AFC Bournemouth got their first Premier League win of the campaign, scoring an emphatic four goals at the Boleyn Ground in the process. However, despite a performance by the visitors that showed real promise for a team who have only just been promoted to the top tier, it is rather reasonable to suggest that if any team defended as badly as West Ham United did on the afternoon, then that team would have also lost their fixture.
Slaven Bilic’s side needed to bounce back after a frustrating home defeat to Leicester, but things just did not go to plan from the whistle. Darren Randolph made his Premier League debut in between the sticks, deputising for the suspended number one goalkeeper Adrian. The Irishman did not have a bad game, in spite of picking the ball out of his net on four occasions, which just goes to show the extent of the poor performance by our defensive line. A lack of discipline, no sense of spacial awareness and wrong decision making were to blame.
The first goal symbolised complacency and a lack of concentration and awareness. Perhaps you could give the benefit of the doubt as Bilic has brought in so many new faces that will need time to work well as a team, but this does not detract from the fact that the full-backs had a bad day at the office.
There is absolutely no way that Aaron Cresswell should be losing out to Simon Francis on that near side, but the Cherries’ defender gets the better of the West Ham left-back. Cresswell should be looking to calmly knock the ball to Randolph so he can kick it away, or if this option is too risky, knock the ball out far away for a throw. He does neither and loses out to Francis. As a result, the rest of the Hammers are not organised as they were not expecting to lose possession in such a costly area of the field.
Francis has a plethora of space to run into, with only two West Ham players in the entire penalty area at the time. Ogbonna does not intercept the cross, Reid only has eyes for the ball and so completely disregards Wilson’s run, who finishes in the top corner. That’s errors from three of the back four within the opening eleven minutes. Reid has got to do his homework; Callum Wilson is renowned for his pace, and the warning signs were there.
Bournemouth’s second goal was much more fortuitous, with one inaccurate pass leading to a one-on-one situation. West Ham have clearly learnt their lesson from the first goal, with the entire back four practically already inside the penalty area. There is a good defensive line at this stage, and there should be no way on the planet that they would concede within five seconds of this scenario.
However, for some unknown reason the players decide to think that they are in primary school, and repeatedly run to where the ball is, albeit frantically as they are desperate to find an equaliser. AFC pressurise Pedro Obiang into making a decision, and he panics and passes to Cresswell. The Englishman plays a terrible back-pass and Wilson gets his second of the game. Although you can pin down both of the opening goals to Aaron, there are still others responsible. Ogbonna has Wilson marked here, but yet doesn’t keep focused and the latter turns him once again, just like he did to Reid for the first goal. West Ham need to be more alert, because any striker like Wilson will gamble if the ball comes through to him.
Bilic decides to substitute Ogbonna for Tomkins and after a fortunate Noble penalty and scrappy Kouyate finish, the Irons somehow find themselves level at 2-2. At this stage, most fans would have probably taken the point considering the 0-2 deficit at the interval. But no, Tomkins ball-watches and Marc Pugh cuts inside onto his favoured right foot and restores the away side’s lead. You cannot just follow the ball and hope that everything is going to be alright. It is no help to Tomkins that he is the only defender in the box, but he has to stop Pugh from cutting inside. He has got to force him to the by-line whilst in the meantime the rest of the team can catch up to help. This doesn’t happen, and it is back to square one.
The final goal epitomises the afternoon, as Carl Jenkinson is so sloppy with his play, as opposed to being urgent and looking to get his team level to 3-3. The quick Gradel catches him out, and Jenkinson ends up bringing him down for a penalty and a subsequent red card. That’s West Ham’s fifth red card in nine games this season, and the lack of discipline is certainly something that would have not been seen under former manager Sam Allardyce. Maiga pulled one back with a moment of magic, but it was too little, too late.
