West Ham United 2 - West Bromwich Albion 1

Date: Tuesday 19th January 2021 Live on BT SportBehind Closed Doors
Competition: Premier League
West Ham:
6.6
Fabianski, Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Soucek, Rice, Bowen, Lanzini (Fornals, 62), Benrahma (Yarmolenko, 62), Antonio (Noble, 84)
Unused subs: Randolph, Balbuena, Alves, Diop, Fredericks, Johnson
WBA:
5.8
Johnstone 6.0, O'Shea 6.6, Ajayi 5.5, Bartley 5.9, Gibbs 5.5, Gallagher 5.6, Livermore 5.1 (Robson-Kanu, 80 5.3), Sawyers 5.7, Grosicki 6.2 (Furlong, 70 5.4), Pereira 7.1, Robinson 6.1
Unused subs: Button, Krovinovic, Ivanovic, Edwards, Peltier, Kipré, Field
Manager: Sam Allardyce 5.5
Scorers: Bowen (45), Antonio (66); Pereira (51)
Referee: Graham Scott 6.3
Attendance: 0

Brendan Clegg:

What to make of that then? I think we probably played better overall than we did against Wolves but ultimately West Ham were more clinical.

No real complaints with the starting lineup given the players available, apart from the potential silliness on Snodgrass. Pretty amateur on our part that, whatever happens.

And I thought for 45 minutes it was a totally acceptable away performance. Tight, disciplined, no nonsense but a bit more composed on the ball, I’ve got to say largely down to Sawyers who was miles better in possession and chose the right pass more than anyone else. We just lacked a bit more of an uncomplicated and direct threat on the right with Gallagher filling in but not really offering much by way of dribbling.

So to get sloppy on 45 mins and concede a poor goal with the last touch of the half from an initial position of no danger was really poor.

I thought we might struggle to get back into it as West Ham are so well drilled but Pereira scored the goal of the game when given a bit of space to get an early equaliser.

As the game opened up West Ham put us under pressure but we were pretty resolute until they brought on multi-millions of extra height and it didn’t take long for them to score - Gibbs losing out on the back post and then Antonio brilliantly hooking the ball in with incredible power, through Bartley’s legs and past SJ. We had bodies there in decent positions to cover - he was just too good for us.

Rather than wait and dwell Allardyce opened the game up, went 3 at the back and got us high and wide. You have to say it worked pretty well and, as much as West Ham probably sat back, we created a couple of great chances that better players at this level would finish and ended the game pushing and cleverly winning lots of set plays to give us chances to lump it into the mixer.

It wasn’t to be but this was no disgrace and I don’t think anyone played badly. As we all know, we have to sign a minimum of 2 players with the quality to walk straight into the team, more if we can, but we will pick up more points irrespective with this level of discipline and organisation.

  • SJ - 6 No chance with goals. Some frustrating kicks.
  • O’Shea - 7 Never knows he’s beaten. Put everything on the line.
  • Ajayi - 7 Maybe one or two slips but good overall.
  • Bartley - 7 Another pretty solid game.
  • Gibbs - 6 Amazed we got a Sat-Tue double out of him. Both goals came from his side but did okay.
  • Gallagher - 6 Filled in well but looked more lively in the centre towards the end as you’d expect.
  • Livermore - 6 Dogged enough and sat in deep quite often.
  • Sawyers - 7 Worked hard, passed it really well, much better decision-making and risk assessment.
  • Grosicki - 6 Offered more, benefitted from us passing the ball better. Maybe asleep for their first but a good shift.
  • Pereira- 7 Great goal. Wish he’d have had a go at that free kick. Some great link play too.
  • Robinson - 6 Another big shift, some great touches to get us up the pitch. Clever at winning free kicks.
  • Furlong - 6 Did okay but it was a massive chance after stealing in so well.
  • HRK - 6 Also did a great job of drawing fouls.