As a ‘must – win’ it was pretty tame. The lack of atmosphere from London Stadium was palpable. 60,000 people waiting to be entertained: Waiting in vain as it turned out until the last quarter. On the positive side, I thought the Hammers defence coped well with limited threat- and it seems Lopetegui has learned his lesson and now doesn’t set West Ham up in some wacky last minute ‘five at the back three in the middle’ style.
With Mohammed Kudus missing the Hammers were always going to be short on style. Sadly this had the feel of one of those dogged mid-table Championship (yes, I meant ‘Championship’) matches with two dreary teams cancelling each other out, certainly until the last quarter.
Paquetá looked more engaged yet still only firing intermittently – his 73rd minute through ball to Summerville was ‘quality’ and our Dutch youngster was unlucky to see his shot rebound off the post.
Danny Ings looked good (yep I surprise myself sometimes, writing that..) when he came on and forced two excellent saves from Jordan Pickford that kept Everton in the game.
Zero-Zero was about right, but so much for this being a ‘must-win’ game.
Lopetegui picked up a yellow card presumably for something he said to an official – full marks to the referee for actually being able to understand what the words were. We should get him into the press conferences as an interpreter.
One hundred and forty million spent to produce that kind of guile-less, huffing and puffing – bland performance- against lowly Everton.
If that’d been my cash I’d be furious and be banging the table in the boardroom demanding answers. Trouble is, I don’t see how it will get any better without a change: Don’t hold your breath.
