There were the tell-tale signs of a lack of confidence all over the place. Forwards snatching at shots and failing to create the requisite yard of space. Midfielders playing it safe with passes backwards and sideways. Defenders and goalkeepers launching the ball long in an unequivocal and all too guarded interpretation of Press Resistance. The players were playing with an anxiety in keeping with the fragile positions of their managers.
Now one point behind Manchester United and just two shy of Newcastle and Tottenham, Lopetegui may be of a Crisis? What Crisis? mind, but there was a huge crack-papering element to this win with their goals thanks to some horrific defending and a flash of brilliance from their captain. He may well lose the current sack race to Gary O’Neil, but this wasn’t a performance to silence his critics.
It felt like an average display under David Moyes and while wins are wins, having been told his predecessor lost his job in search of The West Ham Way, ultimately the Spaniard will need to get his team playing better football and we have zero confidence in him being able to do so. His sacking remains in the post.
The opener was the most West Ham v Wolves goal imaginable. The home side had already had nine corners before they scored and if you hadn’t seen the utter dross that had been delivered before Tomas Soucek headed in you would have wondered how they had not scored two or three beforehand given both Wolves’ horrible record of defending set pieces and the laughable manner in which they tried to defend this one.
No Wolves player got off the ground before 5ft 7in Joao Gomes’ pathetic and pointless bunny hop on the line as the ball looped over his head. Soucek – f***ing Soucek – the guy who has scored more goals from corners (12) since coming the Premier League than anyone buy Arsenal’s Gabriel (15), walked about four yards to his left as the ball looped to the back post before nodding the ball up, over the defenders and into the far corner, making it 15 set-piece goals Wolves have conceded this season.
We’ve got to assume that O’Neil has taken on the job of set-piece coaching himself after the club sent designated set-piece coach Jack Wilson packing over two months ago, and if not then he’s equally to blame for failing to do so as shipping goals like that is ultimately what’s going to cost him his job.
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You would think, given it was the difference between one point and none here, and is the reason we’re talking about the end of his time at Wolves rather than him barely being mentioned as the manager of a club in that sweet, sweet lower mid-table spot they would be in without such abhorrent defending from corners and free-kicks, it would be his entire focus on the training ground.
Maybe it has been, but that’s just as damning. Because point a) of what we imagine was a wonderfully colourful powerpoint on Defending Set Pieces Against West Ham not being Keep An Eye On That Big Czech Guy was a huge oversight.
And such a shame because Wolves played some nice stuff here, as they typically do. Their goal featured an accurate diagonal from Sam Johnstone, a lovely touch from Goncalo Guedes, a great whipped cross from Rayan Air-Nouri and an excellent first-time finish from Matt Doherty darting in from his wing-back position.
It was an open-play goal from the training ground, and there was further evidence of O’Neil’s clear quality in organising his team to attack, with Gomes spurning a very presentable chance in the first half after a lovely flowing move in which they drew West Ham into them on one side of the pitch before swiftly changing the point of attack.
They’ve scored 23 goals this season, more or the same as 11 of the teams above them in the Premier League, but they’ve conceded seven more than anyone else, and while it’s easy to see while watching them why goalscoring isn’t a problem, it’s easier to see how conceding goals is.
It will be a tough one to take for O’Neil, partly because of what looked like a pretty blatant foul on Santiago Bueno in the build-up to Jarrod Bowen’s goal and because it was an outstanding moment of quality from an individual in a side that hadn’t produced many or any of those up to that point, just moments after Wolves had drawn level and had the momentum. It was a lovely curled finish into the far corner from Bowen.
There’s also no doubt that the situation is tough. As O’Neil was at pains to point out after the game, they’ve sold £200m-worth of players since he arrived at the club. Ruben Neves, Matheus Nunes, Max Kilman and Pedro Neto are big players to be without. But he can’t keep banging that drum. His squad is not five points worse than Leicester’s.
“We need to find a way not to concede goals like the one today,” he said after the game, before quickly adding “hopefully the January transfer window can help us”. But a guy we keep being told is an excellent coach, who shows that through some of the attacking football his side plays, should have been able to sort out what are admittedly sub-par defenders not to consistently embarrass themselves at set pieces by now. Again, it’s Tomas f***ing Soucek.
There are four more games before January, which means four more goals conceded from set pieces at the current rate, and wishing those games away feels like a dangerous state of mind to be in for a manager who’s running on fumes.
The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk
