West Ham Fan View: Three things learnt from the Hammers' defeat to Newcastle

Newcastle United 3-0 West Ham United. The start to the Premier League season goes from bad to worse for the Hammers. Here are three things that we learnt from the game…

Declan Rice may not be back for a while

Declan Rice was rewarded with three starts following his cameo against Manchester United and this was well deserved. But it was not the confident performance that had been previously displayed by Rice on show today, rather the opposite.

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He was at fault for Newcastle’s opener, taking too long on the ball in midfield which led to him losing it in a dangerous position. Slaven Bilic brought him off at half-time and with Cheikhou Kouyate now back from injury and the likes of Pedro Obiang on the bench, we may not see Rice start for a while.

Slaven Bilic’s days appear to be numbered

It did not help that we started the season with three consecutive away games. We expected it to be difficult. But the performances in these games have been a repeat of what we saw last season when we went on long winless runs. Nothing has changed.

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Once again, our defence lacked organisation and we were far too open, allowing Newcastle to create numerous chances and they should have scored more than three goals. Signing Pablo Zabaleta and Joe Hart has changed little and it is clear that Bilic’s tactics are not working. It is no surprise that we have conceded 10 goals in our first 3 games. Yes, players have made individual mistakes but we lack a plan B when falling behind and that comes down to Bilic.

Should we not win our first home game against Huddersfield following the international break, should Bilic be replaced?

West Ham have to go back into the transfer market

There are only five days left of the transfer window and it is clear that the club have to go back into the transfer market. We have already signed four big-name players but the gaps in our squad are evident. We have continued to concede goals and a new CDM is desperately needed.

Our midfield has been easily overran and outplayed in many games. William Carvalho has been heavily linked in recent days and he would be a great addition. Given our history in the transfer window, it’s difficult to see this taking place but something has to change, and fast.