West Ham played their 4th pre-season game this afternoon in Krottendorf in Austria against their Russian opponents Rubin Kazan.
The Hammers named a stronger starting line-up than yesterday’s game including Adrian in goal.
The back four consisted of Michail Antonio and Aaron Cresswell at the fullback positions and Reece Burke and new signing Havard Nordtveit at centreback. Captain Mark Noble once again anchored the midfield alongside Cheikh Kouyate and young Portuguese star Domingos Quina. Summer signing Sofiane Feghouli started on the right wing with ex Besiktas man Gokhan Tore on the left and Enner Valencia made his second appearance of pre-season in the lone striker role.
The Irons had the first decent chance of the game when a ball clipped over the top set Valencia free but Ryzhikov managed to save the Ecuadorian’s attempt on goal. Once again one of the bright spots for the Hammers was the ex Valencia midfielder Sofiane Feghouli.
Rubin Kazan opened the scoring in the 23rd minute when Akhmetov got in behind the West Ham defence and cut the ball back for an easy finish for the Ukrainian international Marko Devic.
The Russian side then doubled their lead right before halftime when a loose pass from young Irish defender Declan Rice set Belgian U21 winger Maxime Lestienne up and he beat off the challenge from Nordtveit and slotted his shot in the bottom right hand corner of the net. Rice had only been on the pitch 13 minutes after replacing Reece Burke in the back line.
Obiang replaced Domingos Quina at halftime and the Hammers huffed and puffed but couldn’t really break down the Kazan back four and as their legs began to go after playing two games in 24 hours the Russian side took complete control.
The 3rd goal arrived in the 67 minute just seconds after Garcia had struck the post. This time 36 year old former Turkish international Karadeniz beat Adrian after he got a clear run on goal.
Slaven made more changes as the game neared the end but to no avail as the Hammers rarely theatened to get a foothold and the game ended in a 3-0 defeat.
Although Slaven might be disappointed that his side didn’t really get into this game he will be happy that Noble, Nordtveit and Adrian got another 90 minutes under their belts and the players seemed to have come away with a clean bill of health, plus the fact the majority of players just played 2 games in 24 hours against a side two weeks ahead of us in their pre-season preparations.
The Hammers last game of their Austrian tour will be on Saturday against FC Karlsruher and hopefully we will see the first appearances of Carroll and Reid on this tour as it is the club’s last game before their 1st game of the 2016/17 Europa League.
Match Ratings
Adrian 6
Antonio 6
Cresswell 6
Burke 7
Nordtveit 6
Noble 6
Kouyate 6
Quina 6
Tore 6
Feghouli 7
Valencia 6
Subs
Fletcher 5
Martinez 5
Rice 5
Cullen 5
Obiang 5
Samuelsen 5
Browne 5
Page 5
Valencia was terrible. Why on Earth he was kept on for so long I have no idea. We have two really hungry young strikers in Fletcher and Martinez, yet Valencia, who is on his way was prioritised.
Quite bizarre!
Both Tore and Feghouli had their moments and Quina continues to impress.
I watched this game as I did the last one, I was impressed with individuals particularly Quina. As a team we looked like the England squad, lots of possession and nothing in the final 3rd.
As much as i suspect if Antonio was going to be a central striker we would have known by now in a 26 year old, I can’t but help thinking it would have been worth a try in a match like this, rather than prove yet again the failed, not to mention belated insistence of playing Valencia there. Was that a last, last attempt to try to work out if he can actually play there in case we don’t get the replacements we desire? I certainly hope not and I guess it was to assess him in that role in a forward line bereft of experienced talent for next week. Well all we know now is that its a pointless task persisting with him there, whereas we just may have found out if Antonio would be a far better bet filling in there in that Eurp game next week.