PL: West Ham h Ratings & Reactions

[Pelle]

I came to page 7 of this thread and then I got tired of all the overreactions. We played rather good in 2/3 of the pitch, but we lacked the final edge. Found it hard to create chances and when we did we couldn't put them away. Frustrating to watch but we were the dominating team who just couldn't score. Think of spuds, they created even more without being able to score.

Ashley Young wasn't bad at all. He was rather good. He worked hard, he challenged defenders, got freekicks and had some good overlaps with Warnock. The one thing he didn't do good enough for the game was his crosses and corners and even then all of them weren't bad. Sometimes it's not about the quality of the crosses and corners, but the players in the box needs to attack the ball more and really go for it. As it was in this game far too many times they looked like only waiting for the ball to come down on their heads. Won't work. That said, some of the corners, most of them in fact, were not good.

Ref was good, IMO. Think he made the right decision not to send Kovac off. The yellow he didn't get was a yellow, no doubt, but the yellow he got really wasn't so in the end I think he made that up by not sending him off. That's one of the few times where I think a ref can compensate. He made a mistake when he thought the ball hit Gabbys arm when it clearly didn't, but that was the only thing. Even a ref can make mistakes. He was fine enough for me.

Subs, could've been made, but wasn't. Can't understand the idea of making them no matter what. I mean, what if he'd brought on Delph and Delf and we had lost? You never know. But in the end I too felt that he should've made another change. I for one was crying out for him to make a "MON special" and take Cuellar off and have Milner on the rb and bring on Delph, Sidwell or Delfouneso. Could've worked, but then again could've failed miserably.

In the end it was clearly one of those days where we just couldn't win. Hopefully next time we will.

How can anyone possibly turn off the game at ht at 0-0 is beyond my imagination. :?

[kurtsimonw]

I wonder how everyone would be reacting IF - milners shot is 6 cm closer to goal, IF - gabby puts in that last chance, IF - carew wasnt off side and we win 3 nil. I know none of those 3 things happend but its funny that if u get a bit of luck opposed to some ordinary luck that your thoughts on an entire game can change!

Yep, it's amazing that a few inches here and there and we'd have won comfortabley. Then people would be saying we played great, all because of the ball movin a few inches? Doesn't even make sense.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

We hardly had countless chances, Gabby volley in the first half, Gabby shot in the box, Gabby chance at the end. Downing had a shot from edge of box saved as did Milner who hit the post.

For the actual amount of the ball in their half we had, that really isn't alot compared to say Tottenham vs Hull.

Or as a Villa example, Wigan last year where we hit the woodwork 4 times and 3 off the line. That's unlucky but yesterday we just had no ideas and didn't really ever look like scornig.

[kurtsimonw]

We hardly had countless chances, Gabby volley in the first half, Gabby shot in the box, Gabby chance at the end. Downing had a shot from edge of box saved as did Milner who hit the post.

For the actual amount of the ball in their half we had, that really isn't alot compared to say Tottenham vs Hull.

Or as a Villa example, Wigan last year where we hit the woodwork 4 times and 3 off the line. That's unlucky but yesterday we just had no ideas and didn't really ever look like scornig.

Some didn't seem like chances because they were poorly taken, but Collins had 2 or 3 free headers and made a complete mess of them, good connection and they were in.

[Guest Ricardomeister]

Why is it that people only mention if this and if that when the ifs work in our favour? By your logic if Kalinic's header and shot had been 3 cm closer to goal then we would be 2-1 down heading into tomorrow's game. The bottom line is that we did not score and Green only had a couple of regulation saves to make. That says to me that we were not good enough on the day to win. If this and if that is totally irrelevant imo.

[kurtsimonw]

Why is it that people only mention if this and if that when the ifs work in our favour? By your logic if Kalinic's header and shot had been 3 cm closer to goal then we would be 2-1 down heading into tomorrow's game. The bottom line is that we did not score and Green only had a couple of regulation saves to make. That says to me that we were not good enough on the day to win. If this and if that is totally irrelevant imo.

Not really mate.

If you're going to try and adjust the score or something because you feel a tea was unlucky or made plenty of close chances, then you've got to do it for both teams. West Ham never really made many chances, while we have quite a few close ones, so on a better day we'd have won the game.

The Blackburn arguement is flawed. Yes, they did have a few chances and probably deserved 2 goals. But why not mention the 2 penalties we weren't given, or Ash's effort that was inches wide? Surely we should have won about 4-2 then?

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

We hardly had countless chances, Gabby volley in the first half, Gabby shot in the box, Gabby chance at the end. Downing had a shot from edge of box saved as did Milner who hit the post.

For the actual amount of the ball in their half we had, that really isn't alot compared to say Tottenham vs Hull.

Or as a Villa example, Wigan last year where we hit the woodwork 4 times and 3 off the line. That's unlucky but yesterday we just had no ideas and didn't really ever look like scornig.

Some didn't seem like chances because they were poorly taken, but Collins had 2 or 3 free headers and made a complete mess of them, good connection and they were in.

Not really, his chances were headers that he should of done alot better granted but they weren't clear cut brilliant chances.

Yes we should have took those chances and possibly on another day we would of won but I find it hard to go out the game feeling "unlucky" when I felt we didn't do enough to win apart from have 2 clear cut chances, Gabby's at the end and his shot in the box over the bar. Even his volley was good forward play rather than "should of scored".

Look at the Liverpool match away. I felt we deserved to win the game, yet they had much better chances than ours, however the fact we limited those chances to less than you'd expect from Liverpool and the fact we still created a few chances of our own, meant we deserved to win.

I think West Ham fans would feel they deserved the point because of how their side limited our chances. Hence why I didn't feel we deserved the win.

[kurtsimonw]

Not sure I can agree there. I think a team deserves what they get, if they are outplayed, if they limit the chances of the oppoeition. Like our game at Liverpool, they really didn't have many other chances other than the goal. I think it's a bit different when the opposition does get chances but messes them up, that's not really down to you defending well and earning the draw.

I think 2-0 would have been a fair result yesterday, but that's just me.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

I agree we should have took our chances and 2-0, noone would complain, however we didn't win 2-0 and nor did we create so many chances that made me think "How haven't we won that game"

Also Friedel made 3/4 good saves against Liverpool, including Gerrard and Beanayoun missing chances in the first minute!

They did defend well, considering we had so much play in their half and yet we created 2 Clear cut opportunities. With 3 or 4 other okay opportunities. Even West Ham decent a few half decent opportunities.

We simply didn't do enough. Tottenham yesterday forced Myhill into 5/6 world class saves, we forced Green into THREE run of the mill goalkeeping saves.