West Ham(a)- PL match thread

[Harry Squatter]

Movember

[Red House]

He is at the moment

 

Meant the league. Think he has a genuine shot at it, especially if we are moving him up upfront next to Bobby.

[Baltar]

T'rrific win. Great composure shown by the team after WHU scored. Very professional, convincing performance. Great job lads!

[Harry Squatter]

Good win that as 4 of the teams above us play each other and will drop points.

 

It's not a Liverpool performance if we don't have a wobble and concede. Still, you can't compain when you win 4-1 Away. Salah is looking like an absolute bargain and his attitude is great. More African players please Jurgen.

 

I hate West Ham fans, all Essex Danny dyer wannabees.

[suzy]

Even Snape is smiling.

 

I said exactly the same to Mr Suzy!

[Anubis]

Fell asleep and missed the first half. Thought we played well in the second half and always looked a cut above. I just wish we were a bit more clinical, as we'd hand out some top twattings.

[suzy]

We are far too many points off the pace after 11 games, but we are also in 4th and top of our champions league group.

 

If offered that on Sept 2nd, I would have taken it.

 

Quite, it's not as bad as it could have been

[scudger99]

Fell asleep and missed the first half. Thought we played well in the second half and always looked a cut above. I just wish we were a bit more clinical, as we'd hand out some top twattings.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz pig, zzzzzzzzzzzz...........

[TheHowieLama]

If he has it’s almost certainly that he’s just decided to quit or been told he’s sacked. He doesn’t seem like the type of manager to just walk off, especially because they were hardly hard done by. He’ll quit now in his interview Keegan style.

 

 

Who is the arl fella who is his assistant - the guy with the haircut like Moe from the Three Stooges.

[magicrat]

Who is the arl fella who is his assistant - the guy with the haircut like Moe from the Three Stooges.

 

 

Zeljko Buvac

[AngryOfTuebrook]

No complaints from me.

 

Everybody did their job and we comfortably beat a poor team.

 

I like days like this.

[Bjornebye]

T'rrific despite losing 3 nil. Great composure shown by the team after WHU scored. Very professional, convincing performance. Great job lads!

 

 

Edited that to sound like a Roy Hodgson post match team talk. For my own amusement of course. 

[moof]

I bet all the money in my pocket, that when we were 2-0 up, you weren't worried at all. How do you do it? I would much rather watch us in a lead as comfortably as you, because this isn't good for my long term health.

I think it’s a combination of being a naturally very calm person, strong barbiturates and a deeply held belief that we aren’t totally fucking shite. But mostly the drugs.

 

Seriously though, I really do trust in the manager and the coaching staff and most of the players, i’m comfortable with where we are and excited about where we’re going.

 

Also, West Ham are a terrible, terrible football team. So that helps.

[sir roger]

Ha ha , I think he means Bilic's dad.

[magicrat]

Bilic seems a tad upset

[dockers_strike]

A very good performance, 4 - 1 away should not be sneezed at. Some will say West Ham were poor but we made them look poor. Our first goal was truely like a red hot poker up an arsehole in medieval times. It was also good to see Oxlaide Chamberlain score and have a good game. Maybe those who did not want him here or rate can be quiet for now.

 

Mo Salah really is a revelation. We rocked a little when they threw the two big men on but generally we coped with them better than we have in the past. Most of the game reminded me of the way we played in the late 70s and 80s, keep the ball away from home and do not over commit the fullbacks. Most of the teams above us play tomorrow so some will drop points.

[Harry Squatter]

Bilic is defo a goner. Will they get fat Sam back?

[Anubis]

Bilic looked a broken man in that interview. Watching your defence chase the ball, en masse, like a demented shoal of fish, will do that to a man, I suppose.

[Jairzinho]

Bilic looked a broken man in that interview. Watching your defence chase the ball, en masse, like a demented shoal of fish, will do that to a man, I suppose.

 

That and Special Brew.

[Kevin D]

That and Special Brew.

I imagine, with the exception of our guy, Billic would be the best manager to go on a night out with.

[Anubis]

Some Z-lister West Ham fan called Spencer Owen has apparently been running a #bilicdie hashtag on twitter. What a cunt.

[Tom araya]

I thought Firmino was superb today.

[Jairzinho]

I imagine, with the exception of our guy, Billic would be the best manager to go on a night out with.

 

I think if Claude Puel was forced to go for a night out with Bilic he would leave the country the following day and never return.

[Trumo]

Nice to get some 'cheap' goals to see us on our way. The usual way against sides managed by Bilic is for us to toil and try to break through them via a mountain of possession, yet give away cheap goals from set-pieces and counters that they didn't have to work too hard for. We dealt with that issue back in May when we won 4-0, and we did it again here.

 

First, Mark Noble. It looks like we targetted both him and Cresswell specifically. Neither were able to play forward passes and both were getting daggers off the crowd, especially East End boy Noble, as they either played it back to Hart or lost possession. He dived to try and win a free kick early on which the referee was having none of, then he dived again later on, only for the ref to see it again and rightly book him. Normally, refs in these sorts of games against us fall for 'British' players throwing themselves to the ground (Noble does it a lot against us, as do the likes of Jamie Vardy, Shane Long, Fraizer Campbell and Dwight Gayle) to win free kicks in dangerous positions but the referee Swarbrick actually went against the grain and told them to cut that shit out. That helped us quite a lot, but it was down to the application of fairness and common sense rather than favouritism or ineptitude.

 

Back to us, the commentators and pundits kept saying we went 4-4-2 but I think we actually went 4-2-3-1. It looked like Can and Wijnaldum were sitting in midfield as a pair, and the full backs were asked to not be too adventurous. We looked much more solid as a result. We let West Ham have more of the ball than they would like, and that thre them because they had no idea what to do with it. The only slightly iffy spell was after we went 3-1 up where Gomez were temporarily rattled after misjudging a cross to let Lanzini in to get West Ham a goal back moments earlier.

 

The opening goal was a blistering counter attack from a West Ham corner. Knowing we are capable of this frightens the life out of teams no doubt. Salah actually buried his first chance - usually he fluffs his lines first time round. Then we got a corner a few minutes later, and Matip made no mistake tucking in a rebound following Hart's save. Maybe he increased the odds on himself scoring because he wasn't required to get his 50p head on it. We looked comfortable even though we weren't exactly firing on all cylinders, and West Ham looked utterly shite.

 

After conceding to Lanzini, the players' response would have been interesting. Initially it was great as we went straight up the other end to make it 3-1 via AOC. Excellent work by Firmino in the build up. Firmino was actually unlucky not to get a goal because his performance deserved it. He was strong, hungry and used the ball well, and West Ham's defenders simply did not know how to handle him. Carroll started winning a lot of aerial duels and West Ham started to get runners attacking us. Thankfully, nothing came of it and we managed to kill the game as a contest.

 

Salah's second was the icing on the cake, and in truth we could have got a couple more to really rub the bubble-blowing Cockneys' noses in it. Fuck them, with their Tory-loving ownership and their taxpayer-funded stadium that's too big for them.

 

Lastly, Solanke needs a goal soon. The effort and application are there but part of his problem is that he's mainly getting minutes late on in matches when his teammates are winding down (if the win is basically in the bag of course).

[moof]

Did Salah play as the striker today, with Firmino at number 10? Seemed that way to me. Interesting option to have, especially when everyone is fit.