Last week, I verged into an area I am not used to: optimism. Since that article, we lost against Leicester in the Cup and got an incredibly lucky draw against Norwich. As I thought, my optimism was misguided.
All the worries after the Leicester and Bournemouth games, along with my concerns after the Newcastle match, were still there in abundance on Saturday. I have to say, that opening 30 minutes was utterly dire, worse than anything I saw during the Allardyce era. I honestly don’t see how anyone can suggest we are potentials for top six or even top ten on the basis of that first half. Even across the whole game, I don’t think we were in the match at all and were constantly chasing shadows, both players and the score line. We should have been 3-1 down by half time. After 90 minutes, we should have lost.
Yes, we got a result in the last minute and we showed resolve. Yet that doesn’t take away the fact that in on our fourth season back from the Championship, with a new manager who can apparently take us forward, we are celebrating a last-minute equaliser against…Norwich City? Again, I hear cries of “Norwich City are good on the road” to be added to those who said the same about Leicester whilst in the same breadth stating that Bournemouth are a class act. Stop making excuses. Four points out of 12? Against Leicester, Bournemouth, Newcastle and Norwich? That is relegation form, and if you had been told before the start of the season that that would be our return from our opening four home games, you would have found that unacceptable.
Yes, but look what we did away! At some point we have to ignore those results and ask hard questions about our home form and our results against teams we should be beating. We soon won’t have big teams away anymore and we will have to face smaller teams that we clearly struggle against when we play them at home. We’ve already lost away to Leicester with a very strong team. That’s why the Sunderland away game is absolutely huge. What happens when this current West Ham side – so good at playing the big games away but playing poorly against the minnows at home – faces a smaller side away? The only answer any of us can give is: we have no idea.
Against Norwich, bar the last few minutes of the first half, we were awful. In all the Allardyce years, I don’t think I ever saw us give away the ball at the back like we did for the Canaries’ first goal. Oh, it was just a one-off error, people will cry. Oh, we were unlucky, others will say. No, I’m sorry, it happened against Bournemouth and Leicester and it happened again against Norwich. We need to stop ignoring our deficiencies by simply focusing on three away games. We still have problems, namely that we are inconsistent.
I had a feeling against Norwich that we were almost giving the ball away simply to ensure we could prepare for our counter-attacking prowess. Yes, we once again created a large number of chances relative to our possession (44%) but we are so calamitous on the ball and so lacking in imagination by ourselves; we seem to not create many chances not off the back of opposition mistakes.
I am coming round to Slaven Bilic but there is something so laughable when we cheer “Super Slav” at home when we equalise. Perhaps I am missing the sarcasm here, but to cheer a manager who can get you to equalise twice against a newly-promoted side is embarrassing. End of story, Norwich at home is a three-point match. We seem to think that our home form will get better, but it’s going to have to get better against much, much tougher teams. One point from six against two newly-promoted sides. That is worrying. Remember, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City all have to come back and play at the Boleyn, and on this form, we won’t get any points there.
Sunderland away is a crunch game, in my opinion. If we win, we have at least some vague consistency. If we lose, well, it’s relegation worries all over again. We need consistency; we need to win against beatable teams. You don’t get in the top ten by having the occasional good result away from home. You need to grind out three points from as many teams as possible.
I understand many supporters see me as overly critical and too much of a pessimist. Yet I feel that blogs like this and beyond need to be more than just an online utopia of gloating and indulgent West Ham fans who constantly sugarcoat the concerns. Of course I am delighted at our away form, but I despair at how better things could be if there was more order and consistency to the team, creating a better points return from home games. Again, four points from our first four home games – against those teams – is just not good enough.