Let me say right away that our performance against Manchester United was nowhere near good enough. It’s easy to say we will bounce back and, yes, it’s a cliche, but we certainly can’t crumble the way we did last Sunday.
We were hoping for a better result and definitely a better performance. In reality, if clubs lose at Old Trafford, it is not the biggest surprise — but definitely we had expected a better performance.
To be fair, had the game finished 2-0 I would still have been upset and angry because of the way we conceded, especially the first goal, when we lost the ball in a position which was developing into a promising one for us. You simply cannot lose the ball there.
Then there was the goal we conceded from the set-piece. We had been practising against such an eventuality three days, two days, even one day before the match — and doing it well. Then, in the match, we did just the opposite.
So, yes, had the final score been 2-0 after conceding goals like that, I would still have been very angry but this was worse, the way we crumbled after that.
Nobody gave up, we didn’t give up individually but as a team we were not resilient enough.
It wasn’t like, “Okay, we want to make it 2-1 but, if not, we will keep it at 2-0”. That’s what I didn’t like.
In Pictures | West Ham's summer signings | 2017-18
Of course, without a few key players, I knew it would be extremely difficult at United but I am talking about things we could — and should — have done better. We should have avoided basic mistakes and we should not have crumbled near the end.
Had they scored in that 15-minute spell in the first half, when they were coming forward in waves, having lots of corners and pinning us back, then we would not have been happy but we would have said, “Fair enough”.
We got through that, though, the waves had stopped and we had two or three times pushed them back. It was then, though, that we conceded that first goal — and you just cannot do that, not when we are building confidence and trying to hurt them.
Since the defeat, some fans have asked why we haven’t played a back three, as we did toward the latter part of last season.
I would say that is Plan B, not Plan A this season but it is an option.
We have players now who can play in the system we employed on Sunday and we have to give it a chance. It would be easy after the first game to change everything — the system, some players — but that’s not the way it should work.
I said in this column last week that United’s physicality, allied to their pace, is scary — and they will do to other clubs what happened to us last Sunday. Tomorrow, against Southampton, will be more of a benchmark, although I expect — and the players do also — good results and performances when we play against the very top teams as well.
The one thing I will be looking for against Southampton, who are a good team and finished eighth last season, is that we are more compact.
I don’t mean that we keep everyone behind the ball but that we should be compact all over the pitch and, most important, not lose the ball too early.If you lose possession with seven players in front of the ball, you will concede goals like we did against United at Old Trafford last weekend.