Wolves Fans' Verdict v West Ham: A shocking performance

Clive Smith

At least I didn't have to spend three hours driving home after the game. There is nothing special about West Ham, but like every game in the Premier League, you have to turn up and compete. We did not.

Did we miss pre-season? Are we tired after last season? Whatever the reason we looked well off the pace, our back three in particular.

We were out-run, out-muscled and outnumbered from one end of the pitch to the other. The other worrying thing was the apparent negative body language from the moment we went behind. Boly, Saiss and Traore in particular.

Everything looked to be a struggle. Ending games strongly has been part of our identity, but we have conceded in added time in our last two games.

Dwelling on individual players would not make for an easy read. We did however catch sight of four of our new signings and they will hopefully take us forward in a good way. Judgement on them can wait a while.

Patricio made a couple of decent saves but had minimal help from he's colleagues. MOTM was Neto who was the one who tried hard throughout and was our only hope in the final third.

Nuno has a busy week ahead. He, and we, are not used to results like this. His approach would be interesting - does he tear a strip off them, or does he offer words of encouragement and find a positive spin. If it's the latter, then I could do with a dose of that positive spin too.

Adam Virgo

A catastrophic result and performance against a side we beat comfortably the last four times we’ve played them.

It’s not as if we’ve just been battered by a top, top side where you hold your hands up, accept they’re the better side and move on. We got battered by a team that finished 16th last season and it should have been more than four if not for Patricio.

The fact Rui Patricio was arguably our best player tonight in a 4-0 defeat says how bad the game really was from our perspective. The defence looks shambolic right now and it’s clear we need a top centre half.

Moutinho and Neves together just doesn’t work, neither of them are runners, neither of them get in the box and it’s not as if any of them are physical. It’s too soft like they both just want to control a game or pass it. Dendoncker is badly needed in that midfield, hence why against Sheff Utd we didn’t get massively overrun in midfield.

Saiss and Vinagre on the left hand side is just laughable. Zero defensive awareness, Bowen absolutely terrorised them all night. Whenever the ball went down that side, I think every wolves fan was panicking because West Ham were creating chances so easily.

We created next to nothing and a massive reason for this is because we just give the ball to Adama and pray he can do something. When we finally get the ball into the box it’s just Raúl in there against five opposing players so they just cleared it with ease.

Such a pathetic and embarrassing performance, we literally just lay down and let West Ham do whatever they wanted. Next few games are absolutely crucial now because we have to bounce back quickly from this.

Rob Cartwright

This was probably the worst Wolves performance we have seen since Nuno took over. We were simply awful. The defence were terrible and looked shaky every time West Ham ventured towards our box. The midfield were too slow when in possession of the ball, allowing West Ham to defend in numbers.

We failed to use our pace on both wings, meaning little supply to Jimenez.

We were very poor in the first half, for the second game running, but this time we saw no upturn after the break. You have to question how long we can play Moutinho and Neves together as they are too similar, in style and pace. We needed the box to box midfield trooper and Dendoncker Is the closest we have to that man.

Boly is looking out of sorts playing out of position to accommodate Saiss. Saiss has been playing well, but it really cancels out his impact as Boly as been the mainstay for so long.

I was not happy with the free kick resulting in the first goal, but there is no point discussing this when you have conceded four (it could have been a few more too).

West Ham played very well and exploited our weaknesses fully.

Collectively this was a very poor display. The only players to come out with any credit were Semedo for his debut; Hoever also looked good for his 20 minutes; my man of the match is Neto who at least tried to create chances by running at their defence, when in possession of the ball.

All in an extremely disappointing Sunday night. We need the new players to settle quickly and a bounce back against Fulham next week. The close knit team of the last two years has been broken and we need the new players to bond quickly now.

Russ Evers

Thankfully supporters are not allowed into grounds at present so the silver cloud is the £100 or so saved on this non-adventure to West Ham.

Against Sheffield United we came out of the blocks like a steam train and for the majority of the second half against Man City we pushed further forward and moved the ball quicker with far more penetration and quick thinking.

Unfortunately we played against West Ham like we did during the poorer parts of the aforementioned games and for the whole of the Stoke league cup tie. Too many slow and short passes and too many players waiting for things to happen or for others to win the ball.

We appeared to be socially distant all over the pitch allowing West Ham the room to move and they poured through the gaping holes we offered them. Only Neves and Patricio and at a push, Neto were anything like half decent-the defence just doesn't seem at ease with Boly on the right especially when Saiss was having a nightmare and we badly missed Podence in attack.

Overpowered, out thought and outplayed all over the pitch and as worryingly West Ham seemed to want it more. A few of the team looked short of the tunnel-visioned belief that is required at this level. Nuno needs to re-ignite the spark and quickly!