from the front, but the extra man behind covers the space left exposed when attacking.

Middlesborough has become a big game and I’d be surprised if Bilic didn’t shake things up a little. There is a wealth of talent in this squad (regardless of when/if the new signings come up to standard) and Bilic will find a way to get them winning again.

Confidence is a funny thing; when it’s not with you it’s almost impossible to build momentum and stay positive. But when it’s with you, the momentum and positivity it brings can lead to great things.

COYI

Three games have passed since I last wrote and those three are a 4-2 loss to West Brom, a 1-0 win against Stanley and a 3-0 loss to Southampton; all completely embarrassing. At the Hawthorns a week ago, our defense was shambolic and a side that has struggled for goals for a long time waltzed through our defense with ease. We failed to push, or even test, Accrington Stanley and had to rely on the magic of Dimitri Payet to save us in the 96th minute midweek. A 3-0 drubbing by Southampton later and we have reached a new low.

Bilic is right in his description of the first half being a typical 0-0 (apart from the last 5 minutes). We were focused on maintaining our defensive organisation that we had been so desperately missing. Ogbonna and Reid were communicating well, Arbeloa was performing well out of position at left-back and we were far narrower than I remember seeing us recently. Our willingness to sit off was causing Southampton some difficulty and this was somewhat positive. We were defensively better but for one moment where they played one pass that scythed directly through our whole team, something that certainly shouldn’t happen to a side sitting deeper and holding off. Unfortunately, it was a sign of what was to come.

The first goal was an awful goal to concede. We were, yet again, allowing them time and space on the ball and they finally used it efficiently with Bertrand making a run off Antonio and coasting pass Nordtveit with ease to pull back to Austin who had given Ogbonna the slip in the centre. Austin slotted home past Adrian and the descending quiet was all too familiar. After the first goal we collapsed for five minutes and Southampton squandered a host of good chances.

Bilic reacted by changing things at the break. He admitted in his post-match interviews that despite being better defensively, we were not using the ball well going forward now and he perhaps sacrificed some of our stability at 1-0 down by changing the system in subbing Lanzini off for Feghouli. We started the second half playing more of a 4-2-3-1 than a 4-1-4-1 (how we started the game) as Payet came into the centre. Dimi had barely had an effect on the game at this point and this is how it would continue as Southampton dominated the opening exchanges; by the hour mark, it could have been 4-0 had it not been for Adrian making some top saves.

Our completely inexplicable defending had returned and this was perfectly exemplified in the second goal. Complacency and a lack of intensity meant that we were moving the ball too slowly and our defense had no shape whatsoever and when Kouyate inevitably lost the ball in the centre we were left wide open for Tadic to exploit. There was a little fight in the side from here as we had a few chances and a couple of penalty shouts but really there wasn’t much of note. Zaza missed a good chance after being felled in the area twice and booked for dissent/diving on one of these occasions and Payet missed another good opportunity from the edge of the box. Maybe we should have had a penalty for a Bertrand handball but we shouldn’t be relying on refereeing decisions for hope…

There’s no need to talk about the third goal.

Today was awful and the cracks in our confidence couldn’t have been more clear. For 40 minutes the players were disciplined and held their shape, sticking tightly to the tactics they had been prescribed. They struggled to find freedom going forward because of this but there was a tightness and organisation to our performance that I could appreciate. However, as soon as we were undone and the first goal went in, that organisation, discipline and tightness disappeared and we became the shambles that we have seen time and time again this season. I cannot understand if Bilic persists with Nordtveit at right back because he offers little to nothing going forward and he hasn’t exactly proved to be the most defensively capable in that position either. Noble is hanging tightly to his performances last season because he has been awful thus far.
Trying to think positively, it can be said that Arbeloa seems to be a decent answer to our left back problems for now and that there was a little more purpose to Zaza today than there has been in games before. Iain made an interesting point though in his initial post-match reaction, if it is true that, after a certain amount of games, his hefty price tag becomes mandatory; then do we continue to play him despite his poor form?

Keep the faith; things will get better. The eventual returns of Cresswell, Carroll and maybe even Sakho could improve us significantly. For now we need to be more resilient while missing key players and we need to show that in the upcoming games to get some points on the board.

I’ve updated the player league table for those interested:
Antonio – 32
Adrian – 22
Collins – 17.5
Masuaku – 16
Kouyate – 13
Payet – 12.5
Noble – 12
Reid – 11.5
Lanzini – 8
Nordtveit – 7
Tore – 6.5
Byram – 6.5
Ogbonna – 6
Valencia – 4
Fletcher – 3
Calleri – 2.5
Arbeloa – 2
Carroll – 1.5
Obiang – 1.5
Ayew – 1
Zaza – 1
Fernandes – 0.5
Feghouli – 0

Football. Bloody hell. The recent media coverage around the Labour Party is almost identical to that of West Ham: a leader with sufficient support but a small, vocal opposition; key members calling for unity; worrying predictions that the group is heading for oblivion.

Worst Ham Utd. Laughable. Monday Breakfast Club bbc5live</a> at 0745 with <a href="https://twitter.com/laurabassett6">laurabassett6 @Kevin__Davies ???? pic.twitter.com/znqW1eKYyu

— George Riley ???? (@georgeyboy) September 26, 2016

The back papers say it all, although I am sure some will point to a media conspiracy, or an exaggeration of the problems that are evident on the pitch – and off it.

What is similar to the current breed of politics, both here and in the US, is people’s need to brashly fall down on one side or the other: there is no space for the middle ground. There are those among the Hammers faithful who remain optimistic: stand by Slav, things will turn around, this is a blip, think of last season – we’ll find our form. Listening to Bianca Westwood on the KUMB podcast last week, I found myself frustrated: I agree with her on almost everything, but maintaining faith in the logic “oh, it’ll get better”, seems naive.

But on the other hand, some are calling for Bilic to go, for things being worse than under Sam Allardyce, for a situation that is so far removed from last season that we need to – in the words of Jeremy Corbyn – “wipe the slate clean” and start again.

Not to sound like a bore who enjoys sitting on the fence: can’t the reaction to our worst start to a Premier League season be somewhere in between these two diametrically opposed camps?

It is weird to be writing this post, and it is one I have dithered on for a while. Last season, I was frequently called out for being overly critical of West Ham: for saying the Europa League was better for us over the Champions League, for worrying about our defence, for saying we had a problem at winning games against smaller teams. Every couple of weeks, I would receive a tweet from someone laughing at how wrong I was to defend Allardyce and raise concerns about Bilic. “Apologise, take it back,” would be the cries. Now those people – often rude, often too quick to pass judgement – are quiet.

It gives me no pleasure to see my worries come true. If anything, I am more encouraged that we are now, as a family, coming to terms with deficiencies that were there all along last season but we were too caught up in our own hype (myself included) to notice the niggles. I mean, we all now know the stat: in 15 of the last 23 games, we’ve let in at least two goals. But no one was saying that at the end of last season when we lost 2-1 to Stoke. The narrative then was of how close we had come to Champions League football.

For me, it’s best summed up in last season’s performance away to Everton. We voted it the best team performance of the year. But does anyone think it was that amazing a performance bar the last 12 minutes when we finally woke up? It could have been different if they had scored their penalty to make it 3-0 and if they hadn’t had a player sent off. That for me sums up how lucky we were last season in some games and how – just like this year – we take ages to really get going.

But this is not a piece to say “I told you so”. No, for I am more shocked at the collective negativity that now consumes us a family, from rumours of fake cheers being played out at the London Stadium to the calls for Bilic to go. Wait, what happened to the bright new start that Bilic offered us after Sam? Last season, he could do no wrong. Now, he’s a disaster? Surely, if we are to believe he has the potential to be a great manager – and I still believe he can come good – then we owe it to our faith in him and our support for the club to give him a chance. If Allardyce can be given a season to turn it around, then Bilic can too. For those who last season were always angry at me for criticising Bilic, this is the time to not turn your back on him but believe that – if he is a great manager – this “crisis” is something that he can easily solve.

Bilic out is not the way forward. The chairmen and we as a club have cheered him since day one and now we must stick by him. If football has taught me anything, it is loyalty. If we go down – and I don’t think we will – then so be it: the majority wanted Allardyce out and we wanted Bilic. That’s football, that’s life.

And for Bilic, this is nothing new: the warning signs have been there all along. Conceding early and not starting well have been a trait of Bilic’s side since last season: against Norwich twice, Swansea at home, Newcastle away, to name but a few. Slow starts and turgid football were a hallmark of some first halves – even Southampton at home last season, where we were lucky to only be 1-0 down at half time and managed to win it in the end. Luck was on Bilic’s side last season. Now, he has to prove he can work a team when the luck is missing.

But similarly, I’m not saying back Bilic and don’t be worried: it is time for us to address the problems of last season that have become so evident now. Some are saying: don’t be worried, you only need to be worried when we’re bottom with ten games to go. Well, that’s not the way to look at it: if we don’t address the problems now and understand the weaknesses that exist, then we’re all fools.

At times of crisis, it is easy for us to argue and to – at worse – fight in the stands. Especially when the nature of the performances on the pitch leave us feeling incredibly gloomy about the state of the club in its new garb. I have only been to one match at the new stadium; my season ticket is being used by a friend while I work weekends until November. Therefore, I am not going to enter the stadium debate until I’ve experienced the place myself. However, regarding stewarding, policing and the placement of fans, my appointment for my seat was over a year ago, the owners have planned for this move for years and the stadium operators have also had plenty of planning time. Some of those problems should have been anticipated and prepared for.

This comes to the type of the club we now have: it is no longer at the Boleyn, it is in a new look area of East London. With that comes change but also expectation – a lot of that put forward by the owners themselves. Whatever you think of the stadium, the owners or the general set-up, we as fans must remember that we are the constant, we make the club what it is and we must stick together. So much talk these days is of the old football versus the new, big-money football. Now we are part of that and while we have to embrace that, we can also ensure we retain and keep what makes us what we are.

That means in some respects ignoring how we have become a PR driven club. The way the owners have to send out messages about turning things around, the way Payet’s free kick was turned into social media post after social media post to prove that we were on the way up again. That’s my main take away from the move: from the way fans are called customers to the PR heavy approach of the club to the recent dip in form: we are now clearly a business. But we as fans need to not throw away our tickets or protest that this is no longer our club. We need to shout louder and continue to fight for the soul of West Ham.

I would love to be back at the Boleyn. But I’m not going to dwell on that. I’m not going to go to the stadium for just one season and make my mind up and leave. I’m not going to argue that Bilic should leave, the owners should go, the players should be let off and start from scratch. We are a club going through a huge amount of change. And yes, the owners, bless them, didn’t realise the magnitude of that.

For some of us, the problems of Bilic’s side and the teething problems of the new stadium were expected and predicted. But that doesn’t matter. What matters now is sticking by the manager and expecting him to get the most out of the players. The manager, the team, the board – they all promised big things and they delivered last season. Let’s get behind the squad: that can mean calling them up on their deficiencies without wanting the manager or any of the players to pack it in. Yes, I hear the same argument that this is the West Ham way, one season we’re good and then we’re bad. Well, under Bilic it was meant to change. So let’s give him the time to prove that.

One week down the line and I still don’t really know what’s going on at West Ham. Another heavy defeat, once again an opposing team have been allowed to go through our back four like a well heated blade through half-fat margarine. Plenty of our players who looked like world beaters last season are mere shadows of their former selfs.
We are now in 18th place and officially in a relegation scrap with a very lonely win standing against five defeats, not to mention an embarrassing negative goal difference.

I know, the whole stadium move shenanigansare not exactly helping our cause, but I refuse to accept that as the main culprit. Our new home ground has the potential to be a cauldron of noise and atmosphere, but the spark still needs to come from the players on the pitch and their performances. Don’t get me wrong, even in that latest dreadful loss against Southampton I saw some decent attacking moves from our lads and also some fine passing, but unfortunately not enough of it.

Plus, if you concede 3 or 4 goals in every game you make it nigh on impossible to even get a point out of a game when in fact we desperately need three point games now, not draws. The lack of confidence appears to spread throughout the entire team, over the sidelines and dugout into the stands, permeating the entire club.

Any consolidation needs to begin with the back four. I admit that it’d help maters if we were in a position to field the same back four over a number of games. Once Cresswell is back it should be a big bonus to begin with. But Cresswell alone will not be the answer. We need some brave decisions from Bilic here. Reid has been off his game for a while now. I would advocate a move of throwing in Oxford at CB for a few games and see how he does. Surely our defending can’t get much worse at this point anyway.

The same should apply in midfield. Both Kouyate and Noble haven’t pulled up any trees recently, so maybe it’s worth a thought to give other lads a chance now, Fernandes maybe or Domingos Quina, or play Obiang and/or Nordtveit as holding midfielder where both looked pretty decent so far. Upfront Zaza has shown me nothing so far to suggest he is the answer, so why not start with Fletcher for instance ? Or even put young Martinez on the bench as an option ? Whatever we have tried so far, it hasn’t clicked.
This now is where Bilic needs to earn his corn. And fast.

Make no mistake, if performances don’t pick up soon for us, then people will vote with their feet and stay away from home games, season ticket or not. We’ve already seen people leave games early when being two goals down. If a percentage of supporters are unhappy about the new stadium anyway it won’t take a lot to keep them away from attending games regularly.
I’m not judging if that’d be the right way to act as a supporter but I maintain the notion that the team needs to give the crowd a spark in the first place so the fans can get excited and noisy, in return the atmosphere will then carry the players.

My local team, by the way, have finally suffered their first defeat of the season in the most bizarre fashion, I would almost say it was very Hammeresque: Having a man advantage after 20 minutes already (after a professional foul), Concordia Hamburg simply never made the man advantage count. The opposition were allowed to still pass the ball around at ease and score on the counter twice, remember, all while being a man down.

Final result was a 0:2 scoreline, with the opposing team down to 8 (!!!) men just before the final whistle. My lads created numerous goalscoring opportunities, but wasted every single one in embarrassing fashion, blasting the ball over the crossbar or past the wrong side of the post (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it ?). There was also a shocking number of misplaced passes in midfield plus some clever time wasting efforts and some very impressive play acting from the opposition.

So, in footballing terms it has been a pretty crap weekend for me. If my local Ice Hockey team hadn’t won it could have been even worse than it already was. One final thought on West Ham. I’ve heard someone mentioning the idea that our team wasn’t used to the bigger pitch at the London Stadium and it wouldn’t help that West Ham cannot use the OS for training sessions. If that theory has a ring of truth about it, maybe the club should get at least one of the pitches at Rush Green re-sized accordingly to mirror the measurements of the playing surface at London Stadium.

Whatever helps our lads to string a few passes and wins together. We could really do with a bit of positive news now. I refuse to panic just yet. I accept that this is going to be one hell of a tough season. I just want to see our lads play according to their potential. If we get anywhere near that level we should be fine eventually. COYI!

Blind Hammer relies on his wife to provide some key insights.

West Ham 0 Southampton 3

West Ham’s nightmare start to life at the London Stadium took a new low with their performance against Southampton. For many of us the current period is so painful it is difficult to cope. Most of us are now reduced to trying to establish some measure of emotional distance from the team to manage the pain.

So for this report I am largely going to rely on the opinions of a neutral. For the first time at the London Stadium my sighted guide was my wife. Sue gave me some interesting feedback, probably because she is more used to describing events generally for me.

Sue described the facial expressions and demeanour of players. She reported that defenders, attempting to track Southampton attacks, as increasingly exhibiting panic. Our daughter has recently commenced life as a junour doctor in a busy Scottish Hospital. She likened the rushed anxiety of our defenders as akin to the anxiety a Juniour Doctor might exhibit when running to attend their first crash bleep for a cardiac arrest.

Sue is an Aston Villa supporter, so well used to pain, but found several features of our play strikingly similar to Villa performances last year. In particular as a neutral observer she was able to see that from the kick off Southampton contain more cohesion and threat. It is an obvious point that, coming on the back of three victories, Southampton would be more confident. What was more worrying though was the striking lack of trust within our team. Some players appeared not to be trusted with the ball with players reluctant to pass to them, even when they were in space. Unfortunately she could not be specific with an example for me.

Fear and anxiety permeated our team, especially after going a goal down. The fear of making mistakes made the play laboured and ponderous, with players taking multiple hesitant touches where one should do.

By the second half the pressure made the players appear exhausted and unfit despite the previous ponderous nature of their play. This apparent unfitness is almost certainly a reflection on the lack of confidence to play instinctively, rather than playing with laboured fear.

Post-match Bilic seems at a loss to explain the nature of recent performances and is now sadly floundering.

What seems clear is that the expansive style of last season has been seriously found out by Premiership opponents. Teams are regularly adopting a combination of a high pressing game with counter attacking focus on our putty like wing backs to expose defensive fragilities. Not just top six but Standard Premiership teams of all levels are asking tactical questions which Bilic currently has no answer to.

For the time being a number of steps need to be taken until confidence is restored.

Firstly it does not appear possible that we can retain the luxury of playing Payet and Lanzini in the same team, no matter how delightfully they may have combined in the past. At the moment we need hard working players able to track BAC. Grit and determination, not to say energy needs to be instilled into an underperforming midfield.

The team need to be energised with players who, rather than being paralysed by fear of failure, are prepared to give a whole hearted attempt to make a name for themselves. Oxford, Hernandez and Fletcher all deserved to come into the current team. They may not succeed but it is clear that the current shirt occupants are not succeeding either. These young players will at least have relatively nothing to lose, expectations will be lower and they can play with less fear.

It is clear that Bilic’s summer recruitments have failed to achieve basic Premiership standards. Zsa Zsa does not have the physicality to impose himself on the English game, having a game more designed to produce the clever flick rather than determined hold up play. Calleri likewise does not currently have the physicality to cope, a problem obviously shared by Tore. Why Zsa Zsa, Tore and Calleri were invested in as gambles at the expense of a proven Premiership performer like Christian Benteke still baffles me. Although Benteke did not suit Liverpool, in much the same way as Carroll, he was nevertheless a proven premiership level performer.

Fletcher, who has at least some experience of playing in the championship, is the only viable forward option until eater Carroll or Sacko are ready to come to the team’s aid.

The biggest question though is whether Bilic has the mental strength and ability to flexibly adapt, cut his losses, turn his back on the underperforming summer recruits and inspire a team with the spirit and morale to play with a determination, rather than fear.

Bilic still deserves some time to get it right but unless there is a radical improvement against Middlesbrough then the pressure may become so intense he may want to depart himself. When Tottenham were flirting with relegation form under the stewardship of Juande Ramos. His previous good record the season before counted for nothing and they turned to Harry Redknapp by October to steer them away from relegation trouble. Arguably if they had persisted with Ramos until Christmas they may not have avoided the drop.

Gold and Sullivan have a record of loyalty to their Managers but may have to be similarly hard headed is if a result is not achieved against Middlesbrough.

COYI

David Griffith.