Out Played, Out Fought, Out Gunned

Simply not good enough, that would actually be all I need to say in this post.

A West Ham team who were expected to capitulate if we got an early goal - which we did inside of five minutes - was turned into a well deserved 3-1 win for the home side.

How did that happen?

Because quite simply we were out played, out fought and eventually out gunned by a determined and very well organised West Ham side who had the the outstanding player on the pitch - Lucas Paqueta.

If West Ham fans were doubting Nuno's deep defence and quick break tactics they won't be tonight. They worked to a T against a best available Newcastle 11 side who had no answers to the tactic.

Yet again we showed an inability to find a way through a low block, persisting in trying to play our through the two defensive lines almost into the six yard box.

Time and again, for all of our possession, we never got close to a real chance.

The old saying 'if you keep doing the same thing, don't expect a different result' could have been written for our performance this afternoon.

Why did our wingers not go outside of their man and down the line, where were the early crosses, why didn't we have a shot from the edge of the box instead of constantly playing square balls across it?

For example; Anthony Gordon slaughtered his Benfica FB and marker by knocking it past him on the outside and killing him with speed,

Yet, with a wide open space in front of him early in the game he goes inside on the half way line, gets dispossessed, and from the break we nearly conceded a goal.

The classic way to beat a low block is to use speed on the flanks and early crosses, especially when we have big Nick Woltemade in the middle.

Playing tippy tappy passes across the lines is hand feeding a well organised defensive block and we not only well fed the West Ham defensive lines, we gorged them.

All three goals were avoidable

For the equaliser - why did Nick Pope punch the cross when under no real pressure? It was a simple catch.

And to compound that mistake, he tried to parry the resulting Paqueta shot with both hands which shortened his reach. If Pope had gone with one hand he would have extended his reach and easily got a full hand on the ball.

For the second goal - saying the deflection off Botman was unlucky avoids the real issue that the deflected cross came through ball watching by Burn and Gordon which left acres of space for their winger to run onto a through ball.

The third goal - this was the classic case of a team pressing high for a late goal getting caught wide open on a quick break. It happens time and again, not just to us, but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow.

No excuses before the match & none accepted after

West Ham to their credit never let their heads go down after conceding early.

They pressed high up the pitch, hounded every Toon player on the ball, and in Paqueta they had a player who we simply didn't have an answer to. For a player supposedly wanting away he was majestic and outstanding from start to finish.

But, that didn't give West Ham the right to dominate the best chances created and always look the most likely to team to score.

In fact - but for the width of a post and a toenail West Ham could have had, and deservedly so, scored five goals against a defence that John Anderson on Radio Newcastle before the game described as looking "rock solid".

In summary...

This was the performance, score and result that on the one hand wasn't in the script, but on the other hand given our poor away form, wasn't a total surprise.

'Wasn't a total surprise' is the most concerning part of the above paragraph,

We are already ten games into the season with only three wins and four defeats.

Unless we start winning consistently, and especially away, the task and ambition of qualifying for the CL again will become a mountain to climb.

Am I being too critical or do you agree?

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