Friday 20 October 2017 22:38, UK
Three problems facing Slaven Bilic after seeing West Ham fall to a 3-0 home defeat to Brighton.
West Ham were the favourites to beat Brighton at the London Stadium on Friday night but were beaten 3-0 and deserved no more from the game. First-half goals from Glenn Murray and Jose Izquierdo punished the home side for their slow start and things did not improve.
Booed off at the break, Slaven Bilic's side showed little more creativity after the interval and the game was over when Murray slotted home a third from the penalty spot. The result means the Irons drop two places to 17th spot - just two points above the relegation zone.
Here, we pick out just three of the problems facing Bilic as he looks to turn things around…
Joe Hart provided an assist last weekend for West Ham's opener at Burnley but the only goals he was involved in on Friday ended up in his own net. There was little he could do - or even try to do - for the first but Hart should have stopped the second. Izquierdo struck it sweetly but Hart got a hand to it and will be disappointed to have merely palmed it in.
The loan signing of the England No 1 was seen as something of a coup for West Ham in the summer. But any calls for him to return to Manchester City have been ended by Ederson's impressive performances and the lingering belief that the 30-year-old goalkeeper was a cut above a mid-table Premier League team is dwindling. West Ham need more from him.
While the goals conceded were a major part of the problem, the failure to score at home to Brighton shows that there are issues at the other end of the field too. With Andy Carroll suspended following his red card at Burnley, Bilic reverted to Javier Hernandez as the lone striker but that requires a very different style that West Ham never looked like producing.
It looks like a bunch of players thrown together.
The chopping and changing is not helping. In fact, West Ham have made more changes than any other side in the Premier League except Liverpool and that showed against a well-drilled Brighton team. "It looks like a bunch of players thrown together," Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports. Bilic must find a settled side, style and system if he is to get West Ham going again.
One player who already seems to symbolise the issues at the club is Marko Arnautovic who was substituted to a chorus of boos during the second half. A £24m signing from Stoke in the summer, the Austrian was expected to add much-needed quality in the final third but instead produced a desperately poor display. He has more red cards than goals this season.
A lazy swing of the left boot when well placed to cross early in the second half drew a particularly angry response from the crowd. "That is so poor," said Carragher. "The big question mark throughout his career has been the mental side. There is not a lot coming from him with the ball or without the ball." Unfortunately, that criticism applies to too many West Ham players right now.
