Wirtz worked, the touches and interplay with Grav, Dom and Alexis was sublime and what I always wanted.
Our forwards line was really weak today, with Isak being the main culprit, nowhere near good enough. Glad the proverbial troop of monkeys are off his back. Cody also weak.
The challenge now is to incorporate Mo, etc, without fucking up this version of Wirtz and our midfield.
It was only WHU, nevertheless, phew.
Only 9 off Arsenal, its back on. Let keep Slot for another couple of games.
A step in the right direction.
Who’d have thought that giving Joe a game would make us look more solid at the back? Well, most of the fanbase actually.
Also dropping Mo. A few have been calling for that for some time. It meant we went through the middle a bit more and looked dangerous doing so. It might catch on.
Everyone played their part, even Konate who opted to just put it into touch rather than risk another fuck-up. Gakpo, despite his goal, is still hugely frustrating.
Wirtz was fantastic and we should be looking to play through him at every opportunity, Isak and Ekiteke feeding off him.
We’ll know more after Wednesday. Sunderland will surely have more of a go than West Ham did. I just hope we don’t revert to the same line-up and tactics that have failed for much of the season.
first impressions is that our full box and wide forwards/wingers still don’t know how to play properly with Isak. As well as Joe played today, he should’ve crossed and passed to Isak on the first opportunity at least four times. Cody should’ve done better a few times as well. Isak himself could’ve probably made a few sharper runs to get separation from the defenders. I do believe all of these will come in time. They just need to be allowed to have the time to gel both in practice and during matches. Unfortunately this probably means we need to see less of Salah on the pitch. I don’t really see Mo completely changing his modus operandi and becoming a provider for Isak as opposed to focusing on scoring himself.
Have to mention that the precision from Isak’s strike was unreal. A first time finish with that much pace and accuracy through that small of a gap. Impressive!
Now all he has to do is build on it and remember he has two very serviceable players in Chiesa and Endo that he is clearly allergic to and we might build on it.
No gold star for one game and against the Hammers.
Step in the right direction is well put @jaffod. West Ham did not offer any attacking threat bar a couple of moments from Bowen, but maybe that was due to us being more solid. Great for Isak to get his goal, that was a true striker’s finish. Wirtz was another bright spark and should’ve done better with his chance, but much to be encouraged by.
Maybe some green shoots emerging, certainly Wirtz,we need to build around him, good to see Joe back at RB,looked more comfortable there,wondering if Allison’s return and RM spelling it out woke Konate up, he had a decent game today.
Good goal from Isak,more to do and he would know that.
Hope we will see more of Mo,but he has work to do to get back to the Mo we know and love.
Can’t go past Wirtz for MOTM, certainly looks like he may have been well worth the money.
To flourish, as well as the ball, he needs intelligent movement
It is just one game and against a team also low on morale. However, I thought there were a few points worth noting.
Deploying players in their familiar roles. I thought Gomez at RB and Wirtz at AM made a world of a difference. They looked more comfortable. And it freed Szoboszlai to be part of our midfield.
Full backs. Both the old guard and Kerkez, Frimpong are used to bombing up and down the flanks. This game allowed them to do so and we looked much more effective.
Passes. We had more variety of passes in this match. Which I felt unsettled the opposition.
Salah. Now that we do have two genuine no. 9 options, the goal scoring burden on Salah (or whoever is in his position) is decreased. If this is our plan moving forward, Salah either has to adapt, or be phased out slowly.
My hope is that we continue with this transition. Reverting to the previous type may spell trouble.
Not to over-simplify but we had Gakpo and Szoboszlai - as the nominal wingers- much closer to the central areas than Gakpo and Salah have been doing last few weeks. Gomez and Kerkez overlapped on the outside when they went forward.
The attacking play still needs a tonne of works but that basic change, with our quality, is enough to balance the team and win the games we should win.
at last! managed to watch the game “live”, and just felt that the lads were lacking the total confidence in themselves at times. WH were not pressing as some of the other teams we have played so far, and that gave our lads to have time on the ball.
Just glad that after our disastrous run of defeats, we are still in touching distance of a top four challenge.
Glad Isak has finally scored and hoping that’s a start to him always scoring in every game he plays for us. Wirtz is an intelligent player that is still adapting to PL standard.
Also felt that the ref was as usual, below standard. Keep hoping that the PL somehow recognise that they have totally incompetent officials and find ways to improve on their standards.( I think that I am dreaming)
YNWA
Yeah, missed 2 of the worst fouls on Grav & Hugo and gave lots of innocuous one
No way! Thank fuck Mo wasn’t on the pitch. Hopefully that wasn’t just ‘because of 4 games in 10 days’ or whatever excuse Slot gave and was actually because he doesn’t deserve to be playing and won’t be straight back in the lineup. We need a run of games without him where Flo and Hugo and Alex can actually become integrated and then there will be no going back to the Salah days.
Yeah clearly our most outstanding talent and highest quality player. I’d go so far as to say he, Grav, Dom, Hugo and Alex are the 5 players that we must keep but all the others are either replaceable or in need of replacement.
I think he has always looked worth the money and in every game he’s played his quality is evident, even when the team around him hasn’t worked. What he has needed is a consistent space in the team and one reason to sack off Mo is that he is impeding that.
Well, with AFCON coming up, that’s going to happen after next week anyway.
First time I think I’ve ever said this but…
I think MO will get the nod in any home games before AFCON… away games, maybe not.
Then see how the land lies afterwards
West Ham are that shit and low on confidence they went into the weekend in better form than us or Sunderland.
They were crap but they have been playing well recently let’s not rewrite the situation.
I’m of the opinion it’s one drop in a vast ocean but let’s not cloud it to the point that it starts to impede on what happened.
Bar once or twice they weren’t able to play through the middle. It shut out a route that teams have been easily getting through and even then we were able to shut it out with ease.
If he starts against Sunderland we’re likely to revert to the same old shit that went before.
I tend to agree with this. One of the other reasons Salah isn’t quite working is because we don’t have Trent finding him free with those quick balls any more. Flo is geared towards creating chances within the goal frame while Mo hangs out on the right so it’s unnatural for Wirtz to create for Salah from a central position. You’re going away from goal when you’re already near goal.
Mo worked because of his lightning feet and deadly accuracy. Sadly age has caught up to him. That decline isn’t always gradual.
And now everyone and their dog knows how Mo operates and that he won’t track back. This change is needed. We need to keep evolving (like any successful team should) in order to stay on top.