West Ham Utd 2-2 Norwich City (26/09/15)

[simonpaulthomas]

The Mrs' second game, and we haven't lost yet... maybe she should come more often!?

[kalashnikov]

The problem with our home form, and Bilic suggested as such after the game, is our lack of intensity. Maybe yesterday the midweek game took it's toll at the end but after Norwich were gifted their opening goal by Noble's suicidal pass, we shut down and stopped playing for about 25 minutes. No pressing the opposition, no tackles, just give them the ball and let them do what they want with it. It was a pitiful performance that should have seen us beaten by half time. And then, on the half hour, it was like someone had switched the light on. Crunching tackles from midfield, winning back possession and then an equaliser. This has happened in every home game this season. We play well in patches but they are too infrequent. Against Leicester we didn't wake up until the 2nd half, against Bournemouth we played really well for about 15 minutes, scored 2 goals and then stopped playing again. We need more energy all over the pitch and we need it for much longer periods than the odd quarter of an hour here and there. What worries me is that Bilic KNOWS this but 4 home games into the season and it's still not happening.

There is a school of thought in Europe that concerns phases of play. The basic idea being that it is impossible to maintain a constant pressing intensity game for 90mins, inevitably players switch off and mistakes happen. Instead the principle is that the game is played in different phases, sometimes the team presses hard and attacks, other times they sit deeper, recover and invite the opposition on. It's a fine art to do, but it is one the top teams (most noteably Dortmund) do well.

[Lee_WHU]

The Mrs' second game, and we haven't lost yet... maybe she should come more often!?

That's what I'm always telling her mate but she never bloody listens

[WestHamByTheSea]

Odd game I thought. Started very brightly, then sloppy giveaway goal, total gash for nearly 30 mins, Sakho goal out of nothing, finished the half well, then a real see-saw 2nd half.

Moses was strangely anonymous, which left us narrow again as in the first 2 home games - I was surprised then that when he got the hook it was for Obiang instead of perhaps Antonio - although that could be explained by the alarming amount of space between our CB's and central-midfielders, particularly Nobes who didn't have a good game, and Kouyate who did go wandering a bit; not having a pop at him though, I think it was more a case of him chasing the game a bit; and well chuffed him being such a fox-in-box again at the end!

I thought Lanzini was excellent, so good in possession particularly at close-quarters, although I can also see the argument for having Obiang or eventually Song in there instead; just a bit more presence. With a good 5 or so very good central-midfielders on our hands, hopefully it should be a question of tinkering until we get it right.

Jenks worries me a bit still, did ok going forward but some of his positional play was shocking; several times he was dicking about on the corner of the box about 5 yards from Reid or Tomks whilst the likes of Lanzini or others were charging back to do the RB role - sure the midfielders have to help out the FB's, but it was more a case of doing Jenks' job for him full-stop.

Great innings from Sakho again, worked himself silly again and got his goal. Blinding couple of saves from Adrian too.

I think the criticisms need to be weighed against what was a very decent Norwich performance. They played some really nice football, Hoolahan and Brady especially, and were very well-drilled. Fair play to them.

Nothing there to get too morose about, 3rd in the table going into October is swell by me. We are still a work in progress and i still reckon we're getting far more things right than wrong as we move forward. A few tweaks here and there, and we can really push on.

Couple of pre-match highlights while at the Sports Bar at Waterloo Station... egg-chasing legend Martin Johnson wandered in and sat down for a beer with some rather star-struck rugby bods on the next table to us, as well as a large group of Sheff Wednesday lads who came in, had a beer and a natter with us, then left for their train to Brentford with a mini-chorus of 'One Carlos Tevez'.

[Singaporeiron]

First game of the season for me and now back in Sing.

Thought Sakho's work rate is incredible, Lanzini impresses me as he gets back as much as he likes to go forwards. Payet has to be one of the buys of the season, great vision. Obiang was the right call, however it should have been for Noble and not mosses. Norwich were able to exert more pressure knowing the threat of Moses had been removed. I watch all the games live on TV here and for me this season Cresswell is a risk defending, great going forwards but vulnerable at defending. Agree with others Jenks is not the same as last year either. Last year we needed the full backs bombing up and down the wings for the majority of the game this year we don't we have pace and width and maybe the finer attributes of defending are clearly visible as weaknesses in their game.

[Singaporeiron]

This x1000! I've been banging on for the last year about giving space away to the opposition in front of our defence - we are terrible at picking up players there. The holding 2 seem to get dragged wide and separate, leaving a giant hole in the middle for Hoolahan etc to run riot in.[/quote]

The problem is Creswell is not as good a defender as he is going forwards so they are often dragged over covering leaving the gaps to be exploited

[sutts07]

edit - double post

[sutts07]

Good (great actually) character shown to claw back a goal. Drove me mad last season watching the likes of Spurs pull points out of the back on a regular basis when it looked like they were beaten. That is the mark of a good side in my opinion, there are 6 or 7 sides in this league who never know when they are beaten and it would be great to become one of them.

Noble was off a little bit off his game on Saturday as pointed out by many (highlighted and exaggerated by the early and costly mistake). Although it is a touch embarrassing to see posts in the 'Noble Legend' thread timed at around 3.05pm... Seems as though some people couldn't wait to jump on his back. For me, Noble really needs Kouyate to be at his best alongside him, another center mid in there doing some dog work with them, and also some great movement and options out in front of him. With all of those in place, Noble is at his best.

Neither Noble or Kouyate looked looked like they had the legs at the weekend, same for Moses and to an extent Lanzini also. We made the pitch look tight and didn't offer much off the ball making it tough for the men on the ball in the middle.

At the start of last season we showed how to play effectively at home... two up top with a diamond behind them. Lots of running up top and a tight but creative pack in the middle.

We can't play counter attacking football at home to teams who are traditionally outside of the top 6 or 7 as they will be happy to sit even deeper than us and take a point if need be. The onus is on us to attack but we do not want to leave ourselves wide open.

I think Carroll coming back (plus eventually Valencia and Song) will allow us to consider the diamond for home games now and I hope that will be the answer.

We have showed how to play effectively away from home this season, nothing needs to change there... and if we can find the early season home form from last season to back up the amazing away form, we will be a real force.

Still experimental, and still waiting on key injures.

[likemydreams]

Went to the game..

We weren't great, not helped by the give away 1st which seemed to fill them with confidence and dent ours..

Rode our luck and nicked an equaliser, but the tension never seemed to lift..

Was hoping to really have ago in the 2nd but Norwich did a good job all game of keeping the ball away from us, it meant we could never really gather up steam. Maybe we were a bit leggy after midweek exertions..

Chances for either side and Norwich's best spell in the half resulted in another goal, but we responded well enough and had chances.. The equaliser was deserved..

As I said we weren't great but I was entertained.. And the equaliser at the end meant I left happy.. (Feel sorry for the those that left early and missed it)..

i never feel sorry for those who leave early infact i laugh

[Aceface]

For me there doesn't seem to be any good reason not to include Obiang from the start at home.

He's a defensive midfielder but it's not as if he's a donkey on the ball or around the pitch as your traditional lumbering DM might be. He looks about as incisive as Kouyate and Noble are with the ball at his feet, but more disciplined at screening the defence. The difference when he's come on as a sub has been noticeable a number of times now.

[sutts07]

For me there doesn't seem to be any good reason not to include Obiang from the start at home.

I guess the argument from Bilic would be that he can play Lanzini, Payet, Moses and Sakho if he leaves out Obiang, giving us more attacking options. However, it is just not working out that way so I agree that there are no reasons to overlook him.

If Bilic includes Obiang but also keeps Noble and Kouyate (I think they both deserve their place), then one of the attacking four (Lanzini most likely) would have to be dropped and another (Moses most likely) moved up top as a central striker alongside Sakho leaving us something like...

----------- Obiang
------ Noble Kouyate
------------ Payet
------ Sakho Moses

I think this is something that should be given real consideration at home. Especially now that we have a few strike partner options for Sakho.

(edit... if Song can get himself fit, that would create a huge - but nice - problem on who to drop. Song can replace either Noble or Kouyate or Noble can play deep with Song coming in and Obiang sitting out)

[Aceface]

I guess the argument from Bilic would be that he can play Lanzini, Payet, Moses and Sakho if he leaves out Obiang, giving us more attacking options. However, it is just not working out that way so I agree that there are no reasons to overlook him.

I agree with the theory of the first part, but the obvious conclusion from all this is that we can keep all of those attackers on the field, add a needed defensive screen in Obiang, and then there's only room for one of Kouyate and Noble, who are arguably neither fully defensive nor attacking players.

And of the two, as things stand it would have to be Kouyate given the crucial goals he's been scoring up front, something that he'd have the opportunity to do more with Obiang pushing him further forward.

That said, difficult to do when the man left out if the club captain.

[Crouchend_Hammer]

I agree Obiang + Noble or Kouyate at home against most sides (Noble edges it for me). However, our next home game is Chelsea so we would play all three in this game - i am assuming Moses can't play anyway

[a86]

Norwich been playing some pretty decent football and had some good results. what with us playing 120mins of football midweek and losing. I think we'll draw 2-2, its best we shook off the loses this season.

4-2-3-1

Adrian
Jenkinson
Tomkins
Reid
Cresswell
Noble
Kouyate
Lanzini
Moses
Payet
Sakho

Subs: Randolph, Collins, Obiang, Antonio, Zarate, Jelavic, Carroll

couldn't have been more spot on...

[sutts07]

That said, difficult to do when the man left out if the club captain.

Slav is fortunate enough to have Reid back to his absolute best which makes him a ready made vice captain.

Club captain shouldn't mean automatic start, that is where it went so long last season.