Recorder Series West Ham United correspondent Dave Evans reflects on Saturday’s disappointing defeat at Vicarage Road
Recorder Series West Ham United correspondent Dave Evans reflects on Saturday’s disappointing defeat at Vicarage Road
We never saw Saturday’s 2-0 Barclays Premier League defeat at Watford coming, which is the part of the problem, because the fans and perhaps some of the players went there expecting to win, with the way they have played in recent games and won at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City.
Having also beaten Chelsea last week, perhaps some travelled to Watford and thought they only had to turn up to win, and you can’t do that in the Premier League.
Watford were up for it and they had just back come off a good away win at Stoke City the weekend before and they thoroughly deserved the win. Apart from the first five minutes, West Ham were just not at their best.
Losing Diafra Sakho to injury changed the dynamic of the team and West Ham had to play slightly differently. Although Andy Carroll wasn’t bad up front, Sakho just works so hard, he gets down the channels and he brings Manuel Lanzini and Dimitri Payet, in particular, more into the game.
Andy can’t quite do that. He is a different sort of player who relies more on crosses coming into the box. Andy starting shortened the pitch and reduced the space for West Ham to play in and, unless you can get those crosses in, he is not quite so good at bringing other people into the game.
Mistakes have been costly in games before, particularly the home match with Bournemouth, and they were costly again on Saturday.
I don’t quite know what Andy was doing for their first goal, and once Watford got in front I think their confidence grew and their tails were up. They appeared a little bit wary of West Ham initially, but once Watford got in front they looked comfortable and could have won by more, really.
Slaven Bilic looked like he was kicking every ball out on the touchline and he looked as frustrated as all the fans were, but he made a couple of selection decisions before the game which I don’t feel were quite right.
Mauro Zarate played so well and scored a goal against Chelsea, so to be left out, he must have been very frustrated and he looked as if he was when he came on. He looked as if he was sulking at times and it didn’t work out. I know Slaven rates Victor Moses very highly, but Mauro perhaps deserved to stay in the team.
I would have stuck with the defence that started against Chelsea, but Watford were really up for it and Odion Ighalo is a good little player, isn’t he?
West Ham have a chance to bounce back against Everton next weekend and let’s hope we have a similar game to the FA Cup third-round replay back in January, which was a fair old match!
Everton are a bit up and down and have been inconsistent this season, while West Ham won their last home game against Chelsea, which was important for West Ham to get back to winning ways at home.
Again, West Ham will be expected to win that game, which puts a different pressure on them, but they are capable of winning it. They won’t have too many off-days, because they have a quality team.;
It’s also Slaven going up against his other old English club, so he’ll be wanting to get one over them and I think they can do it.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of West Ham United
We never saw Saturday’s 2-0 Barclays Premier League defeat at Watford coming, which is the part of the problem, because the fans and perhaps some of the players went there expecting to win, with the way they have played in recent games and won at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City.
Having also beaten Chelsea last week, perhaps some travelled to Watford and thought they only had to turn up to win, and you can’t do that in the Premier League.
Watford were up for it and they had just back come off a good away win at Stoke City the weekend before and they thoroughly deserved the win. Apart from the first five minutes, West Ham were just not at their best.
Losing Diafra Sakho to injury changed the dynamic of the team and West Ham had to play slightly differently. Although Andy Carroll wasn’t bad up front, Sakho just works so hard, he gets down the channels and he brings Manuel Lanzini and Dimitri Payet, in particular, more into the game.
Andy can’t quite do that. He is a different sort of player who relies more on crosses coming into the box. Andy starting shortened the pitch and reduced the space for West Ham to play in and, unless you can get those crosses in, he is not quite so good at bringing other people into the game.
Mistakes have been costly in games before, particularly the home match with Bournemouth, and they were costly again on Saturday.
I don’t quite know what Andy was doing for their first goal, and once Watford got in front I think their confidence grew and their tails were up. They appeared a little bit wary of West Ham initially, but once Watford got in front they looked comfortable and could have won by more, really.
Slaven Bilic looked like he was kicking every ball out on the touchline and he looked as frustrated as all the fans were, but he made a couple of selection decisions before the game which I don’t feel were quite right.
Mauro Zarate played so well and scored a goal against Chelsea, so to be left out, he must have been very frustrated and he looked as if he was when he came on. He looked as if he was sulking at times and it didn’t work out. I know Slaven rates Victor Moses very highly, but Mauro perhaps deserved to stay in the team.
I would have stuck with the defence that started against Chelsea, but Watford were really up for it and Odion Ighalo is a good little player, isn’t he?
West Ham have a chance to bounce back against Everton next weekend and let’s hope we have a similar game to the FA Cup third-round replay back in January, which was a fair old match!
Everton are a bit up and down and have been inconsistent this season, while West Ham won their last home game against Chelsea, which was important for West Ham to get back to winning ways at home.
Again, West Ham will be expected to win that game, which puts a different pressure on them, but they are capable of winning it. They won’t have too many off-days, because they have a quality team.;
It’s also Slaven going up against his other old English club, so he’ll be wanting to get one over them and I think they can do it.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of West Ham United