Match Review: West Ham 0 – 1 Wolves; Running out of Excuses

West Ham end their first month of the 2018/19 Premier League season with a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Wolves concluding a pointless first four matches and cementing themselves in last place. Times up for excuses as West Ham need points and need them fast.

In a match that had very little excitement to it in the first half, West Ham found a devasting way to give up the shared points, conceding embarrassingly in extra time. The goal came off of Carlos Sanchez giving away possession after not out letting the ball quick enough, and eventually Adama Traore used his speed to break passed Diop and beat Fabianski short side.

Traore’s substitution in the 62nd minute changed the game for Wolves who were getting overrun by the West Ham attack. Aaron Cresswell who was tasked with marking him had no answer for his pace or skill down the side, getting skinned by the winger multiple times.

The stats in this match were fairly equal, with Wolves having a slight edge in possession, passes, and shots. Despite the close stats, West Ham were clearly the second best team on the pitch and the issues stemmed from abysmal play from their full backs.

Full Back Failures

Zabaleta drew into West Ham’s starting Xi to face AFC Wimbledon and will likely go back in to face Everton after the international break. This is because Ryan Fredericks looked simply terrible in this match. On no occasion did he use his speed to beat a defender or winger, and he spent most of the match giving the ball away on horribly placed passes with no pressure on.

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Zabaleta has shown leadership and responsibility on the pitch for West Ham and should surpass Fredericks going forward. It cannot be stated enough how poorly he played against Wolves.

On the other side of the pitch, Cresswell started over Masuaku at left back. He looked solid against Wimbledon and some supporters were calling for him to get first-team minutes, but a late injury to Masuaku forced Pellegrini’s plans. Cresswell overlapped a few times with success but he prefers to lump the ball upfield and swings the ball for a cross when no targets are in the area.

Maybe it’s rust, maybe it’s just who Cresswell is, but he didn’t look up to speed defensively or offensively in this match and failed to put in a performance that would see him take advantage of the injury opportunity with Masuaku. Maybe when Andy Carroll is fit again we’ll see the best of Cresswell, but until then he is firmly a backup.

Disjointed Attack

There were issues in how West Ham set up today that point to management over player performance, primarily in West Ham’s attack. Arnautovic is a shoe-in to start at striker and looked solid when he had his chances. On a beautiful probing pass that Arnie pushed forward, he blasted a shot off of Patricio’s face after gaining space with a tricky cutback. You’d like him to score there of course, but a well-placed face spoiled what would have been a remarkable goal.

Outside of Arnautovic, there was little to be excited about. Anderson followed up two solid performances with a lame one here against Wolves. He was played centrally in the #10 position but was constantly pulling out wide to his left acting as a winger. This left the middle of the pitch empty behind Arnautovic where someone like Lanzini is direly missed. Anderson didn’t have much of an impact on this match and needs to start showing why Pellegrini wanted him so bad.

Snodgrass put in his worst performance as a hammer this season but was also a victim of Fredericks having an atrocious game. He was isolated so much due to poor passing and refusal to overlap that he couldn’t impact the game at all. He took a free kick that deflected off the wall and also a corner or two but didn’t do well enough to warrant a full ninety minutes.

Antonio is a puzzling one. Clearly, he is being chosen for his speed but I think he is being mis-played in two ways. Firstly, Antonio is a right-sided attacker but is now being played on the left wing. This is limiting his crossing and cutting in by restricting the use of his primary boot. When Snodgrass and Fredericks’s issues came to a head Pellegrini moved him to the right side showing that he knows this is his better position.

As well, Yarmolenko’s pace is not going to set the world on fire, so why is he not being started so he can use his size and skill to hold up the ball early in the match, then being replaced by Antonio late in the game to burn defenders with his speed? Wolves use this tactic with Traore and had success with it today as Cresswell who has no legs and was on a yellow card could not contend with his late-game speed. I know Pellegrini wants his starting XI to play with speed but why buy Yarmolenko if you’re not going to use him properly?

The match ends on that horror mistake from Sanchez and West Ham lose at home again dropping or 0-0-4 on the season and sit solo at the bottom of the table with zero points. The pressure is now falling on Pellegrini to sort this out as he has had the experience, players, and backing of the board to get the job done. No more gelling, no more practice, no more “getting better”, no more excuses. Get the job done, and do it soon.