TIC TOC TACTICS
Southampton 0 West Ham 0
Sometimes you are wrong and you just admit it. Sometimes you are wrong and you dig in and pretend you are right. Sometimes you lose it and make five changes to the team. Moyes has made a ballsy move, and given a debut for loanee Craig Dawson, too. Maybe too many balls. Why no Coufal? Why drop Bowen? Maybe it’s another ‘game of two halves’ tactic. Maybe it’s two games in four days. Good to see Antonio on the bench, though.
Last time West Ham lost at this ground was in August 2017 thanks to a Charlie Austin penalty three minutes into injury time, and Arnie Arnautovic’s sending off. This kind of opening to a report is usually followed by a requiem for a performance nothing short of pandemic. And the Saints’ manager Ralph Hasenhüttl, despite the umlaut, contracted Hantavirus in 2012 which almost shuffled off his mortal coil, and now someone in his family has contracted Covid-19, he’ll be shouting down the phone from home. So where does it all go from here?
Craig Dawson (starting tonight) was selected for Team GB at the 2012 London Olympics by the manager Stuart Pearce, so there’s a relink that few might have expected (or even been aware of). He even scored a penalty in the QF shoot out v South Korea. Keep up.
Southampton start terrifyingly well and returnee forearm tattoo king Danny Ings slams one in after six minutes, only to have the move brought back for an offside. Hammers soak up the expected early pressure and create an excellent chance for Dawson who catches Che Adams’ head clean on the volley rather than the ball, but thankfully Adams’ head remains connected to the other parts of his body. The replay is like one of those You Tube videos you only hear about an hour after it’s been taken down.
On 25 minutes Cresswell curls in a brilliant free kick that evades desperate defensive lunges but Haller’s final touch lacks the power to beat McCarthy. Once the game hits the half hour, Southampton’s push seems to have abated and Hammers turn up the possession play with a corner, a Cresswell free kick and a header from Fredericks that should have finished in the back of the net instead of McCarthy’s grateful arms. On 43 minutes it’s the first Ward-Prowse free kick opportunity that sends all Hammers hearts to mouths. Nah. High, wide and loathsome.
The second half provides the chessboard for Moyes’ team change plans, and after fifteen minutes of even action, the move is made and Benrahma replaces Lanzini, who has certainly put a game-starting shift in, his 100th PL start. Suddenly the game opens up and Walcott forces an excellent save out of Fabianski with a toe-curling, top-spinning shot. Southampton pick up the role of hitting West Ham on the break, and force a free kick wide on the left, but Hammers defend well. They always look to have height advantage and have made the most of it.
Soucek has a clear headed opportunity which he uncharacteristically heads straight at the keeper. Bowen replaces Yarmolenko and then Antonio comes on for Haller. The game shifts one final time and the fickle finger of fate offers Benrahma the best chance of the game, but his effort strikes McCarthy on the chest and the keeper’s block saves Southampton from a late home defeat.
So West Ham’s first goalless draw for fifteen months, and their first clean sheet on the road since the Sheffield United game. Half the reserve team have just kept West Ham in the upper half of the table. Well done chaps!
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 24 Ryan Fredericks, 15 Craig Dawson, 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 41 Declan Rice (c), 28 Tomas Souček, 7 Andriy Yarmolenko, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 18 Pablo Fornals, 22 Sébastien Haller
Substitutes: 9 Saïd Benrahma, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 31 Michail Antonio
