West Bromwich Albion 1-0 West Ham Utd (26/04/14)

[The Old Mile End]

Virtually the same performance and inevitable result as last week from my view. We are not good at chasing down a deficit and continue the same game plan over and over again.

Just as last week, he's finally brought on CC to have two up front - but has taken off his wide men in doing so. Where is the logic in that? He's put on two big forwards and no width to feed them. Instead we are relying on something from Joe Cole (easily negated by closing down) and long balls in from deep by defenders. Centre halves have never had it so good against a BFS side as right now - especially as Carroll is not firing at all. We looked most dangerous when we got to the byline, mostly with Jarvis, but that's when we needed two in the box.

Most of the time we do not get enough players into the box. We lack so much right now it isn't true. The players are not playing for each other. They are often in isolation, not backing each other up. This I believe is the result of the philosophy of playing the long ball. Players are afraid to shoot from distance (other than Diame). Mostly they look up immediately, looking to play it long. I believe they are doing what they are being told to do.

A point yesterday would have made us safe. As it stands, we are still probably going to avoid the drop. To play for a draw you should play for a win. Yesterday's set up was not designed to win, sadly.

To be frank, anyone who loses four on the spin at such a late stage, including defeats to the likes of Palace and West Brom, deserves to go down really. Two games in succession against such opposition and a total failure to register a goal is not deserving of reward.

We don't need Sam Allardyce in charge to be this bad. History has shown that we are quite capable of doing that without him.

I'm not one for changing managers. I always felt a sense of pride back in the 80's at the knowledge that we had only had 5 managers in all time. It's gone so wrong since then. For me, only a West Ham man will do. That's how I've been brought up and I'm not interested in changing it. All I've seen without it is the club totally losing it's way.

Now we have a man who tells us our "way" is just a myth and we must now play his way. I know what I would rather have. I have never liked BFS and will never warm to him. He is not the man for West Ham.

Change soon and choose for the future - not for the present.

[rsnwhu]

I still can't help but feel we will need to strengthen our midfield next season. WBA seemed to be running through ours at will at times.

WBA also pressed high so we often ended up playing pass the ball inside our own half and then being slow getting forward (well played to WBA there to be fair) making us somewhat predictable. And their strikers were terrific - lots of quick turns and they made life very difficult for us at the back.

Nolan was largely anonymous as was Carroll until we started pumping long balls forward in the second half and at that point he was able to make a nuisance of himself in their box.

Our most energetic player who "wanted to get on with it" so to speak seemed to me to be our keeper !

Oh well, onwards and upwards……Spuds next week.

[rsnwhu]

One thing I do know having watched West Ham for almost 50 years is if we play like that next season, we will be relegated, for sure. And that would be a pity what with moving into the new stadium (and missing out on better revenue/sponsorship etc).

I can tell you for a fact that if we had a Japanese or South Korean player, the fans would flock to the matches from Asia on tours and shirt sales would dramatically increase..and add to that the fact that many would love to visit the Olympic Stadium.

Kagawa would be an epic buy for example.

[_fortunes_]

Nobles' free kicks floated to the far post when our players were running to the near post from the far post. On 3 occasions there were 2-3 west brom players cleaning up from those free kicks going up against each other.

I don't for the life of me know why he does that or even why he takes the free kicks.

[giantsteps]

thought we looked ok on MOTD - plenty of chances. just wouldn't go in for us.

:lol:

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[carnage]

I will just about give you Grant but no evidence the other two are any worse. Not saying I would want them mind

I'll ask the question then. Mcleish or Sam.

[cockney farmer]

Shocking performance , no fun yesterday best bit was in Royal Oak before game nice to meet a few of the Peterborough lads

[DannyboyDJL]

I saw a stat in the week that showed we have the lowest shots per game in the league, lowest average possession and allow the 2nd most shots on our goal in the league.

[Kiwi Iron]

Agree with some of the comments in the last few posts. We definitely look more dangerous with our wide players delivering the ball from the byline, the angle back to the area between the 6 and 18 yard boxes looks like a smarter option than long straight or diagonal balls from our half.

When we play like this we are also open to teams countering on the break, not sure if this is structure or lack of quality in the middle of the pitch. Better goal conversion in front of goal could make this less of a problem.

To me we should address this problem instead of reverting to the long ball tactics we employed in the second half. I think that will mean significant changes to the squad and manager, I'm not current enough to suggest who and where but I hope it starts over Summer.

Still enjoyed watching long periods of the game today, just hoping for a bit more. At the moment it looks like the formula is find the cheapest way to stay in the EPL, the current plan may not achieve that.

[Crouchend_Hammer]

I'll ask the question then. Mcleish or Sam.

Being honest Carnage, I would take McLeish. I am so disillusioned at the moment that I think any change would be an improvement

Sullivan and Gold would not pick McLeish as a replacement though IMHO

[Adam 'The Smudge']

Diame in the middle and Jarvis/Downing playing where they should.
Still looked poor. Noble consistently out paced through midfield.
He may run some distance, Nobes, but with no pace sadly.

[Puff Daddy]

Just seen the edited highlights on MOTD and there was some truly shocking, shambolic defending from us. Couldn't believe what I was watching at times be honest and as for Mark Noble's display, the less said the better.

[BalaamBoy]

Saddest thing for me was that I thought West Brom were there for the taking - but second half we hardly put any pressure on their makeshift defense.

It all looked a bit impotent to me. Our wingers should have been all over them.

[Pulls up Trees]

I completely agreed with him.

[RyanWHUFC]

Just sums up how we're viewed.
Sadly people have become brainwashed into thinking that we can't expect any better.

This.

[maltab]

Think he was right,as what to expect from this West Ham team. He also enjoyed mentioning that Pepe Mel has come in, and encouraged the team to play more football on the floor.
Hasn't exactly bought them a lot of good results though so far has it.

[Adam 'The Smudge']

To suggest we are route one is pretty much like being one of a flock of sheep where the Shepherd is the media.
Majority of our play is on the deck built very slowly from in front of the back four by Noble.
The ball eventually goes wide and when the ball comes in, AC is surrounded.
Surely this means there must be some space and unmarked West Ham players elsewhere.
Predictably our final ball is dross.
Route one.......not at all.

[WHU_Del]

I don't know I haven't seen it but any goalkeeper that gets lobbed from 100 yards can **** off.

He's probably just scared of the flashbacks.

But being lobbed from fifty yards is OK?

[Whufc06]

We are a long ball team. If you can't see it then you're blind.

[AlfieG]

But what I want to know is, if Foster is correct in his analysis, who is to blame?????