West Ham Utd 1-1 Stoke City (11/04/15)

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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by bubbles1966 »

Romford wrote:What do you do when you get dominated by size and strength ? You use pace and power.
Did we have enough of that in yesterday's squad?

The left back is tiny, Noble, Nolan and Nene are all very limited in these characteristics, Carlton isn't 25 anymore. Downing and Jarvis? Valencia is tenacious but powder puff.

The squad needs at least half a dozen changes.

Agree completely about the Song sub. Pointless.
Last edited by bubbles1966 on Sun Apr 12, 2015 10:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by Crouchend_Hammer »

http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone/8- ... per-anchor" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Those stats would suggest, that Valencia actually played more as a left winger, than as a left back, like some posters on here like to point out... . The fact that he tracked back Stoke's right back shouldn't be a problem. His wrong decisions in the final-third were even more frustrating.
Why is he being played as a left winger? If Alladyce had wanted a left winger he should have bought one, not spent £12 million on a striker to play left wing / left wing back
Just play the poor fella up front.
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by vapourtrail »

LincolnshireHammer wrote: And I still find it pointless to play 3 CM's in Song, Noble and Kouyate. There is just no pace or flair in our team what so ever.
I agree. I brought this up a few weeks ago. I don't see us progressing with Song & Nobes playing together. Kouyate is still not the finished article, as he got caught out of position far too many times for a very good box-to-box-midfielder. That's why the club is looking for another robust central midfielder instead of either Nobes or Song, who looks completely out of pace at the moment.
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by Chicken Run Supreme »

the pink palermo wrote:
Stop giving the ball away in dangerous areas ,
Just stop giving it away whenever in posssession. I lost count the number of times we had possession ( Nobes in particular) and instead of moving forward with the ball, chose to pass back to Adrian who then kicks it long invariably to a Stoke player and possession thus conceded.
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by Romford »

the pink palermo wrote:
The ability to close a game out .
.
We tried to close the game out from the 8th bloody minute !!!

That was the problem...

We had the game in our hands....and were playing well. Then we retreated.

Why ?

100% Sam
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by vapourtrail »

Crouchend_Hammer wrote: Why is he being played as a left winger? If Alladyce had wanted a left winger he should have bought one, not spent £12 million on a striker to play left wing / left wing back
Just play the poor fella up front.
Valencia played as winger for his teams in Ecuador, Mexiko and the ecuadorian NT.
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by Hockley Hammer »

Romford wrote:I still cannot see why he was bought off...we only got worse when the captain came on.
The people behind me took great delight in highlighting Nolan's faults having totally ignored the appalling dross served up by Noble Song and Downing up to then.
It can't help the team in a match when three quarters of your supposedly best midfield are underperforming yet again.
Nolan seemed a reasonable sub to me but it should have been for Noble. I've no doubt that would have caused outrage too.
Look at that break near the end of the first half. Sakho and Kouyate created a chance out of nothing but there were just the two of them no sign of Valencia or the rest of the midfield. Happened at least twice in the second half.
I really don't see what the fuss is about with Valencia. It will be interesting to see if a new manager releases this great player that some people see.
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by vapourtrail »

Romford wrote: Do you know what a wing back is fella ?
Yep. I actually played that position during my playing days.
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by Romford »

bubbles1966 wrote:
Did we have enough of that in yesterday's squad?

The left back is tiny, Noble, Nolan and Nene are all very limited in these characteristics, Carlton isn't 25 anymore. Downing and Jarvis? Valencia is tenacious but powder puff.

The squad needs at least half a dozen changes.

Agree completely about the Song sub. Pointless.
Did you see what happened when Sakho ran at them in the first half ??

I thought Moses had turned up
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by Chicken Run Supreme »

Hockley Hammer wrote: The people behind me took great delight in highlighting Nolan's faults having totally ignored the appalling dross served up by Noble Song and Downing up to then.

Nolan seemed a reasonable sub to me but it should have been for Noble. I've no doubt that would have caused outrage too.
Agree.

Song was poor yesterday, but Noble was shockingly bad and should have been the one subbed. Although I doubt it would have affected the outcome, they were always going to score, it was just a metter of time.
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by vapourtrail »

Chicken Run Supreme wrote: Nolan seemed a reasonable sub to me but it should have been for Noble. I've no doubt that would have caused outrage too.
[
I really felt sorry for the old bloke behind me who booed his heart out when Nolan came on. His son looked bewildered too. So i felt sorry for the young boy too.
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by the pink palermo »

Romford wrote:
We tried to close the game out from the 8th bloody minute !!!
I don't agree .

Let's not confuse our inability to force a save from their keeper after the 8th minute with trying to close the game out .
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by Hockley Hammer »

Chicken Run Supreme wrote: Although I doubt it would have affected the outcome, they were always going to score, it was just a metter of time.
That's good old West Ham for you we had ample warnings about what might happen. 5 added minutes made it inevitable.
My biggest gripe with our manager is that we are now the weak spineless West Ham of old. Toothless up front. Weak in midfield and cannot keep a clean sheet or hold out more times than not.
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by jaybs »

Alex Song was not superb, but the fine substitution by Sam, of golden boy Nolan, 25 minutes on pitch, 4 touches of the ball, 2 fouls and a yellow card, add to that we all know Carlton is on his way out and he is ready to leave and settle for a lower level. Dowling supporting Sam in the media, well Stu your England place has well and been shot again as he is not the player he was before the wheels seem to come off our season?
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by rciron »

vapourtrail wrote:Alex Song has become a real liabilty for the team.
Yeah, real game changer when he went off :lol:
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by Crouchend_Hammer »


Valencia played as winger for his teams in Ecuador, Mexiko and the ecuadorian NT.

No he didn't. He got moved upfront for his Mexican team and started banging them in. Same for Ecuador.
Read the Ecuadorian blokes posts on here. He has been very clear about his best position.
I don't know if Valencia will prove to be any good or not, but he certainly won't be if we play him out of position.
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by vapourtrail »

Crouchend_Hammer wrote: No he didn't. He got moved upfront for his Mexican team and started banging them in.
Even at the World Cup he played as a winger, when Caicedo was playing as a target man up front. At Pachuca in Mexika Valencia played as an inside winger behind another striker too.
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by SammyLeeWasOffside »

bubbles1966 wrote: Did we have enough of that in yesterday's squad?

The left back is tiny, Noble, Nolan and Nene are all very limited in these characteristics, Carlton isn't 25 anymore. Downing and Jarvis? Valencia is tenacious but powder puff.

The squad needs at least half a dozen changes.
It needs to decide what its trying to be first, we seem to be stuck between two stools atm. As you point out those players aren't going to beat teams with power, pace and muscle nor though are they good enough consistently at passing teams into submission. We seem to be the worst of both worlds. Early on we caught teams out with the new players but this league will catch up quickly.

We are a mid table side that had some great results but has been found out a little and has gone backwards in terms of player performance because most of them don't have a plan b. Some of our problem is the manager, some is players, some the board and some the fans. If people want top 8 we need more than 6 changes, if they want consistent good football we need a lot more.
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by Sauce! »

Romford wrote:Did you see what happened when Sakho ran at them in the first half ??

I thought Moses had turned up
But then he had to go off with a thigh strain. :lol:
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Re: West Ham United v Stoke City: Match Thread.

Post by Crouchend_Hammer »


Even at the World Cup he played as a winger, when Caicedo was playing as a target man up front. At Pachuca in Mexika Valencia played as an inside winger behind another striker too.
Read Darwin's posts. He is Ecuadorian, and will tell you what's what
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