Ratings & Reactions: West Ham v Villa

[Caddy]

This is a big point. Spurs got played off the pitch vs. a bottom half squad and we grafted a point against a top 8 side using a paper mache midfield, which should help build a lot of confidence about our chances for 4th after last weekends debacle. Credit to Emery for making changes proactively. IMO we should play Bailey and Zani on the flanks with Diaby in the hole until one of McGinn or Ramsey comes back, Duran and Rogers are just passengers atm

[PaulC]

9 hours ago, Jas10 said:

Great point… 

Disappointed how we played in that first half though… if we played more/most of the match with the approach and style of that second half… we would have gotten the win.

Have a lot of sympathy for Unai… but he has managed the disruption and adversity really well for the most part…

So was I we were.a bit disjointed and I was a tad disappointed with Duran. And the defence was all over the place

[Don_Simon]

5 hours ago, Caddy said:

Duran and Rogers are just passengers atm.

Scores against Ajax and played very well, starved of any kid of service first half against West Ham.

How have you come to this conclusion based on two halves of football in two games?

[meregreen]

Durans movement off the ball isn’t great. Needs to work the defenders more. He has pace, but doesn’t work enough when not in possession. Rogers is new to the club, still trying to adapt to his role, and will need more coaching from Unai methinks. 

[stewiek2]

11 hours ago, Jas10 said:

What is it with these London teams and their pathetic fanbases???!!!

I blame Matty Cash

[Jas10]

9 minutes ago, stewiek2 said:

I blame Matty Cash

They’re all so foul, the lot of them. 

[Jas10]

43 minutes ago, meregreen said:

Durans movement off the ball isn’t great. Needs to work the defenders more. He has pace, but doesn’t work enough when not in possession. Rogers is new to the club, still trying to adapt to his role, and will need more coaching from Unai methinks. 

They’re still rookies, especially to this league. Need time to develop and improve, require patience from us fans… same goes for Tim.

Meanwhile, we have players who are ready and capable in Diaby and Zaniolo who should be in the side ahead of them and will be more effective.

[rjw63]

8 hours ago, Caddy said:

This is a big point. Spurs got played off the pitch vs. a bottom half squad and we grafted a point against a top 8 side using a paper mache midfield, which should help build a lot of confidence about our chances for 4th after last weekends debacle.

Agreed, but it all goes down the shitter if we fail to beat the Custards in our next game.

They are a bit of a hoodoo side so I'd like us to put that one to bed.

Also I think their fans are drooling inbred web footed words removed so I want to win even more.

[Teale's 'tache]

It's a good point, West Ham have only lost 3 times at home so far this season, against Man City, Arsenal and Everton (in what must have been as pure a display of free-flowing football as you could possibly imagine).

Considering we are far from full strength and knackered, all 3 points was always going to be difficult.

The performance I'm not overly concerned with, Emery is trying to find a solution to the loss of Kamara, without McGinn, and with all the games we've played recently I'm sure plenty of players are carrying knocks, niggles and are close enough to the 'red line' that they can't be used for a full 90+, so we are going to get some weird line-ups, weird formations, unexpected changes etc. between now and seasons end. However, Emery has shown he can adapt in-game many times and did so again here, it's an important ability to have.

We are now entering the stage of the season where it's all about points and momentum and finding a way, performances are way down the list, there's too much pressure, too many injuries and so little time between games after this upcoming break to expect us to be at our free-flowing best every game, we might see it in spells of games, but expectations of us turning into 1970's Brazil for every game in the run in should be shelved. It's going to be a battle if we are to make top 4 and isn't going to be pretty.

Pleased to see Cash and Diaby hitting a bit of form at a good time, and if Zaniolo can continue to contribute a bit more from the bench that can only be helpful too.

 

 

[TRO]

19 hours ago, villa89 said:

Poor performance, horrendous in the first half. The subs made a big difference and makes you think emery got his selection wrong which I believe he did. 

Duran Duran doesn't look up to this level at all, and probably never will be. Rodgers looks out of his depth and no better than zaniolo at the moment. 

Luiz and tielemans can't play in a two in the middle, neither has the legs or movement to cover enough ground. 

Diaby looked bright and definitely should have started ahead of Rodgers or Duran Duran. 

Martinez needs to stop pushing and shoving players who stand near him. It just causes him problems and gets him to make mistakes. 

Got lucky to get away with a draw. Hopefully the break now gives us some time to recover and rest. 

Lastly VAR is rubbish, bin it off. It's complete nonsense. 

That's not a selection problem.....it's a squad balance problem.....UE is running out of credible options.

The injuries have highlighted and issue, that was already there.....We have too many attackers v defenders.....so we are playing attackers in defensive roles.

It's probably a bit more subtle than that, but basically that's what it is......Mings and Kamara, have not got direct replacements. The players who are playing in those roles have attacking bias, not defensive bias.

 

 

[TRO]

2 hours ago, meregreen said:

Durans movement off the ball isn’t great. Needs to work the defenders more. He has pace, but doesn’t work enough when not in possession. Rogers is new to the club, still trying to adapt to his role, and will need more coaching from Unai methinks. 

They all do....we wait for mistakes and errors, instead of forcing them.

It's not just him...The whole team lack movement off the ball, not enough athleticism in the side.

The man on the ball gets caught in possession, looking for someone to pass to.....There is not enough appetite to move to receive......only when we come across teams, who fail to press us, do we deviate from that.

Our team don't like traffic....they like open spaces.

 

[VillaChris]

12 hours ago, Mantis said:

Unless I'm mistaken, since we last won at West Ham away, we've beaten Arsenal and Chelsea away twice each and Spurs away four times. Pretty crazy when you consider the relative positions of those clubs over that time period.

Overall West Ham is just an awkward match up for us. That late goal if it had stood would've been typical of us as would've been a similar game to losing 2-1 to them in 2020 when we completely dominated the 90 minutes and lost to two set pieces.

It's not that much different to us always getting a result v Brighton even if they're in better form than us whenever we meet, some teams in the league just match up well against another regardless of league position.

[VillaChris]

Just now, TRO said:

They all do....we wait for mistakes and errors, instead of forcing them.

It's not just him...The whole team lack movement off the ball, not enough athleticism in the side.

The man on the ball gets caught in possession, looking for someone to pass to.....There is not enough appetite to move to receive......only when we come across teams, who fail to press us, do we deviate from that.

Our team don't like traffic....they like open spaces.

 

Yeah Tielemans is probably the best example of that. First half he was as bad as the others just getting crowded around and losing the ball. Second half I think West Ham were just happy to take the 1-0 as we weren't creating that much so they sat back and that at least gave him an opportunity and eventually he hit a very nice defence splitting pass that lead to the goal.

Wolves will put plenty behind the ball at VP so at least he'll get on the ball much more in the final third in that game, will be a good battle between him and Lemina who's had an excellent season for them.

[TRO]

20 hours ago, PaulC said:

Second half we dominated. The subs made a difference. Thank god for var. Horrible side west ham.

but we are relying on moments for points.....while we dominated possession in the second half, we played in front of them, only when Diaby got behind them, we scored.

It's very lazy possession, lacks assertion, aggression and urgency.

[TRO]

2 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Yeah Tielemans is probably the best example of that. First half he was as bad as the others just getting crowded around and losing the ball. Second half I think West Ham were just happy to take the 1-0 as we weren't creating that much so they sat back and that at least gave him an opportunity and eventually he hit a very nice defence splitting pass that lead to the goal.

Wolves will put plenty behind the ball at VP so at least he'll get on the ball much more in the final third in that game, will be a good battle between him and Lemina who's had an excellent season for them.

Wolves will expose, our weaknesses, they always do.

[VillaChris]

Just now, TRO said:

Wolves will expose, our weaknesses, they always do.

The problem last year was Unai overthinking massively because of who was in the opposition dugout. Oh and conceding in the first 10 minutes of both games which isn't ideal.

I thought the 1-1 at Molineux was a pretty good point and not much dissimilar to yesterday. Wolves had beaten Man. City the previous week at home.

I think with their harrowing cup exit, injuries and being safe in mid table we'll beat them reasonably comfortably for once so actually not too worried about that one.

[TRO]

20 hours ago, rodders0223 said:

Double good point.

I know it's difficult with injuries but Emery is trying to too hard atm to he clever. Need to get back to basics. Players in the right positions and getting the best out of our top players again, namely Diaby

 

In certain positions....... we/he hasn't got the players, to play in those "right positions".......We have had injuries, to crucial players, who we are short of.

We need greater depth of balance.

I think the injuries, have helped expose, the lack of diversity in the squad profile.

[TRO]

5 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

The problem last year was Unai overthinking massively because of who was in the opposition dugout. Oh and conceding in the first 10 minutes of both games which isn't ideal.

I thought the 1-1 at Molineux was a pretty good point and not much dissimilar to yesterday. Wolves had beaten Man. City the previous week at home.

I think with their harrowing cup exit, injuries and being safe in mid table we'll beat them reasonably comfortably for once so actually not too worried about that one.

I think they will be well up for it after losing to Coventry.

I think our slow laboured style, invites pressure.....and I am not sure at present, if our first touch/ ball control, lends itself to this kind of approach.

 

[TRO]

20 hours ago, HKP90 said:

Despite every effort on our part we still didn't lose.

No....but its not convincing.

The result, was fine....but the performance, had more questions, than answers.

[VillaChris]

5 minutes ago, TRO said:

I think they will be well up for it after losing to Coventry.

I think our slow laboured style, invites pressure.....and I am not sure at present, if our first touch/ ball control, lends itself to this kind of approach.

 

Imagine if we'd just lost at home to Coventry in that manner. They'd be some on this forum predicting we'd lose every single game left and working out if we could still be relegated!

They have injuries to key players which makes a push for europe a bit of a stretch so basically to me their season is dead now they've got 40 points. Of course they'd love to scupper us but I actually think Brentford will be the harder of the two home games to win despite their present struggles. 

Early goal v Wolves and we'll be fine.