LC3: Bolton Wanderers 3 West Ham Utd 1 AET (22/09/09)

[Dannysboy]

Shush you chav

[Sloop John B]

Even though it was a poor turnout the atmosphere was great.

What atmosphere?? Them school kids jumping up and down in the corner and singing to a bloke dressed as a lion!!

[I8CHAVS]

Shush you chav

I didnt think you would say anything back as there is no **** with a drum on here.

I also hope that your **** of a mascot catches on fire too.

[Chuck D]

I think the idea that we played dull football under Curbs in every game is every bit as inaccurate as the idea that we played exciting football under Pards in every game. Football folklore - gotta love it.

Anyone who saw Bellamy, and Etherington rip Reading apart, and Cole and Ethers on the counter at Fulham would know that was nonsense.

People like to put managers, and players in boxes. Curbs = Dull football, Zola = good football.

Even though its not actually true.....

[I8CHAVS]

Anyone who saw Bellamy, and Etherington rip Reading apart, and Cole and Ethers on the counter at Fulham would know that was nonsense.

People like to put managers, and players in boxes. Curbs = Dull football, Zola = good football.

Even though its not actually true.....

Maybe if Curbsy banged on about how he was trying to playn the right way everyone wouldnt have macked him off as much.......

TBF i think they are all *****, **** them all off and get Barry Fry in.

[Dannysboy]

What atmosphere?? Them school kids jumping up and down in the corner and singing to a bloke dressed as a lion!!

Yeh the ones who made more noise in 5 minutes than the west ham fans did all night

[Alf Garnett's (Ex) Missus]

Anyone who saw Bellamy, and Etherington rip Reading apart, and Cole and Ethers on the counter at Fulham would know that was nonsense.

People like to put managers, and players in boxes. Curbs = Dull football, Zola = good football.

Even though its not actually true.....

Maybe if Curbsy banged on about how he was trying to playn the right way everyone wouldnt have macked him off as much.......

TBF i think they are all c***s, f*** them all off and get Barry Fry in.

Come to think of it is Dave 'Harry the master of the punted ball' Bassett looking for a job?

[Chuck D]

The stats that I took were from the beginning of January, a month which saw us beat Hull and Fulham and gain draws away at Newcastle and Arsenal. I'm guessing there's a reason why you don't want to consider them results and because of it, a revised update (I was going with league games) would see us with 5 wins, 3 draws and 6 defeats (4 of those being against the top five), totalling 18 points in 16 games. The defeat to Middlesbrough was in the FA Cup. Even going by these updated statistics I wouldn't call that record "not very good" as you have. Looking back over it, I would say it was pretty much what you would of expected from us.

You were explicitly talking about players missing chances, something the manager has no control over. You can moan at him for the tactics, formation, set-up, etc. but not individual decisions made by individiual players over the course of a game.

I said - unless I am mistaken - from the end of the transfer window (as opposed to some arbitary point in time to suit an argument).Which was when we had a chance to buy players, but chose not to (Savio aside), instead saving the "Bellamy money" for buying a better player in June - as we were assured, "you get no value in January".

We beat Hull, and Fulham, and then what happened? Why the drop in form?

So you cant hold the manager responsible for players (who he either chose to sign, or decided was good enough) missing chances?

If we were talking about one individual, I might agree with you, and say "DDM (or whoever) isnt a good finisher". But how do you select a side full of players who cant finish? When you've had a season of coaching, and two transfer windows to find someone who can?

[Billydinho]

Come to think of it is Dave 'Harry the master of the punted ball' Bassett looking for a job?

Nani out! Pleat In!

[helloducks]

All you lot who need to get it off your chest, Danny wants to know how it went last night ...
http://twitter.com/TheRealGabbidon

[osborner69]

What atmosphere?? Them school kids jumping up and down in the corner and singing to a bloke dressed as a lion!! [/quote]

Ha ha - that summed up the night all over for me, like kindergarten in the home corner. Its true though, one of the quietest away support I have heard in a long long time - just didnt get going at all (much like the game until they equalised) one of the worst away games I have been to very long time, and I have been to some stinkers. The M1 being closed for 2 junctions added to the fun too, rolled through the door at 4am this morning.

For what its worth, I thought the back line did well, particularly Green, Spector & Tomkins, Da Costa did ok but N'gala for me looked a little out of place at the moment at this level, especially against a load of long ball bangers/set pieces. Noble wasnt great, Parker did ok and Kovac was anonymous throughout really. Dyer couldnt beat his man at any stage and was pretty awful.

Diamanti. Difficult one - I cant work out if his long range shooting at any given moment was a sign of a player trying too hard to impress or if he is just a greedy b*stard, was unlucky with the shot off the bar in Extra Time - needs to change his boots though.

Hines was MOM for me, although it was very frustrating humping long balls to him when he has a 7 ft giant marking him in Zac Knight. Faubert was egg when he came on, 3 out of his 4 or so crosses nearly hit me. Cole should have done better with the late chance in injury time, but played well and gave Knight a taste of his own medicine.

As far as the game is concerned, I wasnt expecting much going up there, any game away from home against a Prem team was always going to be difficult, expecially with injuries and the obvious changes. What worries me is that Bolton are a pretty crap team and obviously rely on power and set pieces/long balls. With the Prem getting more and more or these kind of teams (Stoke, Blackburn etc) we are going to need to be able to stoop to their level - we havent got the players to play amazing total football and pass sides like Bolton out of games like Arsenal do.

[10 Iron]

Miami Hammer... Yeah it's about right and resulted in Diamante dropping deeper and deeper. He doesn't have the pace to beat a player so didn't cause any problems. When he got the ball on the edge of the box he looked dangerous everytime.

Another thing...diamante (left footed) played on the right and Dyer (right footed) on the left...didn't seem to switch. Seems crazy to me, their only option is to come insid ewhere all the other players are. Times last night when there was about 5 players within 10 feet of each other all playing one touch to each other (until a Bolton player smashed it up field).

Just about sums the night up perfectly ,even the misses asked"are they allowed to shoot from outside the box?" Do we have anyone that can play the ball outwide? Thought we could do this, Citeh Arse and Chelski to come prior to xmas, winning is a nice feeling, Wolves seems so long ago. So Pleased i went to the Reserves against Brum

[anyoldirons]

was at the match and the formation (4-3-3?) didn't reflect the players available. Diamante disappeared on the right, likewise Dyer lost the ball on the left while Green hoofed the ball away - here there and everywhere. Hines was very lively, but up against two big defenders on his lonesome was crowded out.

In midfield we had Parker being useful, Kovac short balls and Noble usually out wide where he is not very effective. Against a four man midfield, it was a struggle usually resulting in a back pass to Green to hoof it back to Bolton.

It's the Carling Cup so not the top priority, but bringing on N'Gala to shut things down?
A few minutes before the equaliser, Faubert was ready to stiffen the defence. They scored -extra time loomed with us needing to score to avoid pens-and our regular RB was then brought on at right midfield!

I don't think 4-3-3 works for our players at the moment. Maybe Chel$ki with the Dog up front works, but him v CC no match sad to say.

4-3-3 just doesn't work for us at the moment. Our tactics need to be changed to meet our players abilities - either back to the diamond or traditional 4-4-2.

[SenzaPaura]

Was at the gym earlier and saw a bloke wearing a Bolton shirt oddly enough. That's a first round here. Thankfully I wasn't wearing my WHU top.

[Puff Daddy]

was at the match and the formation (4-3-3?) didn't reflect the players available. Diamante disappeared on the right, likewise Dyer lost the ball on the left while Green hoofed the ball away - here there and everywhere. Hines was very lively, but up against two big defenders on his lonesome was crowded out.

In midfield we had Parker being useful, Kovac short balls and Noble usually out wide where he is not very effective. Against a four man midfield, it was a struggle usually resulting in a back pass to Green to hoof it back to Bolton.

It's the Carling Cup so not the top priority, but bringing on N'Gala to shut things down?
A few minutes before the equaliser, Faubert was ready to stiffen the defence. They scored -extra time loomed with us needing to score to avoid pens-and our regular RB was then brought on at right midfield!

I don't think 4-3-3 works for our players at the moment. Maybe Chel$ki with the Dog up front works, but him v CC no match sad to say.

4-3-3 just doesn't work for us at the moment. Our tactics need to be changed to meet our players abilities - either back to the diamond or traditional 4-4-2.

Or the drawing board

[Denbighammer]

Haven't read the 42 pages (when I was last on here there were 3 ).

My take on it was that we seem to be passing the ball for passes sake. Forget the 'Christmas Tree', West Ham play 'The Tortoise', creeping forward with no real speed or direction! The movement off the ball is as poor as I have ever seen, although I'm not going to pretend that "that is the worst West Ham have ever played TM" which people do love to trot out when we've been beaten. We have no decisive attacking thrust, bar knocking it over the top to Cole when he's on. Why we didn't try Nouble with Hines is a mystery.

My biggest worries from the match was the lack of tactical nous shown by the management, resulting in a strange mishmash of players by the end and the lack of desire by those wearing the shirt.

I felt that Zola thought he had the game won and took off DaCosta for N'Gala to give him some experience against one of the Premierships top forwards (Davies). Fine if we are 3-0 up but not at 1-0 and N'Gala had a awful debut. I felt for him and I'm sure he can do better but in all honesty I thought he was terrible, particularly on the deck. DaCosta was very promising and handled Davies really well, particularly in the air.

Our 1st half highlighted just how much we rely on Cole. With a tiny forward line amongst the land of the giants we had to try a slow passing game to get through them that didn't really work. At least when Cole came on he gave us an outlet ball, although perhaps we tried that too much (one extreme to the other).

Diamanti looks like a player who offers something different and can make things happen although he has no pace and no right foot I guess you get what you pay for! However, he has got skill and is the only player who looks like he can create something out of nothing, as his effort in extra time that hit the bar shows. He needs more time to bed in but I've seen enough to suggest that he can be a regular for us.

The rest of the midfield performed as they did at Wigan - dull, slow, lifeless and uncommitted. Parker looked very tired, although so would anyone be when doing all Dyer, Noble and Kovac's running and tackling for them. Noble and Kovac were pisspoor again. Dyer looked scared of any contact and his game is about running off the shoulder of the last defender not trying to dribble through a wall of bodies from 20yds inside his own half. Noble was made to look a right **** on a couple of occasions by that Chinese lad, at one point still reacting to his 2nd turn whilst the Chink had done his 3rd and passed it off! He isn't fit enough and doesn't work hard enough and Kovac is an average plodder who is always three yards behind the play.

Positives:
Hines looked lively and ran out of puff a little, as he did against Wigan and Liverpool.
Tomkins looked pretty good, Spector was solid if unspectacular and DaCosta did well till subbed.
Green looked very sharp and did well.

[Kialos]

Agree with that Denbighhammer.

[hammer2192]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 271434.stm

At me and my 2 seconds of fame from 12-14 seconds on the highlights video. Its always a laugh when i see myself on tele