Dictionary.com – “Monday Morning Quarterback” is a person who criticises the actions or decisions of others after the fact, using hindsight to assess situations and specify alternative solutions.
With the visit of Wolves to the London Stadium giving us a chance to see the shoots of recovery that have been displayed against Arsenal and Wimbledon, many of us will have glanced at the league table before kick off and roughly imagine that we would most likely be sat around 13th in the table on 3 points…….
Some 2 hours later, we are now looking at our upcoming fixtures and trying to work out if we will get a point throughout September and maybe October!
Lets start with the line up, thinking as i am as the “Monday Morning Quarterback”, MP made several mistakes, the continues selection of Antonio seems to baffle everyone, he has never been a gifted footballer, never has he possessed good technique and he has certainly never had football intelligence, but at least he has always tried hard (until he got his England call up and new contract). He now is nothing but a passenger in the team, he ambles around the pitch barely breaking into a jog, what can be guaranteed is that he will nearly always be out of position and he won’t help his fullback out.
Cresswell at LB was given his first start of the season, he duly demonstrated why the manager has not been playing him, to say he was terrible would be a massive understatement, he was playing like he had Toblerone for feet, even the most basic 10 yard pass missed its target by 10 yards. What is 100% guaranteed is the Masuaku will be back in for the next game.
Wilshire was another mistake today, he looked so far off the pace in was untrue. He was lucky to se the other side of half time, he was 3/10 in the first half, but in his defence he improved slightly in the second half before getting the old Sheppards crook from the gaffer.
I think he was correct in keeping Ogbonna from the starting 11, despite Balbuena losing his man a couple of time (which fortunately never cost us dear) him and Drop are starting to look like a fairly strong pairing.
Yarmalenko absolutely has to start next time out, we improved as an attacking threat when he came on, as an added bonus it will mean Antonio won’t be anywhere near the starting line up too!
Line up score 4/10
Yarmalenko for Snodgrass at Half Time was harsh on Snodders, with Antonio the man who should of made way, this was a huge mistake from MP.
Wilshire was having a mare, so his substitution was always on the cards, again i think the mistake was bringing Obiang in for him, with the game dying a death and us lacking bite and passion the game was crying out for Noble to come on and show his passion, it could of lifted the team so much and changed the outcome.
Antonio was a passenger for 75 minutes, giving nothing to the team, so to get him off was the easiest decision of the day, what was astonishing was it took MP 75 minutes to make the change. Hernandez was brought on as his replacement which brought with it a change in formation to put two up front, with us being so so wasteful in possession and our midfield lacking, we were never going to get the ball up to Hernandez in the box, so MP should of brought on Noble or Rice to gain the momentum in midfield.
Substitutions score 2/10
Yes we lost again, we sit bottom of the table and are yet to register a point this season. We now have an international break, this could be a good thing for us as we have no players going away so MP has two week to bang some sense into his players and drill them on the training ground.
I see on social media that the West Ham fans are already starting to turn and show their anger, blaming the London Stadium as usual, but lets remember that the Olympic Stadium in Rome is one of the most passionate and intimidating stadia in Europe, and yes you guessed it, they have a running track too, maybe West Ham fans before we blame the stadium lets have a long look in the mirror.
The Pellegrini “Project” continues, Rome was not built in a day, we are four (very poor) games into a new era at West Ham, i still think we will comfortably finish Top 10 this season, and with MP’s newly instilled attacking style, we will certainly see some goals (at both ends) this season.
Everton 2 – 2 West Ham
COYI
Written By Daniel | @DixieDean78