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.