The last month has been nightmarish for West Ham fans. I remember last season when I would actually look forward to watching us play at the weekend – now I’m almost dreading it. Last weekend, we couldn’t even beat newly-promoted Middlesbrough at home and before that, we conceded 11 goals in three games – four of them being against a West Brom team who normally struggle to score more than one.
The biggest issue is the defence, and there’s no hiding behind that. It’s plain to see even if you’re not watching every game – the scorelines speak for themselves. However, Winston Reid and Angelo Ogbonna are now both in the starting XI again and that should, hopefully, bring some stability back to the defence. Pedro Obiang was also given a long overdue start against Middlesbrough and it paid off, he did the dirty work in midfield which Cheikhou Kouyate and Mark Noble have simply failed to do this season.
There is also, however, another overbearing issue in the West Ham team which can be seen in the players: their confidence. It’s disappeared. Cast your mind back to last season and it’s like watching a different 11 people on the pitch. This same team came back from 2-0 down at Everton and at home against Arsenal last season and really did have an aura of invincibility about it. No matter where we were playing, I always had the confidence that West Ham could come back from a deficit. If that was to happen at the moment, it would be more likely that the opposition would get another two or three goals rather than the Hammers claw back.
This hasn’t been the issue for the whole season, though. In the first game after the international break, West Ham faced Watford in a game they eventually lost 4-2. However, in the first 40 minutes of that game, the Hammers were dominant and brimming with confidence. It was like watching the West Ham from last season again. Manuel Lanzini and Dimitri Payet were playing brilliantly and controlling the game, the football was brilliant, Payet got his now infamous rabona assist and Lanzini even tried a rabona shot from outside the box. It was great to watch and at 2-0 up, it looked like West Ham were cruising to a comfortable victory to kickstart their season.
Then Watford scored two goals in five minutes before half-time and an entirely different West Ham team came out in the second half – that is the West Ham team we have seen since. Effectively, that Troy Deeney chip over Adrian has somehow ruined our entire season so far.
While it is just an excuse, it is a verifiable one, but it also speaks volumes of the mental weakness of this West Ham side. No player should have their confidence affected so badly by two late first half goals. What we need is the West Ham who played the first 40 minutes of that Watford game back. Had we played like that in all of our games since, I have no doubt that West Ham would be sitting at the other end of the table. It is proof – if anybody actually needed it – that this side is still capable of performing at a high standard and that this is just a low confidence induced slump.
