Trailing to Jarrod Bowen’s goal early in the second half, Iraola turned to his bench with forwards Justin Kluivert, Kieffer Moore and Antoine Semenyo all introduced. Cherries eventually carved out an equaliser, Dominic Solanke tucked home after latching onto Semenyo’s wayward shot. Reflecting on the 1-1 draw,
Andoni Iraola said: “The first half for me was too slow. We were on the ball but we weren’t really creating chances. We improved after. Especially in the second half I think we were more direct, because we couldn’t find spaces in the middle. It’s difficult, especially when we were losing the game, we closed everything inside and we had to go through the outside, play a little bit more direct, crossing, and I think we were better when we did this. With Kieff, with Justin, with Antoine, who helped us a lot. In the second half, I think we finished better. I think we were better when we were more direct. We had to go more direct and we ended the game with Kieff and Dom up front, with Justin and Semenyo. The four of them could be a number nine. It was risky, but we were losing. At the end Joe (Rothwell) and Phil had to cover a lot of space. But I think once the game opened a little bit and we were more direct and there were more spaces for everything, I think we were better.”
Asked if he got the performance he expected from his side in his first competitive game in charge,
Andoni Iraola added: “You always expect to play very good and to win the games. But for sure West Ham expected the same. There were some positives, but also some things that we have to improve. I was quite critical with the team during half-time, because we were moving the ball very, very slow. They were just shuffling and sliding and we couldn’t find spaces. We improved in the second half, not as much as we’d like, but I think we were in the positive tendency.”
