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.
prophet:marginal wrote:Only seen the highlights, so perhaps an attendee can confirm...was Kouyate playing to that standard all game? He had a clear hand in each of our goals and looked like he was striding around midfield as if he owned it outright. Great stuff.
Every one of them put a shift in today. Kouyate did well.
No idea where performances like that have been this season.
A faultless first half performance from us - application, desire, proper attitude, out of the blocks from the first minute - everything you want meant the game was over as a contest before half time.
Three passes today from Noble, none of which were more than 5 yards, were worth the price of admission alone. Each put the receiver in acres of space. Truly sensational stuff.
More remarkable was the effort made by Kouyate who seemed to remember that running was allowed and Masuaku showed us exactly what we had missed as a result of a moment of madness. I'd love to see the stats for games with him, without him during Moyes reign.
Colours never run wrote:What frustrates me is they don't play like that most games (don't expect it every game). One off games isn't enough. I'm not on about scoring 3 but going at it from the start giving it 100% throughout. No one slacked off or did it only when they felt like it. They're clearly capable of it when they fancy it. More of the same West Ham.
I think a huge part of it was that Southampton had no-one out there who could punish mistakes if we were aggressive in the first half. A common thread in many recent defeats is to start out bright, make a mistake, get hit with a counter and fall apart. Hughes gave us the wonderful gift of leaving out Long and Boufal. Austin can score, but he isn't blasting past you on the counter, nor was anyone else they had out at the start. Let us get on top, a goal brought confidence, a quick second and they were the ones falling apart.
the pink palermo wrote:
More remarkable was the effort made by Kouyate who seemed to remember that running was allowed and Masuaku showed us exactly what we had missed as a result of a moment of madness. I'd love to see the stats for games with him, without him during Moyes reign.
Its strange but Antonio still didn't look right even before he got injured. He was struggling to run as if he was already puffed out. I think he hasn't recovered since tearing that hamstring several months ago.
Masuaku had a blinder. Arnie too and I really liked Mario’s performance too. Kouyate turned up as well. Obiang and Rice had a confidence building game against a very poor side but even so, a confidence builder . Some breathing space but job not done yet. You can be sure there will be some unusual results by teams in the next month that might throw us back in the mix if we dont secure more points.
That third goal was something else and showed the quality of Arnie and Arthur. Mario is showing some quality as well- he may be worth keeping but the next few games will tell.
dodger wrote:Will people now stop saying Masuaku can’t cross?
The lad is mustard. Not the finished article, but easily the best full back/wing back we have.
Agree dodger. He's quite a strange player though. Something really unorthodox about him but I do like him.
Kouyate is still a headless chicken but sometimes a very effective headless chicken, like yesterday.
Masuaku is a very competent player, the midfield is far more balanced with him in both defensively and most certainly attacking. Big thumbs up for Zabaleta too, he's been very consistent this season, gives it his all week in week out.
Every season there’s that one game where everything goes right and it becomes the highlight performance of the season. Last year it was the home game against Palace with Big Andy’s amazing overhead kick and Lanzini’s classy chip. Today we got Super Mario’s superb finish and Arnie’s clinical finish from Arthur’s pinpoint cross.
One thing that has been going on for over 50 years of supporting us is that West Ham always does the opposite of what is expected. Go back and look at the early comments on this thread, The negative vibe was overwhelming, and we produce the best performance of the season. Previously when the expectations are high and positive, we usually crash and burn. I was going to point this out before the game and predict a win but I didn’t want to jinx anything.
As a side point, I picked the wrong game. I made the journey from NJ three weeks ago with my son and saw us lose 0-3. Although it was a game we’ll never forget for other reasons, I wish I’d been there today instead.
Today we took 2 of our first 3 chances, we had chances against Burnley but failed to score. I believe that also made a difference. Until they did score Burnley did not look that much more of a threat than Southampton.
Second half we were set up to not let them back into the game. We shifted more to a back 5 by dropping Arthur slightly deeper whereas first half it was very much more a 4-2-3-1. Arthur’s presence gives us that flexibility. To my mind Ogbonna was huge in getting his head on the few dangerous crosses and blocks on the even rarer attempts they had second half.
Mario had an excellent game as on his debut, I wonder if balance wise we are better when one of him or Lanzini is in the side as opposed to both. I did think Fernandes really put a shift in looking far more like the real prospect we saw at times last season.
For me though the biggest difference first half was we looked to get the ball forward far quicker than we have in a lot of games, not long ball but when Noble (who was top draw throughout) et al got the ball their first thought was who was on ahead of them not the safe sideways/backwards pass.
Pop Robson wrote:Just watched MOTD and Mark Hughes was wearing a light blue shirt and claret tie yesterday, very strange choice for the opposition manager.