What went wrong?

Everything. Everything was just wrong. The minute the team sheets were announced, I had a gut feeling that this wasn’t going to be an easy game.

We started off with probably a team weaker than that played the Europa tie at Anzhi. Firstly, Naughton shouldn’t be playing LB. It’s just wrong. But he didn’t perform all that bad today. I think he was the only defender actually playing well. Walker was not fit at all. I’m surprised AVB let him play the whole game. I expected him to go out within the first 20 minutes or so as he just didn’t seem all fit.

Our midfield, too defensive. I was hoping we’d stick with one defensive midfielder today instead of the two. It would’ve given us the edge over West Ham while attacking. If we started with Paulinho playing a bit higher up like how he did at the start of the second half, thing could’ve been a bit more different. Dembele looked tired after playing back to back games which means WE NEED CAPOUE BACK THERE. I think once he is back, he will be the only CDM we will be playing with and Paulinho will be playing in a more attacking position.

All of you who thought that Defoe should be starting over Soldado, I hope this game have proven you wrong. Europa League and other cup competitions are way different compared to The Premier League. I’m surprised we had so many crosses in today. Why can’t this be the case when Soldado starts? Yes, I know that they were very tight in the box, but Soldado has the capability to convert into chances from those situations. We had the least number of shots in ages.

What we could’ve done right?

• Substituted Walker within the first 20 minutes or so, got in Chiriches and our back four would be Naughton-Dawson-Chiriches-Vertonghen. It would keep us defensively packed and helped us more in from the wider positions.

• Pushed up Paulinho’s position in the first half during the break (when Jääskeläinen was changing his boots) just to break their defence a bit more.

• Taken more long range shots! The keeper was barely troubled.

• Not start Defoe and Eriksen together. I strongly believe that Eriksen and Soldado AND Defoe and Holtby have great understanding between each other. So, if we started with Defoe, we should’ve gone with Holtby. Similar if otherwise.

• Played wider. It was too crowded in the middle. Whenever we tried playing wide we just crossed it in. Instead, why didn’t we have more players when we did so? WHERE WAS EVERYONE?!

These are just my thoughts on the game. Our worst performance in ages and I hope we don’t see a similar one anytime soon. AVB has alot of work to do. I hope the international break helps him decide the strongest Starting XI for us because he hasn’t played that team yet, at least that’s what I think. But all respect to West Ham for an amazing performance. I think they out played us in every aspect and well deserved the three points. I am just disappointed that we didn’t even give them a fight and just seemed so weak.

If you were AVB, what would your strongest line up be for this season?
This is mine

Lloris

Walker – Kaboul – Chiriches – Vertonghen

Capoue

Paulinho

Lamela – Eriksen – Chadli/Sigurddson

Soldado