The team selection said it all: Allardyce was petrified of Swansea. Why? Because whilst he arsed about recruiting big physical specimens, Swansea went out and recruited quality. Michu was the top scoring midfield player in Spain last year and cost just £2m according to a Swansea fan I sat next to.
At the end of the day, Swansea showed us how the game can and should be played. Their ball retention was a joy to behold and, whilst the first two goals were down to rank errors by Jussi and Collins, the third goal was out of the top drawer - the passing, movement and finish were all excellent.
And what did we offer in return? For five minutes we looked good, pressing high, passing well, freeing up Jarvis who sent in a couple of excellent crosses. Then we dropped deeper and deeper and lumped longer and longer and Cole became more and more detached and with Nolan as one of the "wide men" there was always a flank exposed, and with McCartney and Demel in the full back positions we were always going to be vulnerable to speed and trickery and astute passing. Yes Jussi should be shot for the first goal but the cross should have been anyway better given the space allowed behind McCartney.
In truth Swansea should have had five. Graham missed a sitter and two bad offside calls deprived them of two further golden chances. Yes we had opportunities to score - the Jarvis shot on the turn was excellent, Swansea cleared off the line and Cole headed thin air when any decent striker would have netted, but our only threat was from set pieces, as Allardyce's Land of the Giants tried to bully a goal against Swansea's Lilliputian craftsmen. Even a huge height, weight and reach advantage couldn't help us, however, which, for the good of the game was almost pleasing!
Any positives from the game? Jarvis looked decent. Otherwise were were ordinary or crap.
Are Swansea really that good? Of course not, we made them look like Barcelona and Real Madrid rolled into one! Allardyce should be forced to watch the tape of the game over and over and over and over and then be required to explain why Swansea were so much better than us. The team cost less to assemble - in fact Swansea have shown a profit on transfer dealings this summer courtesy of the Joe Allen sale and will make still more when Man City get Sinclair. So what the fcuk is going on? West Ham enjoy bigger gates and London holds more attractions than Swansea for wealthy young men. So why didn't we know about Michu and why can't we retain the ball like Swansea?
I will give you a clue, it's a nine letter word beginning with A!
(PS Apologies for the delay - now in Bucharest, it was a long 24 hours!)
30 comments:
Yesterday is just not West Ham! or the one I was brought up on, Swansea just played Football as it should be which is simple.
All our big men which Sam loves were just so ineffective, even the Big Sam Hoof Balls never even connected. Goalkeeper looked his age and reflected how many first team games he had last season.
Jarvis has such potential, Noble as always run himself silly.
We just have to pick ourselves up!
Bizarre hf. Why play people out of position? our squad isn't THAT small
Hey, it's not all bad news though. At least the mighty Leeds won again.
Pie and mash cokney cnut ......your so full of shite ......nothing to say about leeds today you sad fcuk ?
If youre starting with Noble and Tomkins in midfield you ain't getting anything. One cannot pass and the other cannot move. Tomkins is not a midfielder and will never be one. Why can Allardyce not see this? He on a number of occasion made poor choices and was poor in his passing execution.
Jarvis started ok but it seems we're better at making players play crap than they are at making us play better. It's why everyone who ever leaves us looks 5 times the player. Demel also did ok.
We need a left back without doubt. McCartney repeatedly gets far too narrow needlessly, allowing the opposition's right winger room to get closer to goal. He never gets out wide to close down quick enough either.
Hope you settle in well HF.
Bucharest? I'd be getting even further away after that P3 (Piss Poor Performance)
By the way, the Great WARNOCK guided Leeds to a fine away victory in case you don't get the Championship news in the Hungarian papers)
Oh Bucharest was the reason, I was beginning to fear that the Leeds fans had caught up with you! Agree with all you say. Can't understand why Allardice put Collins in the back four rather than Tomkins. We all know Swansea play a ball on the ground quick passing game Collins was obviously going to be too slow and cumbersome to play against this type of team. West Ham as a whole also looked sluggish, unfit,and lacking in team spirit, in fact a team of misfits.
Pick 3 premiership teams worse than West Ham. Not easy is it? Puts it all into perspective doesn't it? See you next season after your fire sale.
Ah ha the gutless one returns I see!!
Now come on Jussi, we're not in the Olympic stadium yet. And this isn't hand ball either!!
'Sing when he's winnin, HF only sings when he's winnin, sing when he's winnin, he only sings when he's winnin'...
Unless he's not watching the CRICKET obviously....or on some long haul 24 hr flight to Eastern Europe!
No super write up on the leeds game, thought as much, you'll be down faster than yr kegs in a gaybar. MOT
BFS out!
Proof if it were needed that w,ham are supported by knuckle dragging racist toe rags after the arrest of one of your number following disgraceful tweets to Carlton Cole. Total scum,just because you lost. What are you all going to do when the inevitable happens and you go down? Hold a rally in a beer keller?
The game did not reflect a team that has just completed pre season training. Lack of cohesion, poor formation, gutless defense and zero attacking threat were the order of the day. Swansea were a joy to watch, even if they were the opposition. Good for them, unfortunately. Now come on your Irons!
Swansea gave us a footballing lesson. However, unfortunately BFS didn't look like he was paying attention. Too busy slumping in his chair looking at his shoes for most of the game. I guess he was fascinated, I doubt he get to see his feet that often.
I can't help agreeing with the Leeds fans. If we persist with this one dimensional hoof ball for too much longer the we will be down by Christmas.
I can't believe I'm actually envious of a club who are far smaller than ourselves. As a club, Swansea won't win much but they must be an absolute joy to watch week in, week out. where as we we'll win fuck all and will be heartbreaking to watch. I say heartbreaking, as he is ripping the soul out of our club.
it's an absolute fucking scandal!
Never has one NEW goalkeeper done so little so quickly for such a crap team.....
...how on earth you can buy a goalkeepr from a team that has been relegated (I guess the goalkeeper was part of the reason?) and then criticise Leeds for buying players from Portsmouth (who were ONLY relegated as a points deduction) I will never know...
Nor do I care really.
The day one of our ex Portsmouth players drags a ball into the back of his own net, when it would have been easier to let it roll past the goal, is the day I give up on Leeds......
Wet Spam score a goal and make the secong but end up long 3-0, now how about that for an article on this Leeds United site....
"See you next season after your fire sale."
Er, think you might find we are in a league above this crap next season....
Oh dear Anonymous Leeds fan 18.29.... Don't give HF freebies like that, he's not going to read Hungarian papers in Romania!!
How is Dracula these days (or should I say nights). It is quite a relationship you are building with Transylvania. If I remember well you were last year as well.
Anyway, come back because they are already sucking our blood in England. Maybe we can sign Dracula to get some of our blood back (or he can teach you some tricks).
But seriously, we have problems. It's just that Aston Villa happens to be so bad this year, they made us look good in the first game. We had about half the completed passes that Swansea had in the game. As you said, we made them look like Barcelona. Only positive, Jarvis seems lively and adds something new to the team.
Bucharest is in Romania not Hungary that'll be Budapest twat.
Can only see Norwich and Villa finishing below West Ham at this stage.
OK, HF. Stani. Sav. Kevin in Manchester. Anybody. Explain something to me.
Sam has never been relegated in his managerial career. His record is very good, particularly with Bolton. His dealings in the transfer market throughout his career have also been quite good, notably snaking us for 8 million for Dyer. Against Villa, as it it turns out a pretty poor Villa, we looked solid. Capable of doing what is needed to stay up. But at the same time, we see a team like Swansea put out a side for a fraction of what we spent. And it looked like Ali vs Liston at times. Us plodding forward looking for a knockout, Swansea floating like a butterfly and stinging us like a bee.
He has not become a bad manager overnight, and anybody who says he has always been a bad manager is just plain silly. But is it possible that the game has passed him by? Can he be so firm in his beliefs that nothing will sway him, not even a few more games like yesterday? Can he actually believe Matt Jarvis can be his savior without a proven goal scorer for his crosses to get to?
I beieve we will stay up, whether that is a rational or emotional idea I dont yet know.
Explain this to me in as rational a way as you can. Not easy for any of you. Except maybe Kevin.
Hahahahahahahahahahahammerd!!! MOT on
Tell you what HF you got a smashing pair of tits!! The sex change didnt stop you being fugly tho..
Interesting that Wolves have signed Boukari...let's hope we've not been mugged off
Dave,
Every week that goes by, the league looks tougher and tougher. The thing is I find it hard to pick three teams that are genuinely worse than us.
Regards Allardyce...I think he is too stubborn. I also think he relies on statistic far too much. His purchase of Jarvis seems to have been purely based on stats. Maybe he needs a relegation.
He needs to make a couple of good purchases and then settle on our best team. He's not picked our best team as of yet. I said it after the Villa game that we should not read too much into the victory as Villa were very poor on the day. At the moment we're still the same old us. Long hard season in store, I'm afraid.
Sorry 2159 but no club in the premiership is 'far smaller" than West Ham. It's not 'we will win FA"', it's more like "we have won FA" - of any significance anyway.
Stan, I've been conversing with a rennes fan. He can't wait to get rid. He's got talent but wastes it. London would've been a bad move.
How did Rav do, this weekend?
Ha ha,"Sam has never been relegated in his managerial career" then he joins west ham. You've gotta laugh though? Ha ha.
YOu are beyond contempt! We signed AC are you can't be arsed to write anything......... a previous Leeds fan called you spunk breath, how very apt.
Lot of Serbs in Bulgaria - would like to see you try and wind them up, they'd have your guts for garters!
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