My Saturday afternoon consisted of a family shopping trip, meaning I had to follow the opening 45 minutes at Vicarage Road via my brothers phone. Ordinarily I would obviously use my own phone, however I had run out of data! To my brother’s annoyance, every 10 minutes I asked for an update. To be honest, after Gray’s equalising goal I did not really check up on the game but the pessimist in me assumed we’d be trailing at half time.
We arrived home as the second half kicked off. By all accounts, Watford started the second half with a couple of chances and I feared the worst. I’m definitely an advocate of free flowing attacking football, but too much pressure is put on Declan Rice to intercept opposing attacks it appears. After the Watford goal, Noble was shouting at the attacking quartet to work back. Creative players such as Anderson and Lanzini do need to consistently track back otherwise we will be left far too exposed and concede unnecessarily.
I was pacing around the house nervously during the early stages of the second half. I was just expecting the inevitable notification from BBC Sport to appear saying Watford 2-1 up, and had it not been for a staggering Will Hughes miss I would have had that notification appear! Thanks Will for putting in an early entrant for the miss of the season, greatly appreciated by West Ham fans!
I was with my Dad listening to the radio when we heard there had been a second half goal, thankfully it was our record signing getting off the mark in the Premier League! Upon watching the MOTD highlights, I really enjoyed Haller’s goal to make it 1-2 to us. Whilst his acrobatic bicycle kick was undoubtedly impressive and a great relief, his first was a proper striker’s finish. I am not convinced at all that Arnautovic would have scored that tap in from Anderson’s cross, mainly because he wouldn’t have made that run. In Haller we have a powerful talisman who can win aerial duels, but he picks up great positions and makes the right runs. Arnie was always a winger converted into a striker, and to be fair did well for us for awhile but Haller has the instincts of a forward. The Frenchman will be integral this campaign, he’s going to score important goals and become a fan favourite (if he’s not already!)
I will avoid going over well trodden ground with regards to captain fantastic, Mark Noble. The man from Canning Town makes us better and motivates players when necessary. You have to feel that we missed an opportunity in the summer window because we should have looked to take the burden off the captain. The No. 16 will continue to put in exemplary performances in the engine room with his underrated passing, however we should not have to rely on the 32 year old as much as we do.
Definitely still work to be done on the defence, and whilst a run of games for a back four is ideal, I wonder whether Balbuena may regain his place sooner rather than later. I’ve always liked Ogbonna, he seems like a funny guy, and an experienced international at the end of the day. He has mistakes in him, and I’ve always felt he’s more comfortable in a back 3 which was the regular formation when he got a game at Juventus. But I hope the Italian stays in the team and makes it hard for Balbuena to regain his place.
Based on the opening three results for both us and Norwich, our next Premier League opponents, you would predict a fair amount of goals. If we can tighten up the defence perhaps in our second home fixture of the season we can keep a clean sheet, but that unfortunately seems unlikely.
Norwich have impressed me thus far, like us they play an attacking brand of football and showed very positive signs despite losing to both Liverpool and Chelsea respectively. I hope the Pukki party does not continue at the London Stadium…
After watching the Canaries’ lose to Lampard’s Chelsea on BT in the early kick off last weekend, I saw areas our attack can definitely exploit. Farke likes to push the full backs Aarons and Lewis high and wide which could leave space for Anderson and probably Antonio to attack. Similarly, I was impressed by the young centre back, Godfrey, however Grant Hanley is a championship level defender and I think Haller can give them real problems. The less accomplished Tammy Abraham grabbed a brace and they couldn’t deal with his physical presence and hold up play, so I would hope our No. 22 can capitalise on their potential weaknesses. It will be a difficult match as they all are at this level, and whilst I think their attack can give us problems, I feel our firepower going forward coupled with the home support will see us gain our second win of the season.
Overall, Pellegrini still has things to consider and work out about this team and the balance but a clinical striker in Haller helps tenfold. An injury to Rice however would derail the season and we’d be a significantly worse team. In January you have to feel there will be investment in a holding midfielder who improves the squad and can confidently back up Rice, as well as potentially a defender or two. I still feel reasonably optimistic about this season, the players need to work hard to improve on areas of weakness in training, but on our day we have a really exciting attack which will cause most teams issues. In Haller I hope!
Hope everyone is well, and has a good week.