West Ham Were Lucky

Alan Pardew admitted after the game that West Ham were lucky not to lose to Watford last night,

"If you were a neutral you probably would have said they deserved to win that."

Pardew refused to blame the 5-3-2 system he played last night for West Ham's poor performance. With West Ham's fullbacks pushing forward, Paintsil and especially Konchesky delivered some quality crosses into the opposition box, however this allowed Watford whenever they won the ball to pump the ball into the spaces they left behind. This stretched West Ham's three centre backs and the Hornets looked particularly dangerous from the freekicks, throw-ins and corners they won deep in West Ham's half. Pardew replied to any implied criticism of his formation though by saying,

"We had some extra warriors in the team ... and we had an extra centre half in so the system was okay."

The real reason for West Ham's experimentation with the system apparently could have been enforced, as Pardew revealed, "We were a bit worried about Yossi." So Pardew obviously felt that Yossi was either still not fully match fit or the player was still carrying a bit of an injury. As Yossi came on with 30 minutes to go it seems as if Pardew was ensuring that Yossi is fit for the more difficult game away to Liverpool at the weekend. If so expect West Ham to return to their normal 4-4-2.