8 positives from the defeat at West Ham

Huddersfield Town were beaten 2-0 away at West Ham and it hurt to see us lose our first Premier League game. Particularly as Town lacked their usual terrier spirit, and struggled to cope with West Ham’s physical approach. It wasn’t all doom and gloom though. Here are some of the positives from the game…

Town’s fans are building a great reputation

I was at the game, so couldn’t hear how we sounded on TV but my brother said we came across as creating a good atmosphere. From my position in the stands, it sounded like each and every Town fan was singing and cheering the team along. It’s easy to give passionate support to your team when things are going well, but when the game turned against us the singing continued and the players got every bit of support we could give them.

Our vocal support is getting noticed by opposition fans too, with many taking to social media to comment on how well supported our players are. The bond between the fans and the players at Huddersfield has been a major part of our success in the last 12 months. We’re not going to get it all our own way this season, but if the fans keep backing the players like this it’ll give them the extra bit of motivation they need when chasing games.

Despite registering their first points of the season, around half of West Ham’s fans had already left before the final whistle went. It was strange to see the Town players get more of an ovation that the home players, despite being beaten. If someone was trying to guess the outcome of the game based purely on the fans’ behaviour they’d assume Huddersfield Town had won comfortably.
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Even on an off-day we can potentially pick up points

David Wagner acknowledged in his post-match press conference that we weren’t at our best against West Ham, but we could easily have nicked a point or even a win if things had gone differently. As dominant as West Ham were in the first-half, we stood up to their pressure. Our defence dealt with a barrage of aerial balls aimed at Carroll and just about dealt with everything that was thrown at them.

It was bad luck and poor judgement that allowed West Ham to score their first. Zanka shouldn’t have turned his back when charging down the shot, but the deflected goal was harsh punishment for his mistake. Similarly, the second goal was scrappy and had a bit of luck about it. The ball fell very kindly for Ayew to prod home. We conceded so many corners it was always possible they’d fashion a goal somehow but nine times out of ten the ball either drops to a defender or bobbles harmlessly out of the danger zone.

Maybe we didn’t play well enough to deserve anything from this game, but we could still have snatched a point if it wasn’t for a few bits of bad luck.
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Town played better towards the end

Some of our best attacking moves came when we went behind in the game. We managed to get on the ball more, get more possession in their half, and crafted some half-decent chances. Ince’s shot against the bar was the most notable, and there were a few occasions that we opened West Ham up but we didn’t make the most of those chances.

It wasn’t like we came up against a side we could never beat. The performance in the last twenty minutes showed we can cause problems for most teams in this league. We just need to stick to our identity and get after teams.
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Scott Malone did well

Löwe has been excellent in our other Premier League games but he had a poor game at West Ham. Wagner made a good decision to replace him with Malone mid-way through the second-half. Malone looked dangerous when he was on the ball and drifted past West Ham players as he roamed forward.

Malone’s probably been a bit unlucky to be our second-choice left-back until now. We’ve barely had a decent left-back in 20 years, and now we’ve got two. My impression is that Löwe is stronger defensively and Malone is the better of the two going forward.

Based on Monday’s game I expect Wagner will be considering giving Malone a start against Leicester at the weekend.

David Wagner’s comments show how much more we expect these days

Wagner’s press conferences have been all smiles until this game, mostly because things had been going incredibly well. His comments after the West Ham game show how much he expects of his team. He said he was angry and accused his players of not being brave enough in possession.

I admire him for making these comments. Managers will often try to play down defeats to the press. They blame the referee, accuse the opposition of cheating or make up some other rubbish excuse. Wagner gave his honest opinion about the game and showed that he expects absolute commitment from his players in every game.

The fact that Wagner was so disappointed to lose to a side that had a forward line worth more £70m shows how far Town have come in such a short amount of time.
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Expectations can go down a bit

Our fantastic start to the season naturally meant that many fans’ expectations shot up. The defeat at West Ham will mean those predicting Town will qualify for Europe might have to settle down a bit. The #NoLimits approach of Wagner is great for generating positivity around the team, but I think we shouldn’t get too carried away.

I worry that our great start may have made some people so optimistic that finishing just above the relegation zone may seem to be a poor outcome for our season. Seventeenth would be an incredible result for Town this season. It’s not that I don’t think there’s a possibility we could do far better, but it’s important to keep perspective and not expect too much from our team.
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We’re still in an excellent position

Seven points from four games is a good return. Having those points on the board already means there’s less pressure on games against tough opponents. We’ve been top of the league twice. We were the last team in the football league to concede a goal. Wagner was the Premier League manager of the month.

There are such a lot of things going well for Town, so a slightly subpar performance away at West Ham is really nothing to get too worried about.

We’ve only got a few days to wait until the next match

Had we lost against Southampton we’d have had 16 days to brood over the result during the international break. There are just five days between the West Ham game and our next game, at home against Leicester on Saturday. We had to lose our first Premier League game at some point, at least we’ve not got long to wait before we have the chance to get back to winning ways.

Want to read more? Check out the player ratings for the West Ham away game.