Gutsy West Ham put Birmingham behind them
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Article by Liam Clarkson
After the stinker in Birmingham, a match in which the Hammers gave up 59% of possession to the bottom-dwelling Villains, it would have been ideal for West Ham to put in a strong, competitive effort in the first half. They didn’t.
Instead, the Saints bossed the Hammers around in their beloved Boleyn Ground, the low point obviously being Carl Jenkinson’s unfortunate but soft own goal.
After the 13th minute opener, Dusan Tadic, Oriol Romeu, Shane Long, Steven Davis, Sadio Mané and Victor Wanyama all had opportunities to put Southampton a further goal or two ahead. Poor finishing and a few rare slices of luck ensured that West Ham had hope coming into half time.
As it turned out, the break was the worst thing to happen to Southampton. West Ham boss Slaven Bilić said to the BBC that he “was happy when the referee blew, because [Southampton] could have been 2-0 up.”
Bilić’s substitutions proved to be crucial to the outcome of the match. His two changes, Andy Carroll for Mauro Zárate and Manuel Lanzini for Alex Song, were perfect in their positional ramifications and match timing.
Bilić actually admitted that he wanted to make the substitutions before half-time, realising that “After the goal we were totally down and I waited for half-time because I didn't want to humiliate the players by changing them before.”
Rather like West Ham itself over the last two months, Zárate and Song were trying hard but lacked the quality needed to produce goals, let alone win the match.
The injection of Carroll in his far more effective super sub role gave the Saints defenders, who had played nearly three hours of football in three days, even more headaches.
Meanwhile, Lanzini, although a touch rusty after his ankle injury, showed far more quality on the pitch and slotted into the West Ham XI perfectly.
For the first 25 minutes of the second-half however, Southampton continued to stifle West Ham’s improved play with rough challenges and a cringe worthy time-wasting effort from Shane Long, who barged into James Collins and played for the foul, producing a stoppage met by strong boos of disapproval from the Boleyn faithful.
The frustration and tension was mercifully released in the 69th minute, when Michail Antonio, making a strong run into the box, tripped and then received a kind rebound off his side into the back of the net after Virgil Van Dijk failed to clear properly.
A mere ten minutes later, Antonio smacked a header onto the crossbar following a great long ball across field by Enner Valencia. Carroll gratefully and instinctively dealt with the rebound with his forehead and duly celebrated in front of the home fans.
The Hammers were extremely thankful when the final whistle blew at full time, thanks to a very valuable three points.
Three negatives, three positives:
̶ West Ham’s first half: if they produce efforts like that against teams like Liverpool, whom they face on Saturday, they won’t have enough goals or time left in them to collect points.
̶ Injuries: Bilić has been excellent in his attitude towards his squad’s injury crisis, refusing to use it as an excuse for the team’s poor form, but the fact of the matter is that West Ham become a different team when Winston Reid runs the defence and Dimitri Payet runs the attack. When those two come back, a return to the top six won’t be a fantasy.
̶ Carl Jenkinson: it is by no means fair to single out one player, but Jenkinson’s lack of competence is severely affecting the team’s ability to get out of its own half. His first touch is sorely lacking and his attacking runs down the wing have deteriorated to the point where they no longer cover up for his inconsistent defending.
+ Spirit: arguably West Ham’s most courageous effort of the season, the win against Southampton came against several obstacles. The Saints were high on confidence after thrashing Arsenal 4-0, while West Ham were low on fitness and form and conceded a sloppy opener in one of their worst first half efforts of the season. To pull a win out of the fire in those circumstances, albeit at home, was a backs-against-the-wall effort for the ages.
+ Management: Slaven Bilić’s canny half-time substitutions showed extreme maturity and nous. If West Ham do finish in the top six, the club may have to work hard to keep him.
+ Luck: if luck was what kept West Ham in the game in the first half, it was what won it for them in the second. The yellow cards for Southampton which had been missing in the first half combined with Antonio’s fortuitous goal and Carroll’s perfect rebound header.
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