I accept that there are not a lot of quality defenders around at present - how else can you explain a team BUYING Titus Bramble? But surely there must be somebody out there who is better than Gabbidon and Reid?
If we start with either Reid or Da Costa alongside Tomkins against Liverpool, the chances of us keeping a clean sheet are close to zero. That means we start the game needing to score at least twice to win it; in fact, we probably need to score three to emerge with maximum points! Tell me, when was the last time we scored three goals against Liverpool ? Well, a famous Cup Final apart!
You have to go back to May 10, 1995! Our team that day read:
Miklosko
Breaker Potts Rieper Dicks
Holmes, Bishop, Moncur, Hutchison, Hughes
Morley
Hutchison scored twice and Holmes also made it on to the score sheet. It shows how far the game has progressed because, as poor as our current crop are, I would back them to beat that team nine times out of ten. In fact, I reckon only Ludo and Dicks would make it into our present team!
Unfortunately, the Liverpool team we will play at the weekend, even if Gerrard is unavailable, will be better motived and organised than the side that strolled into Upton Park in 1995 for a dead rubber fixture that amounted to little more than an end of season friendly for the Reds. Victory took us to 50 points, 5 points clear of fourth from bottom Palace who were relegated to adjust the Prem down from 22 to 20 teams.
I expect us to score against Liverpool on Sunday but do I fancy us to score three? I'll get back to you on that one!
Sullivan reckons our forwards will fire us to safety, claiming, "The combination of the imposing Demba, Carlton Cole and Frederic Piquionne will menace any defence." What he forgets is that even 'Arry's wife could menace our back four! A curmudgeon might also point out that he didn't even list Keane, which begs the question why we bothered to sign him instead of a quality centre half!
Sullivan reckons our forwards will fire us to safety, claiming, "The combination of the imposing Demba, Carlton Cole and Frederic Piquionne will menace any defence." What he forgets is that even 'Arry's wife could menace our back four! A curmudgeon might also point out that he didn't even list Keane, which begs the question why we bothered to sign him instead of a quality centre half!
Not a case of being wise after the event. Plenty of us were crying out for defensive re-enforcements in January. I said weeks ago that if Tomkins was injured we would go down and I still think that's a racing certainty.
ReplyDeleteAs regards the team from 1995; I'll take Miklosko, Breacker, Dicks and either Potts or Rieper to play with Tomkins and I'll also have Moncur and Bishop in midfield. Are you seriously suggesting that only Ludo and Dicks would make our current team?
Nice pictures of Bobby Moore on "Who ate all the pies". Having worn claret and blue since 1962 they bring back some lovely memories.
Breaker? No way! Potts was a superb player but in the modern game we would concede from every set piece given all the giants in the Prem. He was too short to play centre back even then! Who would you drop to allow in Moncur and Bishop? Anyway, to include Bishop, you would have to play Morley to avoid upset!
ReplyDeleteBreacker over Jacobsen every day of the week. OK, take Rieper to play with Tomkins. Potts was one of my all time favourite hammers and if he had an extra four inches he'd have played for England; bit like me really, if I'd had an extra four inches I too would have played a starring role!
ReplyDeleteIn midfield it's more a case of who would have played in midfield with Bishop and Moncur as opposed to the other way round.
Come on, Bishop and Moncur never even came close to playing international football. Bishop was lightweight and gave away the ball far too often. He wouldn't survive in the modern Prem. Moncur was combative but lacked true class. Both would be playing for QPR in the Championship if they were still in their prime. Upson is better than Rieper!
ReplyDeleteHere's a stat for you, Moncur played as a sub for West Ham 47 times and was replaced when starting 43 times - he only started 156 games!
ReplyDeleteOh and he failed to finish another 3 games due to red cards! He also collected 64 yellows! And the refs were much more forgiving in those days!
ReplyDeleteBishop could pass a ball, which is more than our current midfield can do with the occasional exception of Noble; I thought I recently saw you singing his praises? Moncur was combative but lacked true class? Sounds like Parker; I'll take Moncur. Upson is better than Rieper? No way!
ReplyDeleteYou know what Maggie Thatcher did with statistics and you know where you can put them!
ReplyDeleteWould you still be sending all those poor sods down coal mines?
ReplyDeleteAs for Bishop, I liked him almost as much as Morley did! It was those long flowing locks, I always thought he would make a great ladyboy! He was a lovely player but in the modern Prem would be bullied out of the game, not because the tackling is so fierce but because you are closed so quickly and the game is so fast. Of his time, I'm afraid. And as our team sheet shows, there is much more quality in the Prem now. Even you are only making a case for four of that team, and we are second from bottom, so 7 of the current team are superior, by your estimation, to that team in 95. What is true of us is true of all the other teams!
Bloody hell, if football is not what it was then maths certainly isn't! Ludo, Breacker, Rieper, Dicks, Moncur and Bishop makes six by my reckoning!
ReplyDeleteYou can't judge players by how they may have played today. By that reckoning you could say that Moore Charlton etc. would not have made the same impression. You have to look at how they did in their day. In the same way that you can only beat the opposition in front of you.
By the way, my kids have weekend jobs going up chimneys!
ReplyDelete20:14 perfect sense el martillo!
ReplyDeleteBecause there are non-footballing people making our footballing decisions for us HF. And the owners want to spend the minimum on the playing side with all efforts concentrated on the OS and other ventures. The recent marriage (oppose to a fling) with the bottom of the table forced their hand a bit. Probably too little too late.
ReplyDeleteDa Costa and Gabbidon are not that bad.
Cole looked sharp in the Europa and will link well with Suarez. Suarez will kill us. 1-3
I think you're being a bit harsh on Moncur HF. I'd have him over Noble any day.
"sending those poor sods down coal mines"? Yes I bloody well would! At least they'd be poor sods with a job, living in a thriving community. Poor sods working with pride to bring to the surface the massive coal reserves that still remain below the sod of our country.
ReplyDeleteI might be a funny looking self obsessed little twat, but I was bloody well right wasn't I? That cow Thatcher ruined this country, what price a bloody manufacturing industry now eh?
Go to Coalville, AS, see a town that used to be dominated by the pit reborn as a thriving, healthy, middle England town. Leave the coal beneath the sod where it belongs and keep the men above the ground until they die of something other than cancer of the lung!
ReplyDeleteWell, well, well - You "Expect" to score against us tomorrow do you? Lots of luck considering the number of goals we've conceded since Sunday January 16th in the League AND Europe - A grand total of SEVEN games now - Guess how many goals we've let in? ONE and that was offside. So you think you can succeed where Stoke, Fulham, Chelsea (away), Wolves and Sparta (twice) ALL failed? And where Wigan had to act illegally to succeed? OK. Lots of luck.
ReplyDeleteTell you what I expect? I expect us to grind out a 1 or 2 goal win and completely close down your midfield whilst cutting you to shreds on the counter attack (which we do VERY well nowadays) as we did a couple of seasons back in May 2009. Maybe we won't win 3 - 0 as we did that day but I'm confident we WON'T concede as long as we don't make stupid defensive mistakes and under Kenny & Steve? We don't make such mistakes anymore.
This is because, You see if ANYTHING has REALLY changed about us since Roy fumbled his way to defeat at Blackburn and out of a job in an embarrassing amount of time at Anfield? It's our organisation, defensive strength and methods of defending - In other words we actually DEFEND now rather than running about panicking and looking/acting as though the ball's a grenade as we did under Roy and occasionally at the end of Rafa's time here.
As it is - You might have smashed 5 past Burnley on Monday night and well done to you - But a PROPER defence? Is a different matter entirely. Should be a good game anyway - Normally IS when we come to Upton Park - I seem to remember our last meeting there was a real cracker with a wonder goal by a certain blonde Iberian traitor if I remember rightly? Certainly they're normally better games than the white flags you lot raise at Anfield and we do on MOST away trips to London - Here's to a good joust once more tomorrow............
Good to see you looking in again Redshadow. King Kenny's doing rather well. Hope the wheels come off tomorrow though!
ReplyDeleteThank You Hammersfan - I WOULD have posted here more regularly recently but I've been going through a shall we say 'Turbulent' patch in my own life recently so quite Frankly have had LITTLE time to myself never mind to post on the 'Net. As to tomorrow's match? Let's just say I disagree with your view about wanting our wheels to fall off and leave it at that no? In short we'll agree to DISagree yes?
ReplyDeleteBest of luck for the REST of the season though - I normally enjoy our games and watching you when you're NOT playing us - I particularly have taken a liking to your regular habit of embarrassing the Red Mancs and getting RIGHT up Ferguson's nose whenever he believes easy victories are assured only to come Crashing down to Earth in spectacular fashion !!! LOL Long may that little habit of yours continue.............
Hope you are through the turbulance mate. Life is a long haul flight and every now and then the ride gets bumpy for all of us. But once through it, the sky is damn beautiful!
ReplyDeleteCheers Hammersfan that 'sky is beautiful' sounds Suspiciously like the Liverpool Anthem if you rearrange/change a few of the words ('Golden Sky' etc) You SURE you're not going soft on us mate? LOL
ReplyDeleteNo seriously - Afraid to say I'm not quite through the 'turbulence' yet and have a bit to do before I WILL be but am just hanging in there, grinding away and doing my best to vault all the obstacles put in my way (the 'turbulence' involves custody of my boy - ALWAYS an emotive subject) but not QUITE done yet - Although things are looking a LITTLE better than they did a few weeks ago so you never know...........
Good luck but keep in mind, at ALL times, that the boy comes first. Remember the Judgement of Solomon. A child can be cut in two emotionally as well as physically. Sorry, it is one of the few areas I will preach on. Marriage is hard for the adults, separation is harder on the childen. Hope you find a resolution mate.
ReplyDelete