Leon Osman says individual errors could mean West Ham miss out on Champions League
Leon Osman is concerned that individual errors could lead West Ham to miss out on the top four this season.
West Ham were beaten by Newcastle on Saturday and all three goals were conceded due to mistakes, with Craig Dawson also getting sent off due after he carelessly gave the ball away.
Osman noticed it is a trend that started last week against Leicester, and he suggests manager David Moyes will not be happy with the mistakes made.
On BBC’s Match of the Day, he said, “Strange for a David Moyes side, he doesn’t like to give goals away and he certainly doesn’t like his team to make individual errors but they’re just starting to creep into West Ham’s game.
“If you’re going for a top-four challenge you can’t afford to give opposition goals.
“We’re talking about a West Ham side that have conceded the most shots against them in the last five games.”
Cutting out errors
A return of 11 goals conceded in five games means our defence has dipped in form recently and that simply needs to stop.
We dominated Leicester and looked comfortable until Arthur Masuaku lazily passed to ball to Kelechi Iheanacho to score.
Newcastle too posed us few problems until the pivotal moment in which Dawson was sent off, which ultimately led to Issa Diop’s mindboggling own goal.
Lukasz Fabianski then gifted another goal but we still found a way back into the match, which is a positive, however if we defend like that against Chelsea we will be ripped apart.
That match is vital to our Champions League ambitions – a defeat there would make qualification a tough ask.
Cutting out mistakes will be crucial to getting something, and it is worrying we did not improve on Saturday despite Angelo Ogbonna coming back in the side.
However, if Moyes can simplify things once more that could make us tough to break down and therefore hard to beat once again.
In other West Ham news, footage of a West Ham star at full-time against Newcastle will irritate many Irons.