Manchester Utd 4-0 West Ham Utd (13/08/17)

[bubbles500]

Did Tyler really say that?

The Sky commentators were having a concerted pop at Masuaku and Sakho - but Noble? Also trying to sell Lanzini on.

Yeah was something like his 400 performances were catching up with him.Had to rewind to make sure heard correctly was quite shocked.

[HammerMan2004]

Noble struggles against human freak shows of players like Matic and Pogba.

He'll have games where we actually have the ball for more than five minutes where he'll look good. Probably against any team who finish in the bottom half.

[Lostcoco]

Crazy to think that Declan Rice, an 18 year old CB looked like our best midfielder today :lol:

[chalks]

He'll have games where we actually have the ball for more than five minutes where he'll look good. Probably against any team who finish in the bottom half.

He's been looking like a championship standard player for the best part of a year now. He's got 'loan to Ipswich' written all over him

[Knighter10WHU]

Have to agree with Tyler, for the first time today Noble looked like he was finished. Unfortunately right now, he's the biggest weak link in our starting 11.

[wasserburg_hammer]

It's the West Ham way, don't you know....

Oh, I didn't know, you know, don't you know.

[Alfiehammer]

Was on a 8-7 shift today and managed to watch most the game hidden away in the consultation at work with half an eye on the door looking out for the boss...

That was poor. Really poor. I'm clinging to the hope that a lot of very good Man U players really clicked and hadn't excellent games all at once. They made us look bad. But then I though that last season vs arse, city, Liverpool...

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Personally thought Nobke was our best player today. When you line up with Nobke, Obiang and Fernandes in midfield and Obiang has an absolute shocker then not much noble can do.
He got a 6. Everyone else struggled to get a 4. It was that bad

[SullySpecial]

Noble wouldn't have to run around and get so exhausted so quickly if the West Ham team could pass the ****ing ball with a bit of accuracy. At times it's like watching a pub side after a night on the piss. These are supposed to be professionals. There's no excuse for not being able to do the basics.

[MD_HM]

Yep shocked by the comments on Noble

He looked a different player to last season, our best midfielder today

Got stuck in, put himself about unlike Obiang and Fernandes

Lack of preseason just meant he was knackered I think

[Croydon]

Nobles race is nearly run, particularly if we get Carvalho in. Him and Kouyate together are what we need.

Careful, you may be called a disgrace for suggesting Noble may not make the first team!

For what it's worth, I didn't actually think he was a/the problem today. Shooting ourselves in the foot with a silly lapse of concentration and then our CB relinquishing responsibility ultimately killed us off.

I am normally a staunch Bilic supporter, but I can't overlook his poor set up today. There was zero cohesion and comprehension of individual roles and the players that were here last season looked scared of their opposition. I can forgive a lack of quality, but not a lack of fight and unfortunately, I have to apportion the blame to Bilic.

On a side note, we are really in a lose lose situation with Sakho. A completely unprofessional, lazy player that should be no where near our first squad. If today was an attempt to put him in the shop window, we will struggle to get rid of him for free. He has shown a complete disregard for lack of respect to our club again.

[bowltorious]

Noble was the best out the 3 today. The scary thing is Rice looked better than any of them when he came on. A 17year old with no experience.

[sgb1972]

Anyone can have an off day (can't pick a pass, poor first touch, etc), but we couldn't even deliver some simple basic points:

Ogbonna had Lukaku covered for the first, but simply let him run
Masuaka picking up Lukaku for the second?! Unless we were zonal marking, they'd be given a man each. Must be Reid or Ogbonna on Lukaku. For them not to pick him up, and for Masuaku not to tell them is schoolboy stuff
Effort - if you're having a shocker at least put a shift in
Fight - how lightweight were our tackles in midfield, seemed to lose so many 50/50's

I can excuse Ogbonna's shocking distribution for example as a bad day at the office, but when a team of highly paid professionals cannot even deliver fundemental professional basics, on the first game of the season, away at Man Utd, live to millions watching worldwide, you have to seriously ask what is all that about?!

[Morocco Mole]

Personally thought Nobke was our best player today. When you line up with Nobke, Obiang and Fernandes in midfield and Obiang has an absolute shocker then not much noble can do.
He got a 6. Everyone else struggled to get a 4. It was that bad

Comfortably. The only one either willing or capable of playing an incisive pass. The little chipped through ball for Hernandez to volley and the lay off in the box for Fernandes' shot down their keepers throat: Our only two chances in the game, Noble made. Thought it was nuts of Slav to bring him off rather than Fernandes. People see what they want to see but if Big Willy does sign I reckon it'll be Obiang that's first up for the chop. Ultimately I'd like to see Noble freed up to play further forward as a Lanzini alternative.

[Stulaw]

The problem today was that the players could barely get out of their own half, the players barely created chances because they're too afraid of losing the ball.

The problem for me was the formation, last season, we played best when we played 3 at the back with 2 wingbacks, now that wouldn't have stopped the second goal since that was simply bad defending, but I don't think our centre backs can play as a 2 anymore for some reason.

I cannot believe (well I can since a lot of people have some sort of cognitive dissonance) that people are saying that Sakho was crap, the problem, as with Chicharito, was that no-one was getting the ball to him. Arnie seemed to be terrible at free kicks, Ayew just couldn't keep hold of the ball, Fernandes just went missing except for that one shot where Ayew almost got in the way of.

Noble wasn't that bad, he just drifted to the right a bit too often and left the centre open with Obiang not having enough pace to get back and defend. The first goal wasn't entirely his (Obiangs) fault, but he should have been aware of his surroundings.

Rice was playing like he had something to prove and I liked that, unfortunately the surrounding players bar Zabaleta seemed to have given up. As I said above, the strikers can't do anything with no service.

Manchester United were on it today and West Ham weren't, there didn't even seem to be any belief instilled in the team that they could even do something, they just rolled over and said "do your worst".

[WeallwantMoore]

Why did we look so nervous......

Lost the battle in midfield today, Matic was brilliant

[delbert]

FFS It's 11 men against 11 men - the gap in ability isn't that big. If we were tactically organised with a clear game plan and every player giving 100% we don't lose 4-0.

The ridiculous amount of money in the game is altering people's perceptions.


Agree with the above 100%

Ditto....

[Believer]

Ultimately I'd like to see Noble freed up to play further forward as a Lanzini alternative.

Not a bad shout MM

[sgb1972]

The problem for me was the formation, last season, we played best when we played 3 at the back with 2 wingbacks, now that wouldn't have stopped the second goal since that was simply bad defending, but I don't think our centre backs can play as a 2 anymore for some reason.

I think we played well on occasions last season with 3 at the back, but can't see that happening anytime soon having signed Zabaleta - he can't play wing back, and Slav won't have him sat on the bench at £100k per week or whatever he earns. Unless he plays right of three centre halves, but we signed him as a very experienced fullback.

[traxop]

Really surprised that we didn't revert to a back 3 in the second half when Utd. started to funnel their counter-attacks through Rashford on the left almost exclusively. We probably could have done with another body at Wingback giving Zabs a little more protection.