Saturday 14 December 2013

West Ham 0 Sunderland 0 - One of our worst performances ever!

Dear God, that was truly dire and illustrated perfectly the folly of the "all the eggs in one basket" transfer strategy over the summer. No Carroll, no hope. And it's not as if Carroll is a goal machine when fit!

Sunderland could have won 5-0 today and should have won by two or three clear goals. Thank Christ their strikers are as inept as ours and that Poyet doesn't know Fletcher's scoring record at Upton Park. Had the Scot started with Johnson, who also has a decent record record against us, I fancy Blunderland would be heading home with three points tonight. As it was, we had Jussi and the crossbar to thank for a clean sheet.

Going back, we were stretched time and time again, and poor Collins, Tomkins and Jussi must have wondered if they had taken to the field on their own. Poyet's formation meant that we were always outnumbered in the crucial area between the half way line and our back four, and Allardyce seemed to have no idea how to address it. The answer was bloody obvious to me, pull Diame back to assist Noble, and play through the middle via Cole and Morrison, rather than trying to keep the game stretched wide. But, weirdly, Diame spent the whole of the first half ahead of Morrison, and Ravel was completely out of the game.

Second half, nothing really changed. Jarvis came out for the second 45 despite being absolutely inept for 45 minutes, and Mogadon Maiga was spared an early substitution by an injury to Demel, though quite why he was left on when Carlton was introduced was completely beyond me. Joe Cole on the shoulder of Carlton Cole has to be a better option than the footballing vacuum that is Mogadon. But Sam thought differently.

Was there anything positive about our performance, Jussi, Collins and Tomkins apart? Nope. Diame faded. Noble turned circles looking for team mates in space and found nobody. McCartney had our best effort on goal with a miss hit cross. Ravel dribbled up blind alleys. Demel's crossing was terrible. Joe Cole was largely invisible. Carlton looked like Carlton at his worst. And so on and so on.

And Jussi? He made one brilliant save and two very good ones to spare us from humiliation. If Sullivan thinks one signing in January will save us, he is dreaming. And questions must now be asked of Allardyce. This team looks utterly clueless and he has no idea how to change things. Remember, it took a fluke of a goal from Diame to get us started against Fulham and it is difficult to see how this team will score enough goals to survive.

Player ratings: Jussi 9 (it would have been ten but his kicking was awful); Demel 5, Tomkins 6 Collins 7, McCartney 5; Noble 5; Diame 6, Morrison 5, Joe Cole 4, Jarvis 0; Maiga 2 Subs Collison 5, O'Brien 5, Carlton 3

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're going down ,, you're desperate for Carroll to come back and save you and all he will do is get injured after two games back ,,, I can't fucking wait to see wankspam go down

Anonymous said...

You tosser

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your valued opinion. The last sentence just about sums up your intelligence you retarded plank

Anonymous said...

I don't know who the upstart is who wrote that insightful line and and a half....But they are right you know!!

Anonymous said...

Totally agree with all you say,each week it gets worse,we look like a pub team..

Anonymous said...

If you read the threads on other hammers sites there are some delusional posters who think Fatman is the man to get us out of this mess..who got us into it!
I dont enjoy digging out my own team but that "display" is the worse i have seen since Grant.
Each week it gets worse,today at times it was abysmal.
I dont think he will be sacked,just allowed to drag us down with his stoneage football.
If we do go down we wont see Andy for dust!

Anonymous said...

First time I have thought that we have to part company with Allardyce today.

A desperate performance. He's lost the dressing room and his time could and should be up.

I have been a strong supporter of his up to now, bur no longer.

Even his body language today suggested he has lost the fire in his belly for a fight. Quiet strange really.

Maybe he knows something we don't. Whatever, he's got to go, or we go down.

JC

TurdsOut! said...

One signing in January would be a fine thing.......... they'll loan someone - 60+ years of footballing expereince between Karren, Dave and Dave - 100 years if you include the fat one, how bloody foolish do they all look?

Anonymous said...

Diame to assist Noble? Morrison was already sacrificing his game to help mr untouchable. Mark Noble is a curse on this club. About time you come to terms with it

mr 40% said...

did you go.................................erm ......no............worst death ever!