Joe Cole brands West Ham United trio ‘unacceptable’ during Anderlecht trip
Joe Cole branded the West Ham back three as “unacceptable” for their “passive” play during the Europa Conference League game at Anderlecht.
Midway through a relatively even first half in Belgium, the home side’s attacker Yari Verschaeren was given all the space in the world to run from his own half towards the Hammers defence, before getting a shot away that Alphonse Areola kept out.
The entire way the three central defenders, Craig Dawson, Angelo Ogbonna, and Ben Johnson, continued backing off until he was left with no other choice but to have a go at goal, and former Irons attacker Cole was less than impressed.
Speaking live at half time of the 1-0 win on the BT Sport match coverage on Thursday evening (6 October, 6.40pm) he said: “Both teams have been very passive in their defending and shutting down. Again, Verschaeren, this is unacceptable, because he’s driven with the ball from his own half.
“The back three have got to engage at some point, they let him go, and he’s got a lovely right foot, a great technical player… he’s the threat.”
Slack
Although David Moyes was able to call on some pretty formidable big guns late on to turn the tide in his favour, in the form of Lucas Paqueta, Gianluca Scamacca, and Declan Rice, there were times the back line threatened to give the game away.
It was a surprise that Verschaeren was able to run so far without being challenged, and if it wasn’t for Areola Fabio Silva would surely have equalised when he rose between Dawson and Johnson with the score at 1-0, after Scamacca’s goal.
Centre-back is a position that has given the manager headaches ever since the preseason, when Nayef Aguerd was ruled out.
That was followed up by an injury crisis, Issa Diop set on leaving, Thilo Kehrer hastily sourced, and then Dawson himself almost moving to Wolves, so Moyes might not have been surprised that his experimental back three left questions to be asked of them.
Kurt Zouma and Kehrer probably didn’t see much to worry them for their Premier League places from the game in Belgium, and while none of the trio were disasters they will need to be tighter to push for a starting spot domestically.
They got away with it against Anderlecht for what was ultimately a decent away performance in Europe, but they took a few chances along the way, and it was only the stunning stop from Areola and the force of three multi-million pound players off the bench that made the difference.
However, they are five points clear at the top of the group and pretty much cruising towards qualification, so in the grand scheme of this turbulent season it has to be seen as a positive.