It took me three pages to get you to respond to the point I initially made, that you chose to ignore. That’s IGNORe, which is part of another word, but yes I’m the IGNORant one. You could have saved those three pages.
I’m not too worried about it. West Ham are a much improved team and we’ve had a couple of good results. If we lose the next two, we’d have got 6 points from 15; I don’t think Hughes would have delivered that. We’re moving forwards, just need to keep that up! We haven’t lost the next two yet either.
I see Lemina as a box to box midfielder where he can be quite destructive tracking back. He seems to relish going forward and possesses great balance and good ball control. Passing lets him down at times, so do not see him as a playmaker. I am not sure how this fits in with our group of players or the aspirations of the new manager. Never rated Boufal or Ely, but think there is more to Lemina than those two busts. Here's hoping to a clear out this January so we can get in an good CB and a striker to support Ings.
One thing Boufal did, was work up and down and In his cameos his was often the one who tracked back to defend. Sometimes missed by the fans because he clearly had a bit of an attitude. He has obvious skill and talent, so I’d wonder if Ralph could man manage him better than previous managers and get a tune from him by making him very direct. Not saying he would or should.
Ralph is busy fixing the players we have...surely he deserves to be rewarded in the summer with a couple of players he really wants...rather than say to him, 'Well done, Ralph, for sorting the team out....by the way we have a few misfits out on loan that we'd like you to polish up.'
People weren’t actually expecting to win last night were they? I mean, hoping of course, but did we really think it would anything other than extremely difficult? Or is it really a case of win two games, we’re a top 6 side, lose one and we’re getting relegated? Thought we were all a bit more level headed than that. We probably won’t get relegated. Our squad isn’t brilliant, but our approach to the game has improved markedly almost overnight, and we will hopefully continue to improve. No reason why we shouldn’t finish as high as 14th if things go well.
Boufal's certainly a possibility; he did track back, and he seemed to enjoy trying to tackle people up-field (bizarre stat of the day: he was second only to Romeu in successful tackles per minutes played in his first year here, and only barely behind him). His directness would absolutely be at home, too; like Redmond, he's a player who shouldn't be collecting the ball deep, that wondergoal notwithstanding, and you could have some real fun with them darting toward goal on changes in possession. Reed I think will have a role to play, especially if JWP is off...and as he has won even less favour under Ralph than Hughes, that seems increasingly likely. Reintegrating them would take some pressure off the recruiting team.
We seem certain to be rid of a few 'what if?' players in the next two windows, Boufal would be one I wouldn't be frustrated by us giving another go. But I can't say I've tracked how he's gotten on at Celta Vigo particularly closely.
I was disappointed by the result last night but felt that West Ham were worthy winners. None of the players performed particularly well although Vestergaard has seemed to have improved. For me the issue was with the passing . This was shocking. Romeu, Valery, Targett and Lemina seemed to be guilty. Merrington was furious that Ings was taken off but, to be honest, he wasn't firing on all cylinders last night. I find it interesting having the commentary on whilst watching the match as some things get picked up which you might otherwise not notice. However, I don't think that it was as bad a call as suggested. There are two things for me which I would like to add. Pellegrino got slaughtered for having five at the back last season when playing at home. Not sure that this was the right decision as I felt this impacted upon the ability of our midfield to function. The other comments is that I felt Ralph didn't have the solution to transform a poor first half and wondered whether he came away from the match seeming to be a little less super-human than some were expecting. I thought we would win 2-1 before the match but I did not anticipate this performance which wasn't much better than some of Hughes' last games in charge. I don't feel we will go down but feel yesterday was a reality check against a very good West Ham side.
Were you really that surprised that we got outplayed by a better team? That will continue to happen. It happened for periods against Arsenal too, but on both occasions we continued to press and continued to compete. I was impressed with the attitude last night. We struggled at times to get a toe hold in the game, but could easily have come away with a point. Maybe even three, though that would have been undeserved.
- Players looked tired, which one assumes comes from the extra hard training schedule, and not rotating a few players. - Last night showed what a key player Hojbjerg is now, and that signing another centre mid to compliment him is perhaps our biggest need this Jan window. - Could not believe how many times we lost possession 10 yards outside of our area. Really got to address this. - Full backs have done well covering for Bertie/Cedric, but we really need those guys to come back. - Rotate the team for City, give JWP, Longy, Austin etc some game time, rest a few of the others.
Sorry, not having that. To say last night’s performance wasn’t much better than under Hughes is just emotion talking imo. That’s what happens when you start out expecting to win a game you shouldn’t be expecting to win.
Our passing has never been great. But passes go astray when you’re put under pressure. Did you think West Ham were going to stand off and let us play? (Arsenal did, a bit). They have a lot of quality, but also an aggressively athletic side.Hard for anyone to play against that.
You can hope to win a game (and obviously the bigger the team, the bigger the hope), but no result is forgone (see Arsenal v us). The fact we look better and can score has given us hope when before there was none....the better team on the day doesn't always win*. There are some fans who go overboard, feel let down and turn nasty....luckily not on here. Our chance of survival has gone up since Ralph arrived....if you can score, you can win...but mustn't go overboard. Next season however.... *Not claiming that was us last night btw.
Need WHU to be good again against Burnley on Sunday. And we need Leicester to beat Cardiff and Fulham and Huddersfield to draw against each other. I know we can expect to seesaw, but I'd rather keep a little gap for a bit longer.
