West Ham stop the rot, but can only muster a draw with Middlesbrough at home.
Slaven Bilic had allowed Mark Noble to take the team out this week, an essential morale building exercise, he implied. The results were clear, if only because west Ham didn’t concede three or more goals in this match. It was just the solitary concession, a header that required the use of goal-line technology and, in truth, West Ham might have won this on another day. Mark Noble struck the underside of the crossbar, and Dimitri Payet scored one of the goals of the season. Middlesbrough were neat in possession, but struggled to create meaningful chances. Payet’s goal, like Son Heung-min’s last weekend, also exposed their shoddy defending.
Bilic makes a statement with his starting XI
The formation Bilic sent out was unusual indeed. A recall for Sam Byram, a player Bilic seems at times not to trust, placed him at right back, and Angelo Ogbonna – the starting centre back – shifted out the the left back position. Winston Reid and James Collins completed an extremely defensive, statuesque back line. Pedro Obiang, defensive midfield specialist, replaced Manuel Lanzini in the midfield, and Michail Antonio – one of the league’s most industrious attackers – took up a striker’s position, a false nine or, at least, a non-nine.
With Slaven Bilic and West Ham groping for some semblance of defensive integrity, this was what they grasped. Sacrifice the creativity of Lanzini in midfield, employ a totally defensive left back, and have Antonio drop into midfield to help press the space. Things were complicated when Sam Byram went down with a hamstring injury – that murk of injury hasn’t risen from East London yet, it seems – and Alvaro Arbeloa had to replace him.
But it worked; the sort of deathly mania that has wrecked the West Ham defence over the last three games was gone. Winston Reid was a powerful, decisive presence, and Pedro Obiang effectively ensured his place in the starting XI. To clamber out of the hole West Ham are in, one must go hand over hand, and this was a small move in the right direction.
BILIC: "My team is very alive and very together. I can't say I'm happy but I'm positive regarding the future." #COYI #WHUMID
— West Ham United (@WestHamUtd) October 1, 2016
Downing returns to West Ham.
The last time Stewart Downing shared the pitch with a lot of these West Ham players, he was a member of their team, and a key part of their attacking mechanism. As much as Payet’s debut season – just before which Downing left West Ham – dazzled us, Downing’s play the season before was nothing to be sniffed at. He had been, up until then-manager Sam Allardyce reeled it all in, one of the league’s most creative players in 2014/15, playing in much the same position Payet now occupies.
There is no doubt that Payet represents a significant upgrade for West Ham, but Downing’s skills are still viable in the Premier League, and he worked the less-than-fit Arbeloa down the left flank. His crossing is so often fizzingly effective, and the space he needs to whip a ball in requires only a half-step to steal.
West Ham like to think they’ve firmly moved on from the memories of Kevin Nolan, Downing and Allardyce, but Middlesbrough’s creditable draw – and the Hammers’ league position – beg to differ.
West Ham struggling to befit Payet’s majesty
Although West Ham were significantly better in this match, with little of the defensive haplessness that has hallmarked their early season, when Dimitri Payet dribbled past seven players and slotted home their equaliser, it did feel as though the Hammers are batting above their average when it comes to the Frenchman. Payet’s goal was astonishing, a display of inhuman poise and patience, feigning to shoot three times as he danced through the Middlesbrough box.
He played well, was a deserved man of the match, and scored one of the goals of the season. The sequence was acutely individual, an expression and product of Payet’s genius alone. As the Frenchman celebrated the goal with a furious intensity, urging the crowd and his teammates to swell their voices and flex their sinews, Slaven Bilic looked almost sheepish. Bilic, and everyone with a pair of eyes, can see Payet is an elite player, and deserves to be in a team that aren’t wallowing in the way West Ham are. The rot was stopped with this draw, but the Hammers still have much to do if they want to live up to Payet’s quality.
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