West Ham Utd 1-1 West Bromwich Albion (01/01/15)

Relive every moment of every first team game since the beginning of the 2005/06 season. Our archive of matchday threads originally posted in the General Discussion Forum.

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The Old Mile End
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by The Old Mile End »

We looked very sharp going forward early in the game, and had 3 goal attempts on target after just 12 minutes. But, after scoring, we just faded away and seemed to have no cohesion in midfield where each player seemed isolated on the ball. It was calling out for Noble to be out there, at Kouyate’s expense, to keep it tighter and work together as a unit. Unfortunately the call did not come.

Andy Carroll was especially poor I thought, and was offering no movement or runs into the box. All movement was provided by Sakho, and it was good to see him score from a very pacey move and cross.

But so much for squad rotation. Here was the perfect opportunity to rotate and rest the front man. By half time it was obvious Carroll was making little contribution. But our first substitution was baffling to say the least. What can Jarvis offer that Almafitano doesn’t? Presumably the plan was to make crosses into Carroll – but still they did not come. I think Sam went a bridge too far here with his stubborn approach. He seems to have forgotten how well we can play without the reliance on the big front man.

We created our own problems here I thought. We slacked off after getting the early lead and allowed West Brom far too much possession. The goal was coming for some time and even Sam had got on his feet anticipating it. The crowd was pretty quiet too it seemed. We just ran out of steam and sadly have come down once again with the Christmas decorations!

I am sure there will be a lot saying it is inevitable with so many games in a short time. I am also sure there will be a fair amount of stick given to the manager for his festive failings.

I fully expect to see a major squad rotation for the Everton game. I think all the fringe players will be involved, plus Noble. He’ll probably start with Cole and Valencia in this one, Sakho presumably now having been injured will be out of action and needs to recover his back injury.
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giantsteps
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by giantsteps »

HammerMan2004 wrote:What made Sakho and Valencia an excellent looking partnership was their willingness to both run the channels. It doesn't work with Carroll + 1. It's dull again.
Amen.

Carroll was mostly ineffective yesterday, as he's been for the last few games. He played well against Swansea and Leicester but if anything, yesterday's game was crying out for someone to unlock their defence by means of running at their defenders with pace as apposed to those floaty type golf chip balls.

Think Allardcye has lost his bottle a bit regarding team selection and tactics. Mid table mediocrity could be what we're destined for unless some changes in mentality.
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by giantsteps »

Saw this posted somewhere else, thought it was pretty much a fair assessment:

For West Ham’s part, Upton Park was the quietest it has been all season, and with the air of a hangover about it.
It was noisy enough on ten minutes, when a cut back from Aaron Cresswell found the end of Diafra Sakho’s surging run who clipped into the right hand corner of the net. It was a goal entirely typical of a new look West Ham, the ball played fast and low.

It is a style alien to the strengths of the club’s record signing Andy Carroll, who now starts every match, and is very much Sam Allardyce’s main man. He barrelled about, leapt, and clattered fearsomely into the West Brom defence, but to what effect?
West Ham brought in Teddy Sheringham at the start of the season as an attacking coach with a brief to get West Ham playing in what the club like to think of as the West Ham way. It has worked. But it has worked best in Carroll’s absence.

What few fans remained booed loudly on the full time whistle. That’s four points from their four festive matches - relegation form. The afternoons start getting sunnier from now on, and a big chunk of daylight has appeared between West Ham and the top four, where they spent a lot of the first half of the season. Their fans will have every right to wonder whether the future is as bright as it looked not that long ago.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 53179.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by Bend it like Repka »

Irrons wrote:With Carroll in team, we play (slightly more) less effective and less purposeful long balls - it's more speculative because of the lack of movement. That's the clear difference to me. If it was just as effective we wouldnt even be debating it
This is the important point. A long pass over the defence into space for Valencia to run onto is utterly different to a long high ball for Carroll to bring down, surrounded by defenders.

For a player, a Carroll pass is an easy outlet, it doesn't require much thought or craft. He becomes a magnet for play, changing the style and approach of the team.

I much preferred our setup and approach with Sakho and Valencia up front, we were more pacy, more dynamic. I fear Sam prefers Carroll to Valencia and thus our style will continue to diminish as the season progresses.

In addition players pick up on managers methods and favourites. Maybe Valencia is already being affected by realisation that he is not going to be first choice under Sam.
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by bubbles1966 »

In fairness to the Beeb, after our opening flourish and a truly beautiful goal worked from our box to their net, the only thing worth seeing was Cresswell's free kick.

The Independent are right.

We have league games against Swansea and Hull, plus a cup tie with Everton, we have to pick up some momentum again.
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by jaybs »

We just looked plain sluggish! there was no one in command of the team, many of the players looked flat, and no I don't accept the three games over the holiday excuse, other teams have had exact the same. Yesterday was the chance to bounce back after two tough games with top of the Premiership teams.

Calls to rest Carroll, why treat him like a kid, if a player is not playing good enough you Drop Him, call a donkey a Donkey! again yesterday he was not up with play, when Sakho scored AC was no where to be seen, if he is a striker he should not be out on the wing, if he is not fit and he should be by now you drop him.

Not sure why Mark Noble was not used, he has to come back. Teams are going to look at us now and managers say this team can be beat! and we now lose our top players to the African Cup.

Disappointing game, not had chance to watch "Match of The Day" yet, not sure if I should haha
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by beckton »

bubbles1966 wrote:In fairness to the Beeb, after our opening flourish and a truly beautiful goal worked from our box to their net, the only thing worth seeing was Cresswell's free kick.

I couldn't be bothered to watch an hour of Sky 'highlights' so was hoping motd would have shown the Cresswell penalty and offside incidents. As they weren't shown I'm guessing it wasn't a penalty and Cresswell was offside.


Last night on here I saw some people blaming Reid and some blaming Collins for the West Brom goal. Having now seen a replay, I'm blaming the rest of the outfield players for charging up field and leaving them two on two.
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by giantsteps »

Decent 4 min highlights here:

http://www.soccerhighlightstoday.com/20 ... r.html?m=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Shows the Cresswell free-kick and the build-up play for his shot in the first attack was real nice. Thought Reid got caught short a bit for their goal.
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by Phil S »

I was convinced Cresswell got pulled down and should have been a pen in that first attack

would like to see it in slow mo as it still looks like a pen to me
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by Hampshire Hammer »

West Brom are the worst team I've seen this season, so many misplaced passes and wrong choices of pass. But we should be grateful for that, because once we had scored we were the worst we've played this season. It's hard to pick out what was wrong as the whole team seemed out of sorts. Jarvis livened it up when hee came on, beating his man and putting in some good crosses.

Carroll was just one of several who wasn't up to it today, it doesn't help that he doesn't have a goalscoring instinct so doesn't anticipate enough.
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by DannyboyDJL »

Phil S wrote:I was convinced Cresswell got pulled down and should have been a pen in that first attack

would like to see it in slow mo as it still looks like a pen to me
I thought that, Phil. Looked to have a full grip on his arm and pulled him just as he was shooting.
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by bubbles1966 »

I forgot about the Cresswell pen. Yes, he was definitely held back (right in front of me) but still got a limp shot off.

The ref was awful.
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by beckton »

I shouted penalty at the time but I was a long way away. The ref must have been no more than 10 yards from it.
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by Aceface »

Hampshire Hammer wrote:West Brom are the worst team I've seen this season, so many misplaced passes and wrong choices of pass.
I wouldn't even have them top 5 (did you see QPR?). They knocked it around nicely and if anything played better than us after the opening quarter.
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by Noble Man »

Not sure if this has been mentioned earlier in the thread but MOTD stats show we didn't win 1corner in the whole match!!!
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Re: West Ham United v West Bromich Albion: Match Thread

Post by Hampshire Hammer »

Aceface wrote:
I wouldn't even have them top 5 (did you see QPR?). They knocked it around nicely and if anything played better than us after the opening quarter.
I've been to every home game and either been to or watched aways. Opinions I guess, once they crossed the halfway line they seemed to lose any passing fluency.
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