Let's put this result into perspective. Watford lost 3-0 at home to Southampton a couple of weeks back and have been shipping goals at a rate of knots lately. But did we stretch them? Barely. Yes we hit the bar, early doors, yes Faubert missed a couple of good chances, but apart from that, the keeper had a relatively easy night. We were dreadful, and Watford actually had the best chance to win it.
The worry is that Reading are now breathing down our necks and that teams have seen how easy it is to frustrate us at Upton Park. Faubert is back to his awful worst, Allardyce doesn't seem to trust Taylor to last longer than 60 minutes, Nolan and Noble can't be paired in a midfield four, Baldock is low on confidence in front of goal, Maynard looks crap and all in all, we are unimaginative, uninspiring and uninspired.
Yes we are still second but just as with the victory at Blackpool, all the good work done away to Cardiff has been undone by our dreadful home form. Where do we go from here? To be honest, I don't know. Allardyce has his squad and is intent on playing Nolan, so we have to set up 4-5-1 / 4-3-3. The trouble is, only Cole can lead the line and he is not a Lambert, he doesn't score enough goals. Allardyce will blame the forwards again no doubt but he signed Baldock, Maynard, Vaz Te, Nolan and Carew so it's his fault if we can't score.
We were crap again tonight and got what we deserved. No hang on, we got one more point that we deserved!
18 comments:
The difference bewteen the Watford team we whacked and tonights squad - Tomasz Kuszczak - the Man United goalkeeper on loan. He signed with them on 21st february, and tonight he saved five shots from Noble, Faubert, Baldock, Tomkins and Vaz Te. Only one more was needed for us to win. Also, notice the absence of Cole and Maynard from that list of shots.
If G&S are not planning on spending in the Premier League, we should just stay where we are.
Simply not good enough.
Nolan was utter shite again. When Nolan was absent all you heard every person saying was how west ham looked better and how Noble was leading by example and controlling the game I havent heard that about Nolan once all season and he just simply has to be dropped. Whats worse is with the money we wasted for nolan we couldve bought players like wittingham and lallana at the beginning of the season. BFS is a poor manager and the only benefit of us staying down is we will most likely end up with di canio as manager now he knows hot to make his players work for a result and they know ho to find the back of the net. He also seems to have good judgement of players as swindon have a couple players who could cut in the championship one of which is matt ritchie
Why can't we not play three forwards at home? I just don't get it. We invite pressure rather than making the away team run for cover. It is ok to play like this in our away games, but why at home? I just don't get it. Unless it is true that Sam Allardyce only knows one way of playing the game.
Utter Crap? you shouldn't be so hard on yourself HF you're not that bad.... oh hang on wait a minute, on reflection you actually are!
I see you've purposely once again omitted to post the good news.
It has been reported that Portsmouth now have enough finance to see out the rest of the season....so that's SEVEN points for us tonight then!
Glass half full HF, glass half full!
Anony-mouse says,
Just back from the game.
We played with nine men tonight. Faubert has improved this season (not hard I know) but against Palace and again tonight he was shocking- I'm not even sure what you would call the position that he played in. After Sunday when Nolan looked the part and fitter he reverted to type. He is so slow and sucks the energy out of the team.
Only when Vaz Te came on did we look at all dangerous. The goal aside, he showed excellent movement and you could see the Watford defenders were wary of him. He has to start on Saturday. Baldock did OK when he came on - I like how he brings other players into it. Certainly we looked more lively and likely with him and Vaz Te on the pitch. Maynard looks short on confidence- and not the sharp player we know he apparently is. He missed a sitter early on.
If we play 4 4 2, Nolan cannot be accommodated - the game passes him by and leaves Noble having to do the work of two men. He has a role to play- in 4 5 1's away from home. I worry about Morrison as I suspect the first manager to face him will tell his players to hit him hard and early to get him to go all Moss-side and get himself sent off, but we are crying out for a creative midfielder who has the skill to unlock defences.
These results will happen to us, Reading and Saints in the next few weeks so we need to roll with it and make up for it on Saturday. COYI!
Beacuse the opposition then boss the midfield Sav and we can't get the ball to the forwards.
every time we have a chance to capitalize we bottle it,i'd never thought i would feel more happy west ham playing away,i can see reading nicking a promotion spot and us in the play offs at this rate,pissed of to say the least!
So the real black hole is the midfield then, if I understand you correctly HF? I don't disagree with that. Be that as it may, when we play at home we should show a little more aggression and ambition going forward. Moreover, the team should be playing as a unit (whether we are defending or attacking). So, something is not working right with Sam's teams. There is no balance or coherence if you like. You change one or two players, or one or two are not on form, and the whole thing falls down like a pack of cards.
As Stani says, we should worry more by the fact that we do not seem to have a team that is capable of survining in the Premier League. If we can't have that, then what is the point of getting promoted? We might as well stay in the Championship.
By the way, how about my Cypriot team APOEL getting into the last 8 of the Champions' League last night. They only have a budget of about €9 million Euros you know. But they do play as unit and do not lose their shape. Moreover, they dare believe that they can beat teams with 10 or 20 times their budget. We need a bit of that spirit at West Ham and I dare say a Manager who can make the players believe they are capable for a lot more.
HF Factoid #2:
HF once requested that the IOC recognize Bikini Beekeeping as a professional sport. They didn't!
I just don't know what it is about Upton Park but for a good few years we just don’t seem comfortable playing there. If we're not in the lead within the first 15 mins then yes the crowd can get on the players backs but I really can’t see how this has such a negative impact. These are professional sportsman & before everyone goes "yes but they're still human" they've lived with pressure all their lives, they've lived with being the best kid at school, the one that everyone wants to kick lumps out of because they're the best, they've lived with YTS schemes and scholarships where there’s 30 kids & maybe only 1 or 2 will make it professional, they've lived with playing reserve team football & shining above others to get themselves into the first team. Pressure, pressure, pressure is what they've been bought up on yet a few irate fans can seemingly turn them to jelly? I just don’t get it.
I was intrigued by Sam’s post match comments, last week against Palace the players got booed off after a 0-0 draw, Sam comes out & says the players aren't happy & they don’t deserve that. Last night the players got booed off after a 1-1 draw with Watford yet he comes out after this game saying the players have a duty to step up to the mark & they didn’t do so. Please tell me the difference between the 2 games? It all smacks of a little bit of desperation to me.
Too many players simply didn’t perform last night, you see it, I see it, yet the manager cant. Faubert was truly awful yet he stayed on the pitch for 90 minutes, why? Why was Taylor the one to make way for Faubert? Taylor may not have done much last night but he sure performed better than Faubert & knowing the amount of injury time to be added was around the 10 minute mark why would you not keep the man who is the best set piece taker in the club on the pitch? There are 2 wide players there, 1 having a nightmare & 1 not playing particularly badly but not really involved too much. I can’t even see the quandary for Allardyce if it were just those facts but considering one of those players is capable of scoring or at least assisting with any set piece yet he's the player who's taken off is absolutely farcical. I'm disillusioned by the whole thing.
Nolan and Noble cannot play together in a 2 man midfield, it’s been blindingly obvious all season yet still we persist, same tactics & same long ball crap. The ball was repeatedly pumped long all night, I could understand it if you had a 5 man midfield with 3 central players to feed off the scraps, drop downs & 2nd balls yet Noble was almost playing as a defender & Nolan as a striker, consequently Watford win the second ball every time, I could see that after 10 mins of football but does anything change, does it hell. Maynard looks a total enigma, poor movement, poor link up play, poor first touch, poor decision making, Baldock comes on & looks exactly the same, he’d only been on the field for a couple of mins when he was sent away down field 1 on 1 with the defender, he can clearly skin him for pace but he pulls up, try’s to lay the ball off & loses possession, its poor decision making & its costing us dear.
Surely someone in that management team can see the players weaknesses and should be on the training ground all day long with them if necessary to try and fix it, Faubert has never been able to cross a ball properly in the whole time he’s been here, O’Brien, McCartney, Taylor, all the crossing was abysmal so why aren’t the players out on the training pitch all day and all night if need be throughout the week to get the ball right. It’s not good enough and every single season ticket holder has been well and truly short changed yet again this season. I don’t know what the answer is but ultimately any issue will never be solved without admitting there’s a problem, and therein lies the truth. No one with any power or control at the club has the balls to admit it……and isn’t that just West Ham all over!!!!!!!
For crying out loud,Nolan is crap. Everybody has witnessed that when Nolan was suspended,we played better football,be it against Millwall or Southampton. We can no longer afford to 'accommodate' him in our setup. Whether we play a true 433,a 451 with wingers or a good old fashion 442,he doesn't seem to fit in our mould. It is quite useless to complain about him,everyone knows he sucks. Now about Faubert... This guy has one good game out of every 10 games we play. Like someone mentioned above,we did play with 9 men.. We were truly crap last night and hopefully Fat Sam would have learned a thing or two,as we have Doncaster at home soon,a bottom club,and thus we can't afford NOT to bring home all the 3 points. I think we'll need to shuffle the pack a little bit and maybe finally give Baldock a start with Cole this time. COYI!
Kevin in Manchester writes..
Nolan is worth his place because he scores goalsand match winning ones too unlike our group of forwards which is where the real problem lies. Even if the game is passing Nolan by, as people keep saying, we are still creating goal scoring chances just not putting them away.
I still don't understand the issue w Barrera. Him on one side and vaz te on the other would be smart. The problem is having Nolan and noble on the pitch together. We need a holding midfielder to pair w noble not a chicken w his head cut off.
07:59 Sav compare your words to others on here - you talk pap!
I am not sure I know what you mean by your comment 7:59. If you disagree with something i stated please tell me. I didn't see the actual match so I couldn't be more specific or comment on the match and the performance of playes like others have.
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