West Ham 2 Wolves 1 - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis
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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judah, I'm here with Wolverhampton Wanderers reporters, Mr. Liam Keane from London
00:14Stadium. It finished, West Ham United 2, Wolverhampton Wanderers 1. Liam, slightly better performance
00:19I guess from Winston and I, but ultimately three defeats on the bounce and no points.
00:23Yeah, I think it's definitely better than Everton, it couldn't get much worse, but it
00:27was definitely better. Comparing it to that, it looks like a good performance. I think
00:31objectively it's not an outstanding performance by any means, but I thought Wolves, particularly
00:36in the first half, were disciplined, they were organised, they were compact, they had
00:42some threat going forward. Matt Doherty was fantastic, was his best player in my opinion
00:45on the evening. And it looked like a very good away performance. And even in the second
00:52half they were sparse, but it was a very good away performance, in context. But there's
00:57moments again that this team are throwing away, and it's that first goal again that
01:02absolutely kills them. West Ham aren't really creating a lot. No, fans are getting on the
01:07back, it's perfect for Wolves. West Ham were poor tonight to be brutally honest, and they
01:14get a corner which first of all looks like it's come off Wampasaka, VAR can't intervene
01:18for that, but it looks incredibly unfortunate for Wolves. But regardless of that, you have
01:23to defend your set pieces. 13 goals conceded from set pieces before today, and they go
01:28and concede one straight away, less than 10 minutes into the second half. It's a really
01:32poor one to concede, Suchek is an obvious player to follow, Lamina's trying to get to
01:36him, and Kilman does a very clever job actually of blocking him without fouling him, and giving
01:41Suchek a free header, and then Johnson doesn't really get off the ground, and it's a far
01:46too easy goal from their perspective. Now they weathered a little bit of a storm, got
01:48lucky with the VAR, overturned, and not lucky in the sense that it was wrong, but that West
01:54Ham were on top and had a few chances. And they get themselves back to 1-1, and it's
01:59a fantastic goal, it's a big goal. Doherty as I said, best player on the pitch tonight
02:03in my opinion, certainly in a Wolves shirt, it's created really nicely from Ignoree, it's
02:08a fantastic goal. It was better tonight as well by the way, it's a sign to get back to
02:12the right hander we know. Absolutely, it's a really good goal to get yourselves back
02:15level, and within three minutes you throw it away again. Now it's a bit of quality from
02:18Jaro Bowen, Wolves are unlucky as well by the looks of it, it looks like there's a foul
02:21on Bueno in the lead up to it as well, which VAR doesn't spot. So they've been very unlucky
02:27really from the officials against Wolves, but you have to defend better than that. We
02:30know Jaro Bowen's got quality, we know he cuts in on that left foot, we know how good
02:33he is. He scores against Wolves all the time, you have to stop that shot. Guedes just lets
02:38him go past, Algomes steps off him and it's an easy finish. A better performance, but
02:44one that had the same old mistakes. And two, frustrating penalty incidents as well, penalty
02:49shouts that really if they were given on the field, I think Gary Neal's pretty fuming,
02:52he can understand why. Both of them are push on Guedes that may have been outside the box,
02:56may have been inside the box, they need to have another look at that. And also, what
03:00I thought was, and we saw, we had a great view of it, a clear step on Belagard, one
03:04of those where it goes either way, but if one of those is given in terms of given on
03:08the field by the referee, I think there's not enough evidence to overturn it, and yet
03:11both weren't given and VAR stood them up as well. When your luck's not in, that's what
03:17happens. When you're struggling at the bottom of the table, these are the decisions that
03:19don't go for you, and it continued tonight. Yeah, the PGMOL have said that the Guedes
03:23one was outside the box. Gary was insisting that it was inside and says the contact continues
03:28inside with the push. Not given on field, not given by VAR. And then the PGMOL have
03:34said again with the Belagard incident that it wasn't a clear and obvious error. Essentially,
03:39I don't want to speak for them, but essentially admitting that if the referee gives it, they're
03:43not overturning it. And I think that's right. Essentially, that it's probably the wrong
03:47decision. It probably is a foul. It probably is a penalty. Is it a clanger from the officials?
03:53Probably not. And that's where VAR now attempts not to get involved in a situation. Now, obviously,
04:00we question VAR all the time. I'm not a massive fan of it at all. I would get rid of it in a
04:04heartbeat. I don't think it's a massive clanger, but I do think Wolves fans can feel aggrieved by
04:10that. Look, end of the day, you can dress up as much as you want and improve performance. Yes,
04:14it is. But it's three defeats on the bounce. They've won two games all season. Wolves 15,
04:17played 15, won two. Minus 15 goal difference, nine points. There's a four point gap now
04:23between them and Crystal Palace. It's not good. Gary Neal understands it. He's disappointed. He's
04:29kind of launched, I guess, a staunch defence of himself, being the right man. Disappointed that
04:33he's lost the fans. I think he understands now that maybe he was split before, that he has lost
04:38the fans to a certain extent now. But most importantly to him, he says that he believes
04:42in himself and the players are still behind him. From that performance today, I would say that the
04:47players are still fighting for Gary Neal. If you ask me the same on Wednesday night, I say they're
04:52down tools. But that was a better performance. But at the same time, you go into a huge game.
04:56And I mean a huge game at Ipswich. At this moment in time, Gary Neal will be in charge for that
05:00game. For me, it's a must win. I don't think you can draw or lose that game. I think you've got to
05:04go and win that game. Particularly at home as well. Absolutely. And Gary Neal's position now
05:09is a situation where, first of all, the decision has to be made and that is from the chairman,
05:13Geoff Shee. Are we letting Gary Neal go or are we keeping him? A big part of that decision will be
05:18if they have someone to replace him. If no one's there ready to take the job, there's an argument
05:23that you keep Gary Neal on for Ipswich. The alternative is to give James Collins or Steve
05:27Davis, whoever it is from further down in the club, an opportunity to take the team as an
05:32interim for a game or two. For this particularly big game at home to Ipswich, that's probably not
05:37the move. It's going to be a very interesting few days. Gary Neal is scrapping, clinging on,
05:43fighting for his job. And it remains to be seen whether he will keep him. We know they've been
05:47speaking to candidates. We know their canvassing opinion. We know they're speaking to lots of
05:51different people and considering replacing him, another loss is not going to go in any way
05:58helping Gary Neal to keep his role. And you say the players fighting for him on that performance
06:03and I would agree with that. It was far better in comparison to the lowest ebb of Everton.
06:09But then we've got the scenes after that. I was going to say, he's scrapping for Gary Neal,
06:12they're scrapping off the pitch as well, which is just unsavoury scenes. It is stupid. But Mario
06:19Lamina, everyone loved him last season. He was incredible. The player of the season,
06:25the relationship between him and the supporters and then to see the deterioration, not just in
06:29himself but in his own form as well. I'm sure there's some frustrations there. Scrapping with
06:34Gerard Bowen, scrapping with Totti and pushing him away with the staff as well. It's a horrible,
06:41horrible look. And regardless of your play on that pitch, you cannot be seen to be doing that,
06:46especially, especially if you're a club captain. That's a terrible example. I understand it's hot,
06:50I understand they're emotional, but you're the one who this team and this squad are looking to
06:55lead this team out of the bottom three. If that's the example you want to set, then this team are
07:01banging trouble. Yeah, it starts with Gerard Bowen doesn't it? Looks like someone took the handshake,
07:05escalates stupidly from that, going to the floor. Then goes into him pushing Sameda away as he's
07:11trying to pull him away. Then he pushes Totti as he's trying to help him. Then goes head to head,
07:16head to head with Sean Derry. It's amateur stuff, it's childish, it's stupid.
07:24Now, obviously we don't know what's been said, we don't know exactly the instigator,
07:27we've only got the images of what's happened. Mario Lamina cares about this football club
07:33and he was fantastic, he has been fantastic since he signed. But he's been poor this season.
07:39Poor this season? As much as he cares and as much as he's scrapping and fighting,
07:45do it on the pitch. Don't do it at full time, you've just lost 2-1. Don't do it when your
07:49manager may be losing his job. Don't then give the fans a very half-hearted clap and then storm
07:55off down the tunnel because you're aggrieved at whatever someone said to you. This is childish
08:00stuff. He's too emotional, he needs to get a grip and get his head, collect his thoughts and come
08:07out and play for this football club in the way he played last season. He's a brilliant footballer.
08:11Look, he's going to have to show and he's going to have to...
08:13And he probably will play, by the way, because Xhau Gomez is suspended.
08:16That's what I was about to say, I was about to go on to that. So,
08:17Xhau Gomez is suspended for that game. So, Mario Lamina and Andre, you'd have thought,
08:21I mean, Tommy Dale could come into it as well, potentially, but those two are the people that
08:24you think he's going to start on Saturday in a massive must-win game at Ipswich. So,
08:28he's got to sort himself out because that is pathetic, it's embarrassing, it's disgusting.
08:33In front of all these fans who have paid all this money tonight, who are following them home and
08:37away, home and away, loss, loss, loss. You cannot do that. So, he's got to apologise in the best
08:42way possible on Saturday and put a bloody phenomenal performance on that pitch for 90
08:46minutes because anything less is not good enough. No, you don't apologise. There's no statements
08:50needed. No, I don't need it. There's no social media posts needed. I care, I'm sorry. There's
08:54a performance that's needed. You go out, you perform at Molyneux, regardless of who's in the
08:58dugout, regardless of who you're up against, you go out, you perform at Molyneux and you put that
09:02right. And he's more than capable of that. He's a very, very good footballer. But don't be
09:08squaring up to staff. Don't be giving it the big'un at full-time when you've lost 2-1. Give
09:13it the big'un on the pitch because he's far better than that. He's a very good footballer
09:17and he's letting himself down a bit. And I think he'll know that. He's not a stupid guy. He means
09:22well. He cares about the club and I think he'll know that he got that very badly wrong and it's
09:27down to pressure and emotion and he has to get his head, he has to collect his thoughts.
09:30It felt weird walking to London Stadium this time. It just felt strange. My God, is it going
09:35to be a tough, nervous, difficult, sickening game on Saturday because, look, Ipswich have got some
09:41good players and they can hurt you and Wolves are going to have to be on it and not on it to get a
09:45draw, not on it to come from behind and scrape a point. They have got to win this game. They have
09:50to win this game because it's starting to look pretty dire. It's a massive, massive few weeks.
09:56We talk about on the podcast, it's been a big few months for Wolves. December into January and the
10:01transfer window. But these two games, Ipswich and then Leicester away before Christmas.
10:06Conceivably, very conceivably, Wolves could be bottom of Christmas if these two games don't go
10:11well. With a really good set of fixtures gone and then a start again. And a tough run again.
10:18Wolves are better than Ipswich. They're better than Leicester. However, I still think they're
10:23better than Everton. And look what happened there. They have to be on it. They have to get
10:27the tactical game plan right first of all. The players have got to arrive wanting to put performance
10:31on for the fans and for whoever's in the dugout. It's going to be a really, really big two weeks.
10:36Yeah, ability-wise, they're better. But up there, not so much at this moment in time.
10:40West Ham 2, Wolves 1. For all the post-match reaction, make sure you log on to expressandstar.com.