Who Flopped?
One name comes to mind here, Carlos Sanchez. Despite his early goal, Sanchez was an absolute flop on the pitch. He was constantly dispossessed, sent errant passes to the opposition in dangerous areas, failed to track his man on attacking plays (see first goal against) and his only tackle earned him a yellow card.
Josh Cullen should be used over Sanchez every day of the week. If Husillos and Pellegrini can get anything for him in a transfer they would do well to move him on from the team. Outside of Snodgrass, not a lot of other Hammers players were atrocious. The biggest issue was game fitness which will hopefully come in time.
Robert Snodgrass had the assist on the corner but looked a little slow outside of that just looked a step or two behind. Likewise, West Ham’s new number nine was a little out of sync, and Andriy Yarmolenko wasn’t involved much outside of an early, great pass to Cullen.
Johnson was okay on his off side in the first half, but once the second half was underway, he started to fall apart. Partially due to age, experience, and being on his non-natural side, Johnson did breakdown after an hour of playing.
Overall, the Hammers did well to repel a solid Altach team, while getting a lot of players some valuable time on the pitch. With training continuing ahead of the Premier League Asia Trophy, some decisions will need to be made, otherwise, it was a strong start to the season!