Dean Smith

[maqroll]

1 minute ago, TRO said:

We have to have more players in our squad with a natural instinct for stopping the opposition.

Sounds like a job for the "Warrior"

[TRO]

4 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Absolutely. 

They were OK. Setup exactly as everyone knew they would. Perhaps they were even more defensive than we expected with two right backs.

They weren't "good". They weren't as good as Southampton were when they battered us last week. They weren't as good as we were first half at Burnley or as good as Burnley were in the second half.

We were abysmal, gave them plenty of easy chances and when they shot, Emi came up well short of his performances this season.

Can't argue with that.

[TRO]

3 minutes ago, maqroll said:

Sounds like a job for the "Warrior"

If he turns out to be one.....some say a no 8 or no 10

but with what i saw out there, he would have been on at half time

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by TRO

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

13 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Absolutely. 

They were OK. Setup exactly as everyone knew they would. Perhaps they were even more defensive than we expected with two right backs.

They weren't "good". They weren't as good as Southampton were when they battered us last week. They weren't as good as we were first half at Burnley or as good as Burnley were in the second half.

We were abysmal, gave them plenty of easy chances and when they shot, Emi came up well short of his performances this season.

Exactly, I thought Southampton were much better value for a win over us than West am tonight.

[ozvillafan]

1 minute ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Exactly, I thought Southampton were much better value for a win over us than West am tonight.

I've gotta disagree on that one.

Southampton played some really lovely stuff - but never bothered Martinez at all.

At one stage tonight, West Ham had seven times more shots on goal than us. Martinez didn't have his best game - but he was certainly busy.

[maqroll]

2 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Exactly, I thought Southampton were much better value for a win over us than West am tonight.

I think we helped their cause, but I also think they played some very incisive, positive and aggressive football and deserved the win.

[paul514]

It's clear there are a few players out of form and that fatigue from so many games in such a short time has taken a toll.

It doesn't help when Dean is repeatedly allergic to using his 3 subs.

Barkley and McGinn need benching for the Arsenal game to inject some impetus, give them a rest and a nudge to say you must do better.

Lastly I DO NOT want us to buy Barkley in the summer. 

[QldVilla]

I agree that we lack physicality at times in some games, but for me, you could see we were flat in the first 15min, lazy passing, no energy etc. 

Some saying it will be ok we’ll bounce back, but will we? Three days isn’t enough to recover, Arse will see the blood in the water. 
 

Smith needs to learn to rotate and rest players, even it’s it’s subbing after 60-70 minutes. 

[ozvillafan]

52 minutes ago, paul514 said:

It's clear there are a few players out of form and that fatigue from so many games in such a short time has taken a toll.

It doesn't help when Dean is repeatedly allergic to using his 3 subs.

Barkley and McGinn need benching for the Arsenal game to inject some impetus, give them a rest and a nudge to say you must do better.

Lastly I DO NOT want us to buy Barkley in the summer. 

As one who was pilloried for suggesting Smith was lucky against Soton for not using subs at all.....

... I need to come to his defense here. He DID use 3 subs tonight - 1 at halftime (El Ghazi -> Traore), 1 at about 65 minutes (Barkley -> Trez) and 1 about the 80th (Luiz -> Sanson).

And this isn't the first time he used 3 this season either.

 

[Demitri_C]

Poor result, poor selection and poor tactics.

He didnt mentikn fatigue in his comments after the game but i think fatigue definitely played a role tonight. Having us play again at 12.45 on sat is a joke though 

[picicata]

I don't think it is simply fatigue though. The worst, most off pace player, was the one who should have been the freshest.

We just haven't looked anywhere close to as good as we can since our enforced break. I fear it has derailed us some what.

[eholm]

6 hours ago, TRO said:

We need to sign a soucek type character in the summer.....we are a weak team, at times.

Yep, needed one for years. As I said in the match reaction thread, we have good technical CMs but they are all slight in stature and under 6 foot. Real lack of physicality which is essential in the PL for some games. Nakamba out and a proper enforcer in over the Summer although DS has never really preferred that type of CM in his career....

[Villarocker]

West Ham were physical against us last night without being dirty. They just got tight and gave us no time on the ball. We weren't at the races and kept giving them the ball cheaply. 

If we'd had more energy we'd have played it around them and found the spaces. 

[M_Afro]

West Ham deserved their win yesterday. I thought they played really well. Moyes set them out perfectly to reduce our potency whilst finding huge gaps in our team. Dean needs to get the balance of the side right still. He took way too long to change the system yesterday and the end result was inevitable. We are so charitable at times it is painful. Two of their goals came from our centre forward losing the ball!

We are also woeful after conceding first. We seem to visibly lose our composure. It happened last week against Burnley too. It happens all the time. I like the defence and I like the front three but the three in the middle do not work. If you want to play Barkley you need two players to shield in the same way that Liverpool play. If you don’t it’s way to easy to get at the back four. It happens all of the time.

AEG must also never ever start games when Traore and Trez are fit. He is good emergency back up or as an impact sub but he lacks the physicality or consistency to start games. Even when he’s scoring his all round game is not good enough. It was a bizarre decision to start him yesterday. Utterly bizarre!

Much to ponder ahead of Arsenal. Hopefully we can bounce back. The season has been good so far but some of our old failings are creeping back in. Dean needs to address it. He says that we bounced back against Southampton but we didn’t really, we were just very lucky. 

[Demitri_C]

Yeah no complaints from me about west ham. They were excellent coufel was motm.

He had grealish in his pocket most of the game. He should have started traore as his pace  and trickery would have caused coufel more problems.

Moyes got his handling of grealish tactics spot on. Fair play to him 

[DCJonah]

7 hours ago, MrBlack said:

Very valid points, I guess the counter argument is it could have been done more often mid game.  It could also have cost us more points than we'd have otherwise lost  with the trade off that we might be fitter and better able to cope with West ham tonight.  All ifs buts and maybes.

I feel that tonight, changes to the shape should have happened around the 60 minute mark when things weren't improving.  He tried to bring on Morgan from about the 63rd minute m, but the ball started in play for 5 minutes so maybe that then further delayed the next change.

We were out battled all over the pitch tonight so not sure any level of change mid game would have really helped, but definitely felt like he left it too long between changes when it was apparent we were still getting out played

 

Exactly. Maybe we rotate more this year and we're worse off points wise but have some fresher legs. But let's not forget there have been plenty of games we've dominated this season and not got what we deserved, so whose to say fresher legs means we win games like last night?

Ultimately we are where we are because of the decisions of the manager. 

20 games, 10 wins, 32 points. I guarantee no one thought it would be this good when the season started. Yet now we've got to play the guessing game and create hypothetical situations so we can criticise. 

The fact is Dean uses subs as much as other managers, that's proven. And as others have said, what positions are people unhappy haven't been rotated? I refuse to believe people want Elmo, Taylor or Davis starting games. 

You could say Hause when he was fit, but a settled back 4 is a bonus. How many teams really rotate their defence when they don't need to?

Midfield. Well hourihane, ramsay and nakamba have all played. The rw spot has constantly changed throughout the season. 

I said it before, and not aiming it at you as you put your point across well and admit its all ifs and but, its just an easy moan for those that are desperate to do so. 

[Demitri_C]

2 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Exactly. Maybe we rotate more this year and we're worse off points wise but have some fresher legs. But let's not forget there have been plenty of games we've dominated this season and not got what we deserved, so whose to say fresher legs means we win games like last night?

Ultimately we are where we are because of the decisions of the manager. 

20 games, 10 wins, 32 points. I guarantee no one thought it would be this good when the season started. Yet now we've got to play the guessing game and create hypothetical situations so we can criticise. 

The fact is Dean uses subs as much as other managers, that's proven. And as others have said, what positions are people unhappy haven't been rotated? I refuse to believe people want Elmo, Taylor or Davis starting games. 

You could say Hause when he was fit, but a settled back 4 is a bonus. How many teams really rotate their defence when they don't need to?

Midfield. Well hourihane, ramsay and nakamba have all played. The rw spot has constantly changed throughout the season. 

I said it before, and not aiming it at you as you put your point across well and admit its all ifs and but, its just an easy moan for those that are desperate to do so. 

For me i think sansom should ahve been given moee game time over the last two days. I think trez and i would have said el ghazi. However he was really poor yesterday.

I do think the players you mention taylor elmo davis should be sold in summer and  etter options bought in who can challenge targett cash and ollie

[villalad21]

Has he changed formation?

Really is looking like a 4-4-2 when Barkley is playing. Our midfield is severely exposed in this system and this result has been coming for weeks.

We should set up like Liverpool with 3 hard working midfielders. Luiz, McGinn, Sanson. Alternatively Nakamba if one of the 3 is off form. Traore, Grealish and Watkins is enough firepower.

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by villalad21

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

6 hours ago, ozvillafan said:

I've gotta disagree on that one.

Southampton played some really lovely stuff - but never bothered Martinez at all.

At one stage tonight, West Ham had seven times more shots on goal than us. Martinez didn't have his best game - but he was certainly busy.

I think you, and the other poster misunderstand what I mean.

Think I commented in the match tread at the time in response to someone talking about West Hams " press ".

Southampton's press was ALOT more intense, and their attacking play was more incisive and slick.

They genuinely scared the crap out of me, and I couldn't even really fault the players as they were getting no time to breath whatsoever.

West Ham were very solid, but they did absolutely nothing extraordinary attacking wise which wasn't inspired by our sloppiness.

We REPEATEDLEY gave them the ball.

If we played like we did last night against Southampton, it easily could have been 6.

A performance like last night, would have been more justifiable against Southampton, than it was to West Ham.

We were not great against Southampton either, but we were MUCH worse last night.

That had alot more to do with how terrible we were, than how brilliant West Ham were.

All they had to do was remain solid until we inevitably handed them the ball.

There were also tactical deficiencies, which Deano himself has admitted.

West Ham looked good because we allowed them to be.

Southampton were actually very good.

I'm not saying West am aren't good in general, as they are obviously in the spot in the table for a reason.

I'm simply speaking in relation to games against us.

 

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[YouUnastanFren]

With hindsight he seems to have got the midfield shape wrong in this one. He seemed to be aware of it though based on the post match comments. Interested to see how he reacts