Green Street Hammers
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West Ham did not ‘deserve to win’. We were toothless when it mattered

By Scott Johnson

BRIGHTON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 05: Felipe Anderson of West Ham United takes a free kick during the Premier League match between Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United at American Express Community Stadium on October 5, 2018 in Brighton, United Kingdom. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
BRIGHTON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 05: Felipe Anderson of West Ham United takes a free kick during the Premier League match between Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United at American Express Community Stadium on October 5, 2018 in Brighton, United Kingdom. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) /
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Coming off the back of 4 good results since the international break, West Ham were flying. Relatively. But the wind was taken out of the sails in a toothless performance at the Amex on Friday night.

Having got up at 5am in Australia to watch that performance, I wasn’t too happy. Yes our style of play was good, and we retained the ball. But when it came to penetrating the defence there was very little movement in the first half from West Ham, and we were punished for it. Expected goals may have said we deserved a win, but to me all it shows is we wasted our chances.

In the last few weeks the teams have tried to take the game to us and we have exploited the space. Brighton, on the other hand, sat back and looked to soak up the pressure. Met with this new challenge, we looked completely devoid of ideas for much of the first half. In the second half, at least there was more movement and direct attacks in order to try and challenge the Brighton defence. But it was rather aimless.

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Yes I know Brighton defended well, but there were large periods where we weren’t good enough in attack. Freeckicks were fired into walls or over the bar, crosses went out for goal kicks and shots failed to find the target. Out of a total of 16 shots taken, only 4 forced the keeper into a save, and none of them were of note.

If the club want to improve and keep pushing up the league then this kind of result can’t continue to happen. The performances must be more consistent and we can’t slip up when presented with an ‘easier’ club like Brighton.

I hope that, over the international break, Pellegrini continues to work the way he did last time. We came back fresh and aggressive, and that is needed. It’s Spurs after this two week break, and it won’t be pretty if we play like we did last night. The players shouldn’t need reminding every few weeks that they need to keep playing to the best of their ability.