Embarrassing. That’s the word which immediately springs to mind when I think about West Ham’s loss to Astra Giurgiu. But then I think about it and realise that word definitely doesn’t cover it. I remember three seasons ago when we lost 5-0 to Nottingham Forest then 6-0 to Man City three days later. This is worse.
It’s not a question of what went wrong. More a question of what didn’t go wrong. To put it simply, we were abysmal (shocking doesn’t cover it). It wasn’t just one thing going wrong – everything went wrong. However, at the route of all success and failure is the manager, and while his praises are usually sung, Slaven Bilic got it wrong tonight.
The Starting XI
As soon as I saw the starting team, I wasn’t confident. Yes, I still expected us to win, but the team selection didn’t scream out “we’re playing to qualify for Europe” to me. Bilic loves playing three CDMs, and to be fair to him, it has worked in the past – but only against the bigger teams. It was this formation which allowed us to record some of our shock victories last season, yet never worked against the smaller teams. I thought he would have learnt this following two 2-2 draws against Norwich using these tactics. Clearly not.
Astra clearly were there to defend, yet it looked like we were set up for the same purpose. Taking Nordtveit off for Valencia at half-time shows that Bilic knew we weren’t going to score two goals while playing three CDMs, so why did he play the formation in the first place? Yes, we’re struck by injuries, but we still have the players available to play a more attacking team.
Burke at Left Back
First things first, give the youngster his due. He was one of the only players to come out of the game with any credibility. But why was he playing at left back? Obvious answer: Cresswell’s injured and Masuaku wasn’t eligible. Yet, it doesn’t seem so obvious when you’ve got an experienced player who has played left back on multiple occasions before playing next to him (Ogbonna).
There were several times in the match when Burke was on the left flank and either put a poor ball in with his left foot or had to switch to his right and the attack lost momentum. Angelo Ogbonna is a left footed, internationally capped player who has experience playing in the position; Reece Burke played there for the first time last week.
Bilic may have wanted Ogbonna at centre back for more stability, but it’s not as if Astra were dangerous coming forward. Nor is Burke unreliable at centre back – he’ll likely be starting there in a couple of seasons time. This may not have seemed crucial in the game, but it would have made a difference and that difference could have been between winning and losing the game.
The Substitutions
Ashley Fletcher coming on was the only positive from the match and I would hope he will start against Man City on Sunday unless we miraculously sign another striker before then. Enner Valencia was, well, Enner Valencia. Yet why Marcus Browne was left sitting on the bench I don’t understand. He was the most creative player we had on the bench, looked great when he came on last week and played brilliantly for the U23s on Monday. Instead, Bilic decided to bring on James Collins with a few minutes to go as a long ball target – his only contribution was a yellow card.
While I understand why Bilic brought Valencia – a more senior player – on at half-time, it would have made more sense for me to bring Browne on so he could slot in behind the striker where Payet or Lanzini usually play. The team just seem to play best in this formation. Failing that, he should have been brought on with Fletcher around the 60-minute mark and I think he could have made a real difference like the striker did.
I am in no way attributing the loss to Bilic. It was a bad night on all parts and the players are to blame above anything else. However, if some things were done differently by the manager we could be looking forward to finding out which countries to visit on our away days this season, not dreading an away trip to a Guardiola managed Manchester City.
