A slow start put West Ham United’s U23s on the back foot in their 6-4 defeat against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon, according to boss Liam Manning.
The Hammers – who played for nearly an hour with ten men after Tunji Akinola’s sending off – were beaten in a topsy-turvy game in which ten goals were scored at Dagenham and Redbridge’s Chigwell Construction Stadium.
City went in 3-1 up at half time after Xande Silva’s late goal gave the hosts a shout, and though Josh Cullen headed in to make it 3-2 with 20 minutes left, the visitors rushed down the other end to dampen West Ham spirits.
Three minutes into injury time, Alfie Lewis struck but once again, City dashed forward and restored their two-goal advantage.
Incredibly, there was time for the exact same thing to happen once more after Oladapo Afolayan scored his first West Ham goal, but coach Manning bemoaned his team’s disappointing start and labelled the performance “frustrating”.
He said: “We started slow again in the first half and that put us on the back foot, 3-1 down and down to ten men at half time.
“We spoke to the lads after. The lads are still learning and it’s an U23 league, but the they need to learn what manager’s want from their team, and we speak about reliability and what the manager wants from you if you’re in his team.
We started slow again in the first half and that put us on the back foot, 3-1 down and down to ten men at half time
Liam Manning
When Akinola was shown his marching orders after a second bookable offence, the Hammers looked up against it but began the second half well despite being down to ten.
That pleased Manning, though he admitted City were far more clinical in front of goal on the day the opponents’ first team also scored six goals in the Premier League.
“We started the second half really well considering,” he continued. “We spoke about how to set up and press and we had a good chance through Alfie Lewis, when he hit the post.
“Then when we did get it back to 3-2, we gave away a poor goal that puts you on the back foot again, so it’s slightly frustrating because I thought we started the second half really well.
“City were very clinical. They had five chances and scored three of them, while we had a similar number and scored one.
“The challenge is playing and standing up when you’re up against it and I thought Alfie Lewis did that second half and Josh Cullen played well again. His mentality when he plays at this level stands out; he is reliable and it’s great for the other lads to learn from that.
“We will address the game this week ahead of the Arsenal game, but it’s about being focused and being clear what’s expected of us on Friday.”