John Hartson's verdict on West Ham's season opening completely undermined by Oxford fiasco

Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, former West Ham United striker John Hartson believes the club’s players are delivering what the fans want in one aspect, although it was something sorely lacking in their humiliating 4-0 defeat against Oxford United on Wednesday night.

Following a disastrous 5-0 home defeat by Manchester City on the opening day of the Premier League season, the Irons bounced back well and are unbeaten in their five top flight matches since.

The run has included a win against Manchester United and three successive shut-outs defensively, and it hasn’t come through a lack of hard work.

That is something Hartson believes the London Stadium faithful are getting from their players at the current time, and if it continues it can only be good for their chances of enjoying a successful campaign.

“The one thing West Ham fans want to see is commitment every time you wear that shirt and they’re getting that at the minute, and if you put that in with the quality that they’ve got, they should have a really good season,” he said.

Hartson added: “The West Ham fans can accept you having a bad game, they can accept you missing a chance, but what they cannot accept is you not running around, not trying, not tracking back and not going into tackles.

“They just want to see the players absolutely giving everything for West Ham. They’re a traditional, fantastic club and the fans will adore you if you give absolutely everything. If you don’t they’ll spot it a mile off and you’ll soon be shipped out of there.”

Those comments are even more striking given what happened on Wednesday, when a number of Irons fringe players had their chance to stake a claim for a spot in Pellegrini’s preferred starting XI against League One opposition.

Jack Wilshere, Carlos Sanchez and Robert Snodgrass were among the senior players to disappoint at the Kassam Stadium, and you couldn’t say the players on the pitch gave everything to take their side through to the next round – perhaps that’s why some of them aren’t involved in the Premier League.

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They have made their manager’s choice simple for the trip to Bournemouth on Saturday given the players they replaced beat Manchester United 2-0 last weekend.

from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/2nJtl7v