OPINION
West Ham have had a miserable start to the season and that continued on Saturday as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat courtesy of Wolves.
Manuel Pellegrini understandably needs time in order for his side to gel together and submit the performances their ability is capable of but Alan Shearer’s analysis of their performance against Wolves on Match of the Day highlighted a worrying aspect of their latest display.
The BBC pundit slammed the Hammers’ efforts in their game against Wolves and put the spotlight on the team’s clear lack of desire.
“You would think coming into this game on the back of three defeats at home in front of your fans, bit of fight, gonna roll your sleeves up to show the fans we mean business, whatever you want to say whether it’s embarrassing, hopeless, pathetic use any of those words, you can pick anyone and that would describe West Ham’s performance today I thought, ” stated Shearer on BBC One’s Match of the Day repeat (Sunday 2nd September, 9:45am).
“How on earth are you going to score goals with no one in the middle? Corner, poor corner, (referring to a clip) but have a look at the body language and body shape of West Ham, already the balls in the air and three of them are actually on their way back to the halfway line rather than challenging the goalkeeper.
“I found it incredible, complete lack of effort, walking and jogging, no intensity whatsoever and if you perform like this, you’re going to get nowhere.”
The BBC pundit’s ability to rightly highlight several players’ lacklustre attitudes during the defeat must have alarm bells ringing at West Ham.
It’s one thing to lose simply because you’re not the better side but the Hammers may have well have rolled over and allowed Wolves to beat them on Saturday as there were many players not willing to give their all for the side.
This lack of fire and fight was a worrying aspect of the Hammers’ latest display as normally when those qualities are lacking it suggests a team is not playing for the manager.
The bare minimum you expect from a team is that they’re giving their all to win and it’s hard argue with Shearer’s suggestion that the Hammers simply didn’t showcase that willingness to fight against Wolves.
If Pellegrini is unable to get his side fighting for the cause than it’s hard to see when they’re going to be able to get their first points on the board.
This is especially the case when you consider that the Hammers’ tricky start to the season is set to continue after the international break as their next three league games see them take on Everton, Chelsea and Manchester United.
While alarm bells perhaps are set to ring over the club’s disappointing results, they really should already be sounding over the side’s disappointing approach to games when it comes to effort as that suggests the good times are not about to come to the London Stadium anytime soon.
