West Ham United have dropped into the relegation zone for the first time since the start of October after a 1-0 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux on Saturday.
Daniel Podence’s strike early into the second half sealed three points for Julien Lopetegui’s side, with the Hammers on a seven-match run without a Premier League victory.
As the Hammers find themselves trying to turn their season around, here are five of the major talking points from the West Midlands.
READ MORE: West Ham player ratings: David Moyes' side drop into relegation zone after Daniel Podence winner
A tale of two Wolves clashes
When West Ham last played Wolves on October 1, a 2-0 win at the London Stadium was their first home league win of the season and it moved them out of the relegation zone.
For the first time since then, coincidentally against Wolves, a 1-0 defeat to the Old Gold saw them drop back into the bottom three for the first time in 15 weeks, with the Hammers on a run of one point from a possible 21 in the Premier League from their last seven matches.
The first half lacked real attacking quality from both sides. Barring one Matheus Cunha chance, snuffed out well by Nayef Aguerd, all of Wolves’ best first half opportunities were restricted to shots from distance, largely by Ruben Neves.
While West Ham put moves together, one that saw Bowen manage to just about steer a poorly connected volley on goal off a Vladimir Coufal cross, it was only a Coufal chance off a move from the left, that appeared to be going wide, that really had Wolves concerned.
If the first half lacked in attacking quality, the opening minutes of the second half looked as if a whole different game was about to take place. West Ham got forward, Wolves countered. West Ham then won a corner after good work from Michail Antonio, who held up the ball well, went on a run, and forced a shot to win a corner. That goalscoring chance was taken, but at the other end by Wolves.
On the counter attack, former West Ham target Matheus Nunes charged towards goal and swung in a cross from the right. Aaron Cresswell poked it clear, but only onto the foot of Portuguese winger Daniel Podence, whose fierce first half strike was too hot for Lukasz Fabianski to stop.
From there, West Ham were desperate to find their way back into the game and looked more capable of doing so when Said Benrahma was introduced off the bench, tasked with giving the same inspiration he produced off the bench against Brentford seven days earlier.
Within minutes, he gave West Ham a lift, but still, it was not enough. Needing to also throw on the returning Gianluca Scamacca with 15 minutes to go, hoping he would score against a Wolves side whom he got his first Premier League goal against.
One of West Ham’s better chances came from Scamacca pressing Nathan Collins, tackling him, and teeing up Benrahma, whose rushed shot was smothered by Jose Sa with reasonable ease.
As West Ham barraged wave after wave of attack, with captain Declan Rice and Aaron Cresswell among those desperate to add a spark, Wolves came close to adding a second of their own. Raul Jimenez did put the ball in the back of the net but was rightly denied a goal for offside after chipping Fabianski. Neves and Rayan Ait-Nouri then hit the woodwork within a matter of seconds of each other before Fabianski was forced into a good late save to keep out Adama Traore.
Scamacca arguably had West Ham’s best chance with less than two minutes remaining, rising at the back post to meet a cross, only to head wide.
The deflation on West Ham’s players at full-time summed up this wretched form. They have averaged 0.14 points a game in their last seven league matches, form that only ends one way if performed for too long.
Undoing a positive turn
West Ham had started 2023 with more optimism than how they ended the previous calendar year with five straight losses in all competitions. Eight days ago at Brentford, they followed up a 2-2 draw at Leeds United less than 72 hours earlier with a win in the FA Cup, a platform you would hope could steer the ship back in the right direction.
The game at Wolves was not necessarily a must-win, but a must-not-lose is definitely a fair reflection of the mood ahead of kick-off. With Wolves and Southampton, the sides who started Saturday 19th and 20th respectively, both winning, the Hammers dropped to 18th, and now the bottom three (West Ham, Everton, and Saints) all sit on the same amount of points.
For confidence and the general mood around West Ham, dropping into the relegation zone at the halfway mark of the campaign is poor, especially for a side that finished seventh last season and are already in the Europa Conference League’s last 16, having spent around £160million on eight new signings in the summer.
Next up, Everton at home. West Ham simply have to win that, for the sake of their season, for the sake of building any kind of optimism, and for the sake of Moyes’ future.
Team selection
Despite Kurt Zouma and Scamacca both returning to the squad from knee injuries, there was a surprise in the team selection at 2pm when neither were in the starting 11, with both on the bench.
For Zouma, it made more sense, having not played for two months following knee surgery and an illness on his road to recovery. Meanwhile, Scamacca had only been absent for ten days and in his last game, he scored from 25 yards out away at Leeds.
Another question was over Benrahma, whose goal at Brentford had ex-Irons striker Tony Cottee tweeting the Algerian had to start. Pablo Fornals was preferred to him, which based on his pressing at Leeds, you can understand, but when Benrahma came on, a noticeable difference in tempo and intent was clear to see.
Scamacca came closer in 15 minutes to scoring than Antonio did in the whole 90 minutes. He even teed up Benrahma shortly after coming on the pitch. With Tomas Soucek in the attacking midfield role, it meant that either Fornals or Benrahma had to miss out, when in theory, playing both may have benefitted West Ham, for pace, tempo, and attacking quality.
You would expect Zouma, Scamacca, and potentially Benrahma all to have strong cases to start against Everton next weekend. On form, all three deserve to be in West Ham’s best 11 right now.
Tomas Soucek’s role
For the third game running, Soucek played as the more attacking of the trio in midfield with Rice and Lucas Paqueta, and again, while it allowed Rice and particularly Paqueta to have more involvement in midfield, it kept Soucek away from doing his defensive duties and he struggled to add anything going forward.
In the game, Soucek made eight accurate passes, just eight, as the man tasked with trying to link midfield to attack did very little on the ball, an issue considering West Ham are lacking in attacking quality.
With Soucek’s career record of goalscoring and his physicality, Moyes has tried to use him in the same way he used Marouane Fellaini at Everton and Manchester United, playing a defensive midfielder in an attacking role in a bid to get goals and cause havoc on opposition defences.
There was one Fellaini-esque moment which you could call a plus for starting him there, when he flicked on a Paqueta cross in the first half towards Bowen, which led to a Coufal shot. That was West Ham’s only real chance in the first half.
Barring that moment, Soucek’s role in the No.10 creates more questions than it has answered so far. With the pressing of Fornals or the technical qualities of Lanzini, it would make more sense to play one of those two centrally, with Bowen and Benrahma wide. In the last two games, when Soucek has come off for Benrahma, West Ham have transformed into a much more threatening side.
Said Benrahma decision
Benrahma must be left wondering what else he has to do to keep a starting place in the side.
He is the club’s joint-top scorer in the Premier League, only scorer in the FA Cup, and second in all competitions this term in a side who have lacked the ability to score in domestic competitions this season.
As he did against Brentford, his injection on the hour mark gave the West Ham side a kick up the backside and Wolves’ defence something to suddenly start worrying about.
Fornals, in his place, did not produce a great showing, but there has to be a case for either Benrahma to play ahead of the Spaniard, or they both start and Soucek drops out, rather than West Ham’s most creative player at present being sat on the bench for the first hour of every game in the past few matches.
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