Thoughts on West Ham’s pre-season

This week’s away game took place slightly further afield than Boreham Wood, on the delightfully sunny shores of Bournemouth, for the Stephen Purches testimonial.

Bournemouth are, of course, tougher opposition than Boreham Wood, having recently been promoted to the Championship so I was expecting this one to be a bit more tricky. We put out more or less our regular starting eleven for this game, and won 2-0 in what was a decent showing for the team– but we weren’t as convincing for this one as we were for the last two.

Now one thing I will say is that any criticisms of the players and team for this game should be taken with a grain of salt (and were written with one too) as there was a bit of an overriding factor that should be considered with this game- the fact that the temperature on the pitch at Dean Court was not too dissimilar to that of the Earth’s core. The official weather forecast was sunny with a chance that 500 people could die. It was crazy hot out there, and this was the first time I’ve ever seen a football match need to be stopped (in the 30^th minute) so that players and officials could have a water break.

What was great in the game was again our new signing Razvan ‘Roland’ Rat. He was calm, cool, collected, and fast. He’s also surprisingly offense-driven for a defender. I mentioned in the previous report that he seems to be pushing up awfully far forward on the pitch and he did so again on Saturday (I oft mistook him for Jarvis as he was so much further forward than the midfielder) but my god is he quick- and he recovers and gets back very well. Provided he can keep his speed up for a full 90 minutes, this shouldn’t be an issue in the Premier League, but Winston Reid and James Collins will need to adjust a bit to cover for him if he continues his runs up the pitch.

Ravel Morrison again impressed – the player has a surprising maturity and self-confidence on the pitch. He’s good at moving the ball into space, and made a lot of good passes. West Ham were offering a trial to midfielder Orlando Engelaar (who, at 6’5 must be part giant), and with him playing next to the confident and efficient Morrison, the poor guy looked rather lost (which was a shame, as Engelaar looked like he could hold a ball.)

What wasn’t so great in this game was that it seemed like we weren’t making use of the passing practice that we got against Boreham Wood. The game was littered with sloppy and unnecessary back passes. There should have been way more forward movement of the ball, as when we did go forward it looked strong, but instead players seemed more comfortable sending the ball behind them (to the growing disapproval of the majority of supporters.)

With regards to other individual performances, I was excited to see Modibo Maiga play the majority of the game. I had high hopes for him as he had a surprisingly high goals to games ratio last season, but even after the game the jury’s still out on him for me. He had some great shots, and brilliant tricky ball work, but he seems to be perpetually in an offside position, and doesn’t strike me as particularly hardworking.

I wasn’t as impressed with Noble’s performance either and I wonder if it’s that he performs better when not with Nolan. On paper they should be a dream team, as Noble being more defensive and Nolan (as per the usual) being happy to push up and do his best Andy Carroll impression should really cover all the midfield bases, but something didn’t seem to click on Saturday.

Overall though it was a good game- Diame played well, Jussi looked on fine form- but it wasn’t a big game for experimentation (for example I would have rather seen Adrian play over Jussi to see what he’s like against reasonably decent opposition.)

The most interesting bit of the game for me was watching Joe Cole. He was quiet at times, but his positioning was something to watch out for. He tended to push very far wide and was often forgotten by the defenders, which allowed him to receive wide passes unmarked and move the ball easily into the area. He also showed a few sparks of his youthful skill, cleverly dribbling through player after player in the Bournemouth defence.

A good win for Big Sam’s side, with the thing that stuck in my mind the most from the game being the heat. The players were tired, and who could blame them- I was tired just watching them. Whilst this will probably not affect us during the bitter British winter, my mind did stray to what the 2022 World Cup will be like in terms of fitness demands (even if it is played out of season.) If the game has to be stopped for hydration in Bournemouth, and led to a slightly lacklustre performance (as it would any team in the same position) what on earth is a game in 55 degree Qatar going to produce?

Did you see the game, and did you notice anything different from what I saw? And do you know if the sprinkler guy got thrown out (I hope he didn’t)? If you didn’t see the game, do any of the above opinions make you excited (or nervous) about the upcoming season? Let me know below or on twitter @makingthemarrow