West Ham Utd 1-1 Stoke City (05/11/16)

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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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by Het-Field »

Dwight1970 wrote:Het-Field on Sun Nov 06, 2016 12:03 am

I agree with a lot of what you say if taken in isolation but in fairness I think you cannot take anything that occurs on the pitch this season in isolation when it comes to the reaction of fans to it because so many unique factors are in play this season when it comes to fans feelings.

Many of the 50,000+ fans left Upton Park and bought season tickets with the owners banging on about what a great season and how much we will invest this summer there was a belief that the days of relegation battles and crap football would be something of the past for the foreseeable future. Now when the owners fail to deliver on their publicised claims of what they would do in the transfer market and manager starts the campaign with arguably an inferior squad than we ended the last campaign with and results reflect this it is difficult to argue that what has followed did not contribute to the performance today in much the same way had a £30m striker scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 win and therefore plenty of the blame for that can be directed at the board in much the same way they would be taking the credit had the mythical 20 goals a season striker been here.
The owners activities during the transfer window didn't sit well with me. Particularly the declaration of a willingness to pay £30 Million for a striker. All of a sudden, every striker was "worth" £30 Million, and the kite flying became a footballing equivalent of "jumping the shark".
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by Dwight1970 »

Het-Field wrote:
The owners activities during the transfer window didn't sit well with me. Particularly the declaration of a willingness to pay £30 Million for a striker. All of a sudden, every striker was "worth" £30 Million, and the kite flying became a footballing equivalent of "jumping the shark".
As such it is a major factor of where we are now on the pitch and how fans feel about it.

On the pitch surely such a publicly statement must unsettle current players in those positions and give the manager an unnecessary headache in dealing with any future fall out.

Then off the pitch, it clearly raises expectations of fans so when the said player fails to arrive is it no surprise that the £20m right forward, a kid Man Utd reserves, along with loan strikers from Italy and Argentina who all arrived are seen as somewhat of a let down?

This is no normal season, the players and staff have moved both home stadium and training ground and obviously the fans have a new home so it was imperative that the board ensured they made this transition as smooth as possible.

For me and I believe others I feel they have failed and it has negatively influenced everything we are witnessing this season so they should be held accountable in exactly same way had they got it right something I am sure they wouldn't be too shy in telling us about had that been the case.
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by Het-Field »

Dwight1970 wrote:
As such it is a major factor of where we are now on the pitch and how fans feel about it.

On the pitch surely such a publicly statement must unsettle current players in those positions and give the manager an unnecessary headache in dealing with any future fall out.

Then off the pitch, it clearly raises expectations of fans so when the said player fails to arrive is it no surprise that the £20m right forward, a kid Man Utd reserves, along with loan strikers from Italy and Argentina who all arrived are seen as somewhat of a let down?

This is no normal season, the players and staff have moved both home stadium and training ground and obviously the fans have a new home so it was imperative that the board ensured they made this transition as smooth as possible.

For me and I believe others I feel they have failed and it has negatively influenced everything we are witnessing this season so they should be held accountable in exactly same way had they got it right something I am sure they wouldn't be too shy in telling us about had that been the case.
But in such circumstances player management and captaincy is of crucial importance, and there has been serious questionings hanging over both. There are issues with the owners, which are valid. However, to give a pass to Bilic, Noble et al on the back of that would be entirely remiss.
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by WeallwantMoore »

Since the move there is a bad feeling around the club...it's not gone well on or off the pitch and that includes the transfer window, Sakho debacle, injuries, getting knocked out of Europe (which I think was a massive blow for morale, feel good factor etc)

Today summed all of the above up...no urgency, no passion and nobody prepared to drive forward....this is why kouyate should play in midfield....personally I'd drop Noble....1 decent game all year....and play 2 up top...otherwise it's going to be :thdn: all season....
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by simon1982 »

A frustrating afternoon but I'll say it again. We stuck in there and took the lead. Slavs subs actually worked. Stoke also had 7/8 men behind the ball at all times.
Fletcher did very well when he came on apart from one passage of play on the right side when he lost it. He was always available and showed that he has a good touch and can actually create and look after the ball.
He was a big reason we had more of the ball in that 10/15 minute period!
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by simon hammer »

Far from being a brave new dawn, I am starting to feel that last season was a blip and that normal service has been resumed. New stadium, new players, same old story. IF we stay up it will be a big achievement...and the way it's going this season it's a massive if. Still, it wouldn't be the same without a good old relegation struggle would it!
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by 61dicksey »

Watched the Adrian "howler" again is n MOTD 2 what the hell was he thinking? What a loon.
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by steps »

61dicksey wrote:Watched the Adrian "howler" again is n MOTD 2 what the hell was he thinking? What a loon.
Got to be his worst game for us, an absolute shocker.

Concur with others, Randolph deserves a crack in the league.

At one point in the second half Stoke had taken a corner and Adrian didn't realise as he was too busy arguing with their players. It could of led to a second goal for them.
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by lukeWHU »

Who was the scout who suggested that Ayew was the answer to our striker problem and that we should break the bank to sign him?
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by HammerMan2004 »

Just seen the attendance was apparently 56,970 :lol:
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by Diogenes »

In my opinion…….
Stoke are the most boring and cynical side I have seen in the past 10 Seasons.

We played equally dull and lethargic football, but fully deserved the goal and 3 points.

Adrian completely f**ked up and cost us the win, no other threat from them.

Once again, strange substitutions from Bilic. Not so much who he put on but who he took off
Noble reverted back to his old self, slowing things down, going backwards or round and round in circles. He was very poor in every aspect and should have been subbed.

Referee was awful, didn’t help the flow of the game and officiated poorly throughout.

I thought atmosphere and support was very quiet.

That’s 90 minutes of my life I will never get back again.
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by jacko »

lukeWHU wrote:Who was the scout who suggested that Ayew was the answer to our striker problem and that we should break the bank to sign him?
Blimey, give him a chance.
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by Puff Daddy »

lukeWHU wrote:Who was the scout who suggested that Ayew was the answer to our striker problem and that we should break the bank to sign him?

I don't think there was any scout involved. My own feeing is, this was Sully's own ignorance believing him to be a striker
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by HammerMan2004 »

To be fair. Ayew is a decent player, and had we been competing in Europe also he'd have been excellent rotating with Lanzini, Payet etc. However we still needed that striker ahead of him. He desperately wanted the ball yesterday and sometimes came inside his own half between the centre backs to retrieve it leaving nothing up top.
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by smuts »

Ayew is a very good support striker or off the flanks. He is not a centre forward who can lead the line on his own which is what we needed.

Panic buy.
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by mattyD »

Game was a complete stalemate for an hour, then Bilic changed it with Fernandes to get beyond the striker and Antonio in support. We get the goal and would easily have seen it out and everyone goes home reasonably happy except for another mistake by Adrian.
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by Romford »

Nothing in the media about the Stoke chaps playing up.

Typical...
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by the pink palermo »

Not at our best yesterday and a point was all we deserved , despite losing a winning position due to poor goalkeeping .

Stoke were poor but at least when they attacked us they had 4 players in our box when the ball came in , we on the other hand rarely had more than two in their box at any time .

You're not going to beat Stoke on that basis .
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by Romford »

the pink palermo wrote:Not at our best yesterday and a point was all we deserved , despite losing a winning position due to poor goalkeeping .

Stoke were poor but at least when they attacked us they had 4 players in our box when the ball came in , we on the other hand rarely had more than two in their box at any time .

You're not going to beat Stoke on that basis .
We had 2 ??

When was that mate....

We were lucky to have one most of the game.
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Re: West Ham Utd vs Stoke: match thread

Post by bubbles1966 »

lukeWHU wrote:Who was the scout who suggested that Ayew was the answer to our striker problem and that we should break the bank to sign him?
I don't believe he was actually signed as a striker.

On the opening day he played wide right, with Carroll up top.
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