Yes, we did lose the game against Manchester City after all. 1:2. Not nice. Defeats are rarely a cause for celebration. But I could not be prouder of our team as I still am today almost 48 hours after the event. My heart is continually bursting with a glowing sense of self-esteem over our team.
That was a quality performance from us I simply didn’t see coming. I knew we were pretty decent. Although I had no idea just HOW good we really are. At no point did you get the impression we were out of this. Or feel like a drubbing was on the cards. Like the ones suffered during the footballing lessons dished out by City in recent seasons. It used to be men against boys. Now it was one good PL side losing out to an even better one.
Of course Man City dominated possession for long periods of the game, it’s what they do, part of their DNA and one of the reasons why they’re one of the most exciting teams to watch.
And yet there we were, plucky little West Ham, running, tackling, fighting their hearts out, always threatening the City defence with some timely interceptions and quick counter-attacking moves. The home side didn’t exactly lay siege on our goal. They only had three shots on goal all game, two of them unfortunately bulged our net. No big deal. That’s what they do to most teams, even those that play well.No word of a lie: We gave a squad with a market value of over 1 billion pounds one hell of a game. Diop even had a last minute chance to snatch a dramatic equaliser and, frankly, I would have expected him to score from that kind of opportunity on any other occasion really. I reckon a draw would have been a fair result. Amazing, when you think about it…
Fabianski couldn’t play unfortunately as apparently someone had stood on his arm in training, one would assume by accident. And then early on in the game his deputy Randolph must have pulled something as David Martin was warming up on the sidelines just in case for the remainder of the game. Goalkeeper injuries at West Ham and London buses – do you see a random connection there ?
I don’t think Fabianski, while being a significantly better GK than Randolph eight days a week, would have made a massive difference on the day, to be honest. Our defence was so good most of the game that Randolph hardly had a save to make all game.
The goals we conceded were fine efforts that very few keepers on this planet might have been able to keep out – and as with most goals conceded individual defensive mistakes did play a part.
Randolph didn’t really look convincing in terms of attacking the cross coming in for the first goal.
On the other hand I (and probably Randolph too) expected our CBs to deal with the cross better…and as for their second goal, young Johnson wasn’t quite at the races, playing the opponent onside, he’ll learn from this…
Other than that I couldn’t quite believe how well we were coping throughout – in a contest against what is essentially the most complete and well-run football team in the world right now.
I could write lengthy diatribes here about the uneven playing field we have in the PL right now. A team with a market value of over 1 billion quid should not be something that is allowed to happen. Ever. Not when you have other teams in the same league with a combined player value of a mere 20% of that.
It is obscene really. Looking at Manchester City’s bench – that’s a team right there still challenging for titles and trophies every year. Man City are actually two top quality PL teams rolled into one.
On the matchday thread I was using the analogy of witnessing a younger edition of the Harlem Globetrotters (football version of course), with the difference being that Man City are not just showboaters doing tricks and flicks for entertainment, but they actually play in competitive games and beat virtually anyone and anything in front of them while rarely breaking sweat. Man City are a great football team which is obviously helped by the fact that Pep Guardiola is a very good manager.
I can’t help but think though that even someone like Steve Bruce or Neil Warnock might have a shot at winning a trophy if you gave them the opportunity to work with the players Man City have at their disposal.
Be that as it may, man for man, the West Ham lads stood up against this Mancunian band of superstars – and held their own on Saturday lunchtime. It feels almost bizarre saying this: But somehow this game felt like a win to me.
Usually West Ham defeats spoil my weekends big time, this one didn’t.
Not even a tiny bit. I don’t quite understand it myself.
I’m still content like a kitten under a leaky cow. No neutral observer watching this game could have failed to admire our performance.
And let’s face it: If you want to get anything from a Man City game to add to your points won column, you do need a perfect performance from your own team to begin with while catching the Mancunian maestros on a bad day at the office.
We made it surprisingly hard for Man City to have a good day at the office (we hid their stapler, tinkered a bit with their filing cabinet and turned off their WiFI), but we didn’t have a perfect performance ourselves as we simply couldn’t make the most of our opportunities when we won balls in Man City’s half of the pitch.
It’s fine margins in games like these and all too often we simply picked the wrong pass or didn’t find the cross needed. Not often enough anyway.
But we nearly won a point regardless. That’s how good we were.
This still feels like a moral victory for West Ham. At least for me. We have shown to the rest of the league that we are in our current league position on merit. We belong there, at least for now. God knows where we might be if we had a few more (or better) options in the squad.
Moyes has given us all a team here deserving of the name. With players who are to a man well drilled, strong, with a never say die attitude and the desire to improve all the time and win games. I can’t find a single West Ham player in our squad I would struggle rooting for.
But several who are great footballers and good people at the same time, Coufal, Dawson, Soucek, Rice, Fornals, to name just a few.
At this rate we may become a team again that fans of other clubs genuine respect and enjoy watching when their own club ain’t playing.
Not quite everybody’s second team, but close.
Call me old fashioned, but I deem this to be important. I prefer it if other people fear, like or at least respect my team rather than mock or sneer.
Thank you, David Moyes for earning back some respect on behalf of this club!
With Man City out of the way, do we really have to fear any of our remaining games ? Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea, Leicester maybe ?
All great teams in their own right, but not quite on the same level or boasting the kind of squad depth as Man City can.
Moyes has created a West Ham team I cannot get enough of, a unit I love to see fighting for one another out there on the pitch. I no longer watch our games through my fingers from behind the back of my sofa in a cold sweat triggered by trepidation or expectation of failure. I’m enjoying our football, but even more so the togetherness of the players and the bond between the team and the manager/coaching staff.
We have a bit of a break now, so should be able to get a few injured players back for the next challenges ahead. Fabianski is hopefully only a minor knock, Fredericks should be back too. And we will probably hear some more news soon on Ogbonna and Masuaku as well.
If we manage to preserve our form shown in the last two months for the remainder of the season, we should all be Happy Hammers come summer. COYI!!!
Hamburg football update: It’s time for the big Hamburg derby once again.
It will happen tonight. And it’s live on BT Sport 1, kick-off is 7pm British time. I would seriously recommend watching that.
These derby games are rarely boring, there’s usually plenty of incident and tonight neither team is playing for bragging rights in the neighbourhood or for pride only. HSV need the points desperately to stay near the top places (Bochum and Kiel both won at the weekend) and remain on track in the promotion race.
Whereas St.Pauli are on an impressive run of form which could see them venture even closer towards the top half of the table if they managed to pull off a home win against their local nemesis. Which would also pretty much banish any lingering thoughts of relegation this season.