Sunday 23 January 2011

Same Old Defensive Frailties

Okay, our job was made so much more difficult by the sending off but, nevertheless, Everton came away with a point because this team cannot defend for their Premiership lives. Before showing the highlights on MOTD last night, Lineker shared two interesting stats: West Ham were, prior to kick off, the ONLY team in the Prem not have conceded a goal from outside the box; and we had conceded more goals from headers than any other team in the Premiership.

Well Everton did score with a shot from just outside the box and didn't score from a header, so why the headline?

Because for the first goal, we had the opportunity to clear the ball but a weak defensive header - from Piquionne? - put the ball beautifully into Barbiegetthemoff's stride and all he had to do was swing his foot. And for the second, somebody made the mistake of pulling Spector back into our penalty box and assigning him defensive duties. That was only going to end in disaster! Sure enough, Spector allowed Fellatio to sucker him and blast home the equaliser. Why don't teams score from outside the box? Because passing and crossing to players inside our box is so easy to do that nobody needs to swing and hope from outside the penalty area!

So where is Wally Downes exactly? He was heralded as a Messiah when he arrived as our defensive coach but like all Messiahs, he seems pretty poor when it comes to crosses - or so the stats suggest. The last 10 minutes of yesterday's game were agony and, in truth, they would have been agony even if Piquionne had stayed on the pitch. The team were always going to go back into their shell and, when we invite a team on, we are a disaster waiting to happen.

Part of the problem is that our midfield are a collection of short arses. Parker, Noble and Boa all come up to Fellatio's chest and Spector, as we know, should not be allowed anywhere near his own penalty box. As a result, teams know that they can pump the ball into our box time and time again and trust simply to the law of averages. Sooner or later it will end up in the net.

It doesn't bode well for Wednesday. Birmingham will look to exploit their aerial superiority and if Cole is ruled out along with Piquionne, we will be horribly vulnerable defending set pieces.

19 comments:

Sav said...

Been clicking a lot again this morning haven't you?!?

ashcloud9 said...

We have no strikers! I'm up for playing Spector up front! the way hes going he could be our top scorer :) and that way he stays away from our penalty box..

Hammersfan said...

12.57 ??????

Sav said...

Ha Ha!! I think you know!!!!!!!

Hammersfan said...

I have no idea.

Sav said...

You have an imposter pretending it's me again (post 12:57).

ashcloud9, we need all the team defending. It is no good having a forward who not only can't contribute the best up front but he is a huge risk when he comes back to defend. Unforunately, Spector is probably the World's worst defender. Credit to AG for finally understanding this and putting him in a position where he cannot do too much damage. But still, he is hurting the team when the whole team is called to defend set pieces. Spector (and also Gabbidon) is an accident waiting to happen in his defensive duties. This is why he should not be playing for West Ham. Despite the fact that he contributes something we are lacking up front in attack.

There is no place for defenders who cannot keep a cool head. The whole line breaks down.

Sav said...

OK, I believe you. Lets just say it's pretty obvious when you have your comp turned on! wink wink!

USA Dave said...

I've decided to be less doomsday about yesterday. If you had offered me a 2-2 draw I'd have taken it. Yes, the way we gave up the win made it feel so much worse. But we looked better than I thought we would. Last year the draw at Everton gave us hope. I still believe we are going down, but perhaps the team will take a lift from it based on the effort and knowing they were the better side.

I'm probably delusional. Oh well.

Hammersfan said...

I know Sav, that's why I refered to him by the time of his post.

Bogus "Sav", I gather you are refering to the number of hits the site is receiving. Must be galling for you. Tell you what, why don't you stop coming here. That will reduce the hit count and you can then get on with your life, oblivious to the success of the site. By the way, you can tell when I visit the site, I post replies, other's comments or articles. I probably account for between 30 and 50 hits per day on the top counter. The bottom counter is set not to count multiple visits, so if I read comments, post, respond, it only clocks up one visit. If you visit 6 articles, it only registers one visit. That's why the 2 counters have "diverged". So you can see how many people visit the site, then comment, then read other articles by referencing the two counters. Clever eh?

Hammersfan said...

Overall it was an impressive display Dave, but the same frailties remain.

USA Dave said...

I am just trying to hold on to something. Makes the pain easier to handle.

Anonymous said...

Hey Hammers, your story seems to have changed regarding the second hit counter. Can't be bothered to route it out but a while ago your explanation for the 2 counters was that one went kaput or some such nonsense. Now you have one which only counts unique visits?

Hammersfan said...

You are right. I did not understand that I had opted differently for the two counters. You live and learn!

Anonymous said...

"the ONLY team in the Prem not have conceded a goal from outside the box; and we had conceded more goals from headers than any other team in the Premiership"

Why the hell hadn't you noticed this? geeez you set yourself up as an expert and then we have to rely on Gary Linker FFS.

Pull your finger out HF you're slipping.

Hammersfan said...

I don't watch all the other games and don't have access to those sorts of stats.

Anonymous said...

You hadn't even noticed that all goals against us have been conceded inside the box.....

Really HF you shouldn't pay more attention. I bet Stani noticed.

Hammersfan said...

I hhad, I just didn't know that we were the ONLY club that hadn't conceded a goal from a shot outside the box.

Anonymous said...

But did you say so? NO

fred149 said...

the goal we let in yesterday wasnt outside the box if you watch it properly it was just inside the box