Sunday 25 September 2016

West Ham trounced 3-0 by Southampton


The West Ham defensive horror show continued with this comprehensive home defeat against Southampton.

The home side began in confident style but as with previous games, this quickly evaporated, allowing Southampton to slice through the rear guard, often at will.

The first major incision saw Dusan Tadic knock a ball inside makeshift right back Havard Nordtveit, which was picked up by the overlapping left back Ryan Bertrand, who pulled the ball back for Charlie Austen to sweep home his fifth goal in four games.

The ever dangerous Nathan Redmond then saw his effort saved with his feet by Adrian at point blank range.

Things got worse for the Hammers after the break, when Austin fed Tadic through the middle, who slid the ball under the advancing Adrian.

The nature of the game was reflected by the fact that Adrian was the home team’s man of the match, single handedly thwarting Southampton on a number of occasions.

A bit more urgency from West Ham in the last 20 minutes saw a clear penalty denied to Sofiane Feghouli, whose shot was handled.

A quiet Dimitri Payet then swept a shot wide whilst a shot from Simone Zaza was cleared off the line by Virgil van Dijk.

Southampton though were not finished. Two minutes into injury time, Redmond played Steven Davis in down the line, who crossed for substitute James Ward Prowse to finish with aplomb.

A downcast West Ham manager Slaven Bilic identified the team’s problem as a collective lack of confidence. “It is my team and my responsibility,” said Bilic, who underlined that this is pretty much the same team that did so well last season. “We can solve this, it is four games now – we have to change this now big time.”.

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