West Ham Utd 0-2 Watford (22/12/18)

[My_Sobriquet]

Mixed bag for me today.

Had a great time visiting the stadium, if they got the retractable seating in it would be much better though.

I sat in the Sir Trev stand this time right behind the goal and I was really shocked by the fans I encountered there.

I got shitty looks from a family for trying to join in with some songs whilst those around me sat in silence. Gutting when the Watford fans keep singing “is this a library” right next to you.

Then I got asked to sit down by the fella behind me despite everyone else standing because his mrs didn’t want to stand.

The football was dire, we don’t move off the ball and id like to know from regular attendees if this happens in most matches as I usually only get to see a steam.

Anderson was particularly lazy first half. He didn’t track back well at all so for those digging the commentators out for saying so, to be fair he really wasn’t!

Snodgrass and noble looked like midgets next to their midfielders and Anderson too lightweight. Made the diangana sub a bit baffling.

Rice played well, he may not have looked like it on tv but in the flesh he covers so much ground and puts out so many fires. If we could just clone him we’d be set in midfield!

Antonio struck his first half chance well but I was sat right behind foster and it was never going to beat him, low and across him was probably the best option.

The ref was pretty bad, he let a lot go that he shouldn’t have including the comedic 10 yard patching for the wall where he only did about 6 steps.

We ran to Westfield car park when they scored their second and it only took 15 minutiae to get out.

Thanks for all the guidance today chaps, I’ll be back up again soon!

[MadMart]

All in all I thought we pretty much stunk the place out today - same ol West Ham

[Phil S]

apart from the Deeney song our fans (that I could hear) didn't sing until the 59th minute

pathetic home support

[Rocketron]

I admit I've not read the whole thread, but am I the only one that doesn't think it was a penalty?
Balbuena pulled ouy of the challenge (his left foot caught in the turf, causing the injury to his knee)the Watford player dived over where he expected the foot to be and had slight contact with Balbuena's trailing leg as he was already hitting the floor.

[brothernero]

Clear Penalty.

[Marky]

Losses v Watford, Wolves and Bornemouth...

[johnnyb]

Losses v Watford, Wolves and Bornemouth...

All games we should have drawn really. If you can't always win, then make sure you don't lose. Something we need to do much more often.

[Vic_Watson]

I admit I've not read the whole thread, but am I the only one that doesn't think it was a penalty?
Balbuena pulled ouy of the challenge (his left foot caught in the turf, causing the injury to his knee)the Watford player dived over where he expected the foot to be and had slight contact with Balbuena's trailing leg as he was already hitting the floor.

Stonewaller.

Rashford's on the other hand...

[e17]

apart from the Deeney song our fans (that I could hear) didn't sing until the 59th minute

pathetic home support

I spent the match as always watching the team, not tutting at others and setting my stopwatch for songs.

Maybe just don’t go?

[brownout]

I spent the match as always watching the team, not tutting at others and setting my stopwatch for songs.
Maybe just don’t go?

If everyone who spent the match moaning didn't go there'd be a lot more empty seats.

[e17]

Quicker beer queues for the rest of us

[Phil S]

haha e17

maybe just maybe if the fans got behind the team...lets face it it's been pretty good recently and they deserve the support. No tutting or stopwatching from me.

pathetic response from our "fans" today
glad you enjoyed standing in silence.

[bubbles1966]

Losses v Watford, Wolves and Bornemouth...

W 2 D 2 L 8 now against the others in the top 13.

That implies that we have mostly lower mid table standard footballers, or possibly worse, who get out of jail on the back of the odd few who are a level above..

[e17]

Honestly Phil, the weekend before Christmas, with the unexpected spoils of 4 wins on the trot, having to travel near Westfield

I think our fellow Irons deserve the applause for bothering at all mate

Yes it was dead, but not as dead as the 5 empty seats in our row!

[OohAahButler]

I thought it was fairly entertaining- but not our day. At least we gave it a go, which puts it ahead of many games over the last couple of seasons. Somehow Pellegrini losses are easier to take in the context of trying to play some decent football.

If we’re honest, we’ve had the rub of the green in a couple of our recent wins, so it was going to happen to us at some point. I think we really missed Arnie today - he’d have given us a bit more presence. I have a grudging respect for Troy Deeney. Would love it if we had someone who put it about like him. Don’t know how he dodged a yellow though.

On to the next game.

[Patito]

Plenty of improvements still needed from the team. We could/should have snatched a draw. We still seem a bit naive against more savvy and physical sides to me. Onwards and upwards

[tugboatpete69]

For me today -we looked lethargic noble does not have the legs anymore cresswell must of shagged pellegrinis mother because masuaki is a disaster and im baffled as to why hes playing.
our little Mexican upfront is not good enough to start - Antonio is a willing runner -------- I would say we need a striker and midfield general next year at the very least if you watched Watford every time they went down the wings they took us on -every time zab went down the wing he had too pass back

frustrating as we should be beating this rubbish

[OohAahButler]

frustrating as we should be beating this rubbish

Watford are seventh tonight. We have no divine right to beat them.

[brothernero]

frustrating as we should be beating this rubbish

Shall look for your comment on a Watford forum when they do their version "Opposition Fans View"

[funky chicken]

Good game for the neutrals today. It was actually a breath of fresh air to see 2 mid table teams try to play football the right way. How often do you say that in a clash between 2 mid tables teams? Both teams gave it a go. Albeit for me we wasn't at our best. Our final ball at times was very poor. Anderson especially had his worst performance for a very long time. Hopefully it was a one-off!

Poor atmosphere as I mentioned on the stadium thread, which was a shame as it was a good end-to-end game.

And what a shocker from Lee Mason. He may not of influenced the result and sadly he got their penalty spot on. But he certainly made himself look a right laughing stock. How can a professional ref not be able to make sure a wall is 10 yards away from the free kick taker!? :shock: if the head of referee's doesn't question him on that performance then we know they don't want the best for this League.

Even though we weren't at our best we still on another day could've at least picked up a draw. But we lost for 3 reasons today.

1) once again and not for the first time this season we didn't take our chances. Hernandez and Antonio should especially hang their heads in shame for the chances they missed. Hernandez does seem to have a habit of missing at least 1 sitter a game. He did the same against Palace which could've killed the game off and on another day the miss may have cost us that game too. And Antonio's first header against the post. Awful miss. Arnie for me would've at least put one of those chances away. And as much as we have done brilliantly wopithout Arnie, maybe the fans will realise now why he is deep down our best striker at the club.

- Up to 140k in wages for Hernandez to miss more chances than he seems to score,
- Up to 80k in wages for Antonio to not score or create enough chances,
- Up to 90k in wages for Carroll to wait for a cross in the box, bordering on the line of a 'one trick pony'.

We have to ask ourselves for the next 2 windows are these 3 really worth the wages when overall they have been letting us down for the last season and a half?

2) Pellegrini got the team wrong. Just because you won your last match it doesn't mean you have to pick the same side!

Up until Obiang came on against Fulham, we were losing that midfield battle too. But thankfully was at least more clinical on that day. But Watford are better than Fulham. And as soon as I saw Capoue back in their team and our midfield was the same I sadly knew what was coming today.

3) their 2 central midfielders dominated the game. In fact they are better than all of our central midfielders full stop IMO. Rice of course is young and has the pontential to grow. But Doucoure and Capoue are much better than all of our central midfielders and would walk into our starting 11 with ease. And if we had any ambition and really wanted to push on and show why moving to a 60,000 seated stadium will benefit us we would make a bid for one of them, preferably Doucoure, in the summer. Otherwise why did we move here? And yet we would rather look at washed up 32 year old Gary Medel!? Astonishing.

It shows you like I have been harping on since the summer window closed why it wasn't a good window for us. It was in terms of the players we brought in, as minus Sanchez and sicknote Wilshere the players have been good. It was more the players we didn't bring in. If we swapped our central midfield 2 with their 2 we could've potentially had a far better season in my eyes. And most certainly wouldn't of lost today IMO.

£100m allegedly spent in the summer and Watford have a better midfield than us. That's when you know you've failed in the transfer window!

Hopefully the club and fans now will wake up and realise we are not good enough to compete for a Europa League place. Just focus and try and finish in the top 10. We are not good enough to do any better yet. Hopefully next season we will be.