West Ham Utd 1-1 Stoke City (16/04/18)

[sutts07]

PS... someone at the club needs to be asking Arnautovic to get in the ear of fellow Austrian Moritz Bauer and tap him up.

Caused us no end of problems with his pace and was delighted to see him subbed.

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Our tactics under Moyes are very consistent. Home or away. Regardless of the opposition. Sit back, keep a 'secure' base of seven and then do the following:

A) Get it forward to Arnoutovic and hope he can get a shot off, or occupy a couple of defenders long enough for Mario/ Lanzini/ Fernandes to get near him in support

B) Get it wide to Masuaku/ Antonio in a deep LWB position and hope he can either magically skip past three defenders down the line, or sling in a hopeful cross from deep to an isolated Arnoutovic

If we get in front early, these tactics are quite effective. We can then hold on to what we have with potential for a counter attack against rubbish teams

If we don't get in front early then it becomes a problem

[Colours never run]

It comes to something if people now celebrate snatching a draw from a 2bob Stoke side at home.

Moyes is lucky the 2 Strikers he desperately chucked on late that he reluctantly wants to play sooner, have dug him out of the **** to salvage a point in the last 2 matches. There's real irony in that.

As for poor Hugill, what another ****ing waste of £10m that was.

[Graza]

How Cameron was not booked for consistent fouling I do not know!

How only one of the 4 who went into the crowd got booked is beyond me. They were breaking up play and dropping in snide little fouls from the get go. Oliver needed to book a couple to get across the point that it wasn't going to be allowed. But that would require him to understand how to manage a game of football...

[Graza]

How good is Ogbonna by the way, we'd be down already without him.

Having him there, is helping Rice's development massively.

He had a really rocky start to the season, like the rest of our defense, but he has at times made some brilliant tackles and he does bust a gut every time he plays. The rebuilding job we desperately need at the back could use him as the anchor around which we do it.

[The Gibbins]

I swear that Cameron had more fouls than touches last night..

If we had Payet we would have won about 8-0, we had so many free kicks in good positions. It frustrated me that Mario had one of the better angles and Cresswell puts a rubbish cross in the box instead..

[DasNutNock]

I swear that Cameron had more fouls than touches last night..

If we had Payet we would have won about 8-0, we had so many free kicks in good positions. It frustrated me that Mario had one of the better angles and Cresswell puts a rubbish cross in the box instead..

Our obsession with short corners was also pretty painful to witness.

[Clacton-ammer]

I thought our free kicks were generally poor last night, in fairness to Cresswell, I thought he put a couple of crackers in there that our players made look bad through lack of movement.

As for Arthur, good to see him back to not being able to delver a cross again, another that frustrates the f*** out of me.

[The Gibbins]

As for Arthur, good to see him back to not being able to delver a cross again, another that frustrates the **** out of me.

Agreed, i just don't see the fuss. He is fantastic at driving forward and dribbling with the ball but defensively he is pretty poor, in fact most of his tackles are a foul. He is not really good at going forward either, sure he can dribble but his crossing is shocking and that is being kind.

I honestly struggle to see what position he should be filling as whilst there is talent he doesn't have the main qualities to be a good left back or left winger.

[WorcesterWHU]

Arthur was caught behind the play more than once going in both directions; either ambling forward or ambling back. He could easily have added another body into the box at the far post at least twice.

[Colours never run]

In general I like Arthur, but f*** me he stunk the place out last night.

[goa127]

Not one of Arthur's best games last night, but he is valuable for getting the team up the pitch with his dribbles, even when he fails to cross. Thought Oliver let Stoke get away with a succession of cynical fouls, although if our free kicks were better we could have punished them ourselves

[Pop Robson]

Stoke were pony and we struggled to break them down, Arnie is like a one man team wouldn't be suprised to see him off in the summer

[LincolnshireHammer]

In general I like Arthur, but **** me he stunk the place out last night.

Is there any more blind alleys the man can run through?

[Chicken Run Supreme]

Disappointed we didn't get the 3 points that would have practically made us safe but ultimately grateful for edging another point closer and crucially, stopping Stoke getting two additional points. The point meant more to us than Stoke and could end up being a rather crucial point. I still think we will nick something from one of the Mancs and maybe Arsenal on Sunday - we will stay up but it has been a shitstorm of a season and one I'll be pleased to see the back of.

As for last night's game, I certainly wasn't expecting the same half time score as our previous home game. Stoke were better than the 3-0 score against Arsenal and were very unlucky losing to Spurs so I knew it wasn't going to be a walk in the park. They made it difficult. Why wouldn't they? After all they are 5 points from safety and fighting for their lives. They bullied us in midfield - not always fairly and I believe it was a record no of fouls conceded, and like so many teams these days, they were time-wasting as early as the first half with every trick in the book. We would have won the game if Moyes had played the subs earlier - it was the right call but the wrong time. I don't recall ever having 3 disallowed goals in one game before so we lucked out a bit there, especially with the second and thirds but I haven't seen any replays. Cresswell played well but Masuaku had a howler and should have been subbed at half time. Poor old Arnie looked a bit isolated up top and was at times, perhaps trying too hard to make something happen. Declan Rice put in another good shift and it's good to see another youth player making it to the first XI. Hart is no better than Adrian and his fumble was a carbon copy of the one against Burnley, I think we need a new keeper completely. I like Adrian but he is not quite good enough and Hart is no better, if not worse.

Bit of a clearout needed in the summer - hopefully.

[Billydinho]

It's really making me laugh how people are clamouring to sign Mario.

The fella is pointless. He offers nothing.

Same with Fernandez, still waiting to be told what he does or what his role is.

[ryanrc]

Last night was my first night match at the bowl (apart from Astra Googoo).
Like everybody on here I used to look forward to a great evening at UP no matter the opposition, and that has properly gone. So corporate and soulless, with f*cking adverts for Beyonce all over the gaff and eating in a bloody shake shack before.
It's the saddest I've felt since leaving UP.

Onto the actual match, I thought it was an entertaining game (if a bit cagey for the first 2 thirds) and summed up being West Ham, when we somehow found ourselves behind. Unlucky not to win but BIG BIG changes need to be made in the summer, starting at the very top, or we are doomed for the same. I hope DS doesn't think he's off the hook to do more of the same, or he's in for a big shock.

[Estuary]

Zouma had Arthur in his pocket from the get go and our lad clearly didn't fancy it against the quicker, bigger, stronger defender. Might be one for the transfer window.

[S-H]

What was with all of the short corners lastnight? so frustrating.

[The Gibbins]

What was with all of the short corners lastnight? so frustrating.

The only reasoning i can think was our lack of aerial threat, but i would much rather a good ball in the box than these short corners we are terrible at.