Is Jarrod Bowen the right man to captain West Ham?

He stood an even six feet tall, Billy Bonds. That inconvenient detail did nothing to dampen the gusto with which the West Ham faithful once saluted their former captain – “Six foot two with eyes of blue, Billy Bonds is after you” – and with good reason. Bonds was a colossus, a figure who loomed as large in West Ham’s history as Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, the club’s holy trinity of World Cup winners.

It was Moore whom Bonds succeeded as captain when the England centre-back left for Fulham in 1974, which in itself says plenty about his stature. Not everyone could have filled the boots of the man who skippered his country to victory in 1966. But in every possible sense, Bonds led from the front. On the training runs through Epping Forest that were once part and parcel of West Ham’s training regime. On the pitch, where his commitment was as fearsome as it was total. From the dugout, where he twice led the club to promotion from the old Second Division and masterminded a semi-final run in the FA Cup, a competition he won twice as club captain. 

So as West Ham faced Liverpool on Sunday afternoon with a sense of loss hanging heavy in the east London air following news of Bonds’ death at the age of 79, it fell to the club’s current captain, Jarrod Bowen, to step up.

West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen hails Billy Bonds as ‘best club captain’

The 28-year-old has done that often enough over the course of almost six years and more than 250 appearances in claret and blue, never more memorably than when he scored the winner in the Europa Conference League final against Fiorentina two summers ago to secure West Ham’s first major trophy in 43 years. True to form, Bowen did not let anyone down, speaking in reverential terms of Bonds. 

“It’s a sad day for everyone,” said the England international. “A club legend. Our condolences all go to his family. I know the supporters here will make noise for him today.

“He’s probably going to go down as West Ham’s biggest legend, the best club captain that they’ve had. He achieved so much here. I’ll never emulate that success but to put on the captain’s armband, like he did, for me is a big thing.”

They were fine words from a fine player who rightly commands universal respect at the club. You nonetheless have to wonder what Bonds would have made of Bowen’s ineffectual efforts to prevent the 84th-minute dismissal of Lucas Paquetá, a moment of madness that all but put the game beyond West Ham. As the Brazil international remonstrated with referee Darren England over the award of a foul, earning two bookings in quick succession, Bowen’s attempts to intervene were placid at best.

Could Jarrod Bowen have done more to prevent West Ham’s red card against Liverpool?

With Paquetá still in England’s face gesticulating wildly, everyone could see what was coming. But neither Bowen nor his team-mates responded forcefully enough. They should have been dragging the midfielder away from England, kicking and screaming if necessary. Instead, Bowen made a half-hearted gesture to shove Paquetá aside. The only other West Ham player to get involved was 21-year-old Mateus Fernandes, who did his best to come between his team-mate and trouble. 

Niclas Füllkrug, the experienced Germany international who committed the original offence, was nowhere to be seen, while Greek defender Konstantinos Mavropanos arrived on the scene too late to influence events. Remarkably, as Bowen stood with his hands on his hips, it fell to Alisson to make the most meaningful intercession, the Liverpool goalkeeper imploring his fellow countryman to calm down. Alisson managed to guide the midfielder away briefly before Paquetá returned to seal his fate.

Although Paquetá later apologised on social media for his actions, his attempt to blame the Football Association for his “ridiculous behaviour” only deepened the impression of a team carrying too many players unwilling to take responsibility. 

The Brazilian, who was cleared of spot-fixing charges in August following a two-year FA investigation and bemoaned a lack of psychological support”, may well feel hard done by.

But Paquetá is a key player for West Ham, a talent capable of match-turning moments, as he demonstrated shortly before the hour mark when he went close with a long-range effort. He had only just returned from a one-match ban for accumulating five yellow cards in the early weeks of the season, and will now miss Thursday’s visit to Manchester United. His senseless dismissal was the latest impression of a team lacking on-field leadership.

Questions over Jarrod Bowen’s leadership

It would be unfair to pin the blame solely on Bowen and yet, as club captain, scrutiny has inevitably fallen on the striker. Leadership takes many forms and not everyone can be like Bonds, snapping into tackles, putting their body on the line, subjugating their own talent to bringing out the best in others. On another day, the late effort that drifted agonisingly wide of Alisson’s right post might have gone on, potentially rescuing an ill-deserved point. But as former West Ham defender Vladimír Coufal has remarked, it can be difficult to lead effectively from the top end of the pitch.     

“When you have too many foreign players in the changing room, and they don’t have someone they respect [as captain], it creates a problem,” Coufal told the Athletic. “Jarrod is a great leader and the club would be in an even bigger mess without him. But it’s difficult to lead the team as an offensive player. [Former captains Mark] Noble and [Declan] Rice were midfielders and could see everything. If Jarrod wants to shout at someone, he could be on the other side of the pitch, which makes it harder. Noble and Rice were in the middle, so there was no hiding from them.    

“Noble and Rice used to call team meetings if we were in tough moments. If Noble said something in the changing room, you kept quiet and listened. No one would dare say anything out of respect for him. Rice learned from Noble and became a great captain as a result. Without question, he will be the next England captain.”

For all his undoubted virtues, that is not a role likely to come the way of Bowen, who cannot yet be assured of a place in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the World Cup next summer. A down-to-earth character who has never forgotten his humble first steps as a professional player at Hereford United – “I pinch myself and think, ‘Look how far you’ve come.’ I’m just a little boy from Leominster,” he said in the aftermath of West Ham’s Europa Conference League triumph – Bowen’s captaincy credentials rest more on leading by example than governing through sheer force of will. As demonstrated by his passive response to the slow-motion car crash that was Paquetá’s dismissal, Bowen will never be the one to shout loudest or longest.

West Ham, who went into the Liverpool game with seven points from their previous three games, have shown encouraging signs under Nuno Espírito Santo. But while Bowen is a fine ambassador for the club, leadership remains lacking from the boardroom to the dressing room. The uncomfortable truth is that the club’s best player may not be its best captain. How Nuno could do with another Bonds.