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PL: West Ham a Ratings & Reactions


limpid

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I think it's our old friend style.

We play a physical pressing game with pace and we play the percentages; big man to aim at, quick man over the top and get it down the wings.

That's a strategy that means you can win or lose any game, because to some extent it removes the importance of being able to play the ball around or keep possession. It means that every time we play one of the big four we've got a real chance to win, because we turn the game into a contest on our terms and on our terms we're a reasonable match for anyone.

Unfortunately on our terms anyone is a reasonable match for us.

When you turn football matches into athletic contests you even the playing field but you even it up both ways and create a situation where you've a good chance of beating Chelsea and a reasonable chance of losing to QPR.

We need to learn to play slow possession football with guile and finesse if we're to beat the minnows, because at the moment we're just challenging them to a big and quick contest with no guarantees that the winner will take the points.

We can stop a team controlling a game, but that's not the same as learning to control a game ourselves.

Wow! I'm going to say that down the pub and pretend to my mates that i came up with it! I didn't fully realise this before but i think you are spot on OBE!

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i cant help but think how different some of these reactions would of been if west ham hadnt nicked that winner.

Uh, yes, but they did.

I don't know what you're getting at. :|

I think the point is that reactions are purely down to the result, nothing to to with how we played, how unlucky we may have been conceed a late winner.

If we had of grabbed a slice of luck in the last minute and scored a winner, how many people would be making the same complaints about tactics or certain players etc? Ok, I know we didn't but I can see the point, many posts are more kneejerk reaction than anything, as is always the case on here, win or lose.

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Beat the big dogs, can't beat shit when it comes down to it.

Playing Heskey out on the wing had this game from the start. Absolutely clueless.

Used to be the other way round! We'd beat most of the poor teams and then raise the white flag whenever we played a top 4 team (with perhaps the exception of Chelsea).

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i cant help but think how different some of these reactions would of been if west ham hadnt nicked that winner.

Uh, yes, but they did.

I don't know what you're getting at. :|

I think the point is that reactions are purely down to the result, nothing to to with how we played, how unlucky we may have been conceed a late winner.

If we had of grabbed a slice of luck in the last minute and scored a winner, how many people would be making the same complaints about tactics or certain players etc? Ok, I know we didn't but I can see the point, many posts are more kneejerk reaction than anything, as is always the case on here, win or lose.

I recall standing there watching in the 92nd minute thinking this is a shit point and crap performance.

I think we were worthy of a draw and my complaints would have been the same but we lost the game not down to our players but due to the refs decisions.

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But everyone is more or less the same manu at burnley chelski wigan spuds stoke, if we beat those around us we will be there or there abouts so get behind the team, and I agree if we'd drawn it would have been not great but played better and got a shit ref, but a last gasp goal and its slit your wrist time again

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Decent performance from the Villa last night, particularly first half. The criticism the players are getting for this performance which was a lot better than many games we have won this season is ridiculous.

Terrible refereeing cost us this game. Never a penalty for the first Beye booking and first goal. Also second booking looked harsh, albeit at the far end of the pitch from us and the resulting red card cost us the game with a lack of numbers on the right side leading to the winner. If we were United Bennett would be facing disciplinary action for complete incompetency.

Only other point is with the Villa fans. Yes we all know our away support is superb and loud but it is annoying how some players can do no wrong and some can do no right with the fans. Carew has been by all accounts abysmal this season and is still supported by the fans. However, Heskey playing out of position was slaughtered by the Villa fans around me despite playing for me one of his better halves of football in a Villa shirt. Had O'Neill left the team the same at half time I feel we would have looked more threatening in the final third and perhaps taken the points ourselves.

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i cant help but think how different some of these reactions would of been if west ham hadnt nicked that winner.

Uh, yes, but they did.

I don't know what you're getting at. :|

I think the point is that reactions are purely down to the result, nothing to to with how we played, how unlucky we may have been conceed a late winner.

If we had of grabbed a slice of luck in the last minute and scored a winner, how many people would be making the same complaints about tactics or certain players etc? Ok, I know we didn't but I can see the point, many posts are more kneejerk reaction than anything, as is always the case on here, win or lose.

I recall standing there watching in the 92nd minute thinking this is a shit point and crap performance.

I think we were worthy of a draw and my complaints would have been the same but we lost the game not down to our players but due to the refs decisions.

Fair enough, I've no doubt some people would be reacting the same. But there are also many that wouldn't.

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For my money, O'Neill got the selection wrong last night. Heskey is not a right winger and Beye doesn't convince me - I can understand he wants to take things gently with Luke Young perhaps.

Last night showed how much we miss Milner's energy and ability to create space for others to work with - it was no surprise that both their goals came from the right hand side.

Sidwell must be close to borrowed time now - I actually think he plays better in a 4-5-1 when he is allowed to roam forward a bit more, but Parker got the better of him last night. I wonder if Downing could give us guile in the centre of the park when he is fit.

The whole thing felt a bit disjointed last night - even our fans were a bit muted I thought.

Certainly not a disaster, but I would hope there is a bit of head scratching going on in Bodymoor Heath today.

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If carew had squared the ball or the ref had given us that pen then the game would have been done by HT.

Not saying the performance in the 2nd half was great and everything was fine but losing didn't just come down to poor tactics and formation from the manager.

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If carew had squared the ball or the ref had given us that pen then the game would have been done by HT.

IF Roman or Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan had bought us we would have won the league by now!

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I wasn't confident before the game but I have to say I am so **** disappointed by the result, even more so after listening to us dominate it the first half, second wasn't good.

I am now just starting to question whether MON has taken us as far as he can.

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i cant help but think how different some of these reactions would of been if west ham hadnt nicked that winner.

Uh, yes, but they did.

I don't know what you're getting at. :|

I think the point is that reactions are purely down to the result, nothing to to with how we played, how unlucky we may have been conceed a late winner.

If we had of grabbed a slice of luck in the last minute and scored a winner, how many people would be making the same complaints about tactics or certain players etc? Ok, I know we didn't but I can see the point, many posts are more kneejerk reaction than anything, as is always the case on here, win or lose.

I recall standing there watching in the 92nd minute thinking this is a shit point and crap performance.

I think we were worthy of a draw and my complaints would have been the same but we lost the game not down to our players but due to the refs decisions.

Fair enough, I've no doubt some people would be reacting the same. But there are also many that wouldn't.

I think it's only natural that people's reactions are swayed by things like last minute winners.

Think of the game at Everton last season. We were all gutted by Everton equalising in the last minute of added time, then Young incredibly goes and scores a winner with the last kick of the game. Everyone is euphoric and forgets about what was in all honesty quite a crap performance. Or at least, even if people don't completely forget it, they don't bother thinking too hard about it and posting long diatribes about how abysmal it was that we barely got out of our own half for most of the game.

If it had been Everton who had won that game with the last kick, you can be sure that the reactions would have been VERY different! People would have been harshly spotlighting some very real deficiencies.

Defeats bring things to a head and focus attention on what is wrong - the sort of things that might just get mentioned in passing if the team plays poorly but still gets a result. And that's surely a good thing - at least if the criticism is in some way constructive. (Not that any discussion on this board is going to have much influence on what happens on the pitch, I suppose, but we can all imagine that Martin O'Neill is sitting somewhere reading it...)

I think it's pretty obvious that, before last night, while our results had been generally quite good, the performances had been generally not so good. We seem like a team who are good at destroying (stopping the other team playing) but not at all good at creating. As pointed out by one or two others in this thread, the qualities and deficiences we have mean we can battle it out with the big teams, and can even steal a win with a bit of luck if they have defensive lapses and we don't, but against the lesser teams we are still just battling it out without creating much and it can go the other way if luck is against us.

Looking at the League table, I see we have the same defensive record as Man United, and about the same scoring record as West Ham and Bolton.

We are seriously lacking as an attacking force. With Carew off form (or perhaps past his best?) we have no top class striker, and very little creativity / attacking threat from our midfield. We will continue to struggle to score goals unless changes are made in personnel and/or style of play.

Defeat brings all these problems to the forefront. Yes, some people overreact, but the problems are definitely there to be discussed.

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If carew had squared the ball or the ref had given us that pen then the game would have been done by HT.

IF Roman or Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan had bought us we would have won the league by now!

Did 4-4-2 or heskey on the left make the ref miss a handball and make carew decide to shoot instead of gift gabby with a goal?

I think mistakes were made during the game by the manager but there were other factors that led to the defeat.

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I wasn't confident before the game but I have to say I am so **** disappointed by the result, even more so after listening to us dominate it the first half, second wasn't good.

I am now just starting to question whether MON has taken us as far as he can.

that's the worry, yes.

we really should be beating a team like west ham who were without the only guy who scores goals for them (Cole).

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Ho hum.

Looking on the positive side, at least the last two games have answered the question of who plays at right back, at least for 2/3 games. :angry:

who is that then?

IMO we should be playing Young, but maybe he'll bring Carlos back in?

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I wasn't confident before the game but I have to say I am so **** disappointed by the result, even more so after listening to us dominate it the first half, second wasn't good.

I am now just starting to question whether MON has taken us as far as he can.

that's the worry, yes.

we really should be beating a team like west ham who were without the only guy who scores goals for them (Cole).

I was pleased to hear that Cole was coming off, and then I started worrying again when I heard that Hines was coming on.

I saw the West Ham v Liverpool game earlier this season, and he was giving the Liverpool defence (and Carragher in particular) a nightmare. I really don't understand why Zola hasn't used him much since then.

I didn't see last night's game, but it sounds like Cole going off and Hines coming on might have turned the game in their favour.

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I wasn't confident before the game but I have to say I am so **** disappointed by the result, even more so after listening to us dominate it the first half, second wasn't good.

I am now just starting to question whether MON has taken us as far as he can.

that's the worry, yes.

we really should be beating a team like west ham who were without the only guy who scores goals for them (Cole).

We shouldn't automatically beat anyone unless we deserve too.

We have not been playing well this season to deserve so, we just dont create enough.

We've gone from creating loads and never defending, to never creating anything and always defending!

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