I’ve often written about how I am disappointed by the flow of the domestic league season when it is broken up by international breaks. We’ve just endured break number four in this campaign and this was no different. If I’ve got something better to do I’m not averse to giving the international TV games a miss. But this time I watched both England games. What did I learn? Well in the first game apparently England set a record of the number of touches in the first half. Who cares? It was so tedious.
And in the game where Jarrod Bowen started it was so noticeable how it was only Declan Rice who wanted to move the ball in his direction (to the right). Everyone else in the team wanted to move it left to Rashford. And what a waste of time that was.
I couldn’t believe some of the squad choices either. Rashford after a couple of good games as a substitute for Villa? Burn, yes excellent in the air but will be shown up by pacy international forwards in good teams. And Henderson, apparently brilliant in the dressing room? That’s where he should stay. If they believe that then take him on as a coach don’t waste a squad place. Yes, he’s definitely one for the future!
Today’s game at Molyneux takes place on April Fools Day. How many games did we play in the 31 days of March? Incredibly, with the season approaching a climax – just two! Exactly what I mean by the disruption caused by international breaks. It took me a while to recall our last game, but that may just be an age thing! I eventually remembered – we were winning the Moyes derby then conceded an equaliser to Everton in stoppage time. Two more points escaped.
I’ve been supporting West Ham since 1958 and this has definitely been one of the most uninteresting seasons I can recall. For most of this time I’ve been a season ticket holder too. It’s good that we are now resuming after the break but there is not too much to look forward to other than to see what influence our new manager can bring to a squad which we can only assume he will want to overhaul in the summer.
My main footballing interest as a spectator and fan of local games this season has been the Suffolk District League Division Three Under 15s and the Isthmian League North. One of my teams has just wrapped up their second title in three years and the other is battling for a place in the play offs or even perhaps the title to try to move from Step 4 to Step 3 in the non-league pyramid. The football has been good to watch and in both instances none of this interminable retaining possession passing the ball backwards and sideways across the back. The football equivalent of watching paint dry.
With just nine games of the Premier League season remaining this game is probably more important for Wolves than ourselves although I don’t believe there is really any danger of relegation for either. Sixteenth versus seventeenth as the season enters the final few weeks would normally be considered a six pointer and have a lot riding on it. Not this time though. We are 17 points clear of the drop zone and already have enough points. Wolves are 9 clear and won’t need much more to be safe.
The first meeting this season took place less than four months ago and one of the key factors in that game was the scrutiny on the two bosses Lopetegui and O’Neil, neither of whom still have their jobs. I don’t remember a lot about the game other than Soucek scoring with a header, Wolves equalising and then Bowen scoring the winner. They believed that they were hard done by with VAR not finding anything wrong with Bowen’s goal (they believed Mavropanos had committed a foul), and they also believed they deserved a penalty for a push by Emerson. Not exactly a memorable game but few have been this season.
Of course as always I’m hoping that we win, but more than that some good entertaining football where Graham Potter can begin to look to the future. It’s hard to get too excited though isn’t it?