West Ham Defensive Revival Raises New Worry as Bowen and Attack Go Quiet
West Ham’s improvements have rightly drawn praise over the last few games. After all, three clean sheets in the previous four matches show genuine progress at the back.
Axel Disasi, Dinos Mavropanos and Mads Hermansen have all been singled out following the upturn in form — a stark contrast to the porous defending earlier this season.
Ordinarily, a 0–0 draw would be cause for celebration, given the ineptitudes of the Hammers’ defence under Graham Potter. But in the context of our precarious position in the Premier League, it might not be enough.
Because it seems that just as the back line shut up shop, the front line stopped firing — with Jarrod Bowen in particular coming under scrutiny.
Fernandes Calls for More Cutting Edge
It’s something that hasn’t escaped the attention of West Ham midfielder Mateus Fernandes, who was honest in his assessment after the game:
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“We’re very good defensively. Another clean sheet, but we need to score. If we score, we are comfortable defending. We are defending much better. We are doing well, but we need to score our chances. It’s good we’re creating, but we need to work on this part.”
Fernandes wants West Ham forwards to take their chances
He’s got a point.
Not that there were a string of obvious chances. Perhaps Disasi might have scored on another day. Bowen almost sent a football onto the roof of the London Stadium late on, but it was probably Crysencio Summerville who had the best opportunity.
That said, the team have generally scored well this season, and perhaps too much is being made of the absence of Pablo — who, while he may be a miss, is yet to score for West Ham.
The slightly bigger issue is that Summerville has been picking up the slack for Bowen, who has failed to register recently. However, Bowen remains a class act, and he will not stay quiet forever.
With that in mind, I would be very surprised if Nuno Espírito Santo’s side don’t find the net against Liverpool next weekend.