They still got more points than us today and we can’t pass them in the table. I know where I’d rather be.
JWP only came on at the end of the game. We all called out Valery for playing **** in the first half. But anyway, they have both easily earned themselves a dodgy performance or two. Elyounoussi on the other hand, is so clearly League One standard, and he has never done anything ever to suggest otherwise. He is simply chasing shadows the entire game. Reminds me of Ali Dia, and I wish I was joking. Redmond had to teach him what to do at one point. Stephens was just Stephens.
Ah well, onto Huddersfield next week for hopefully an optimistic end to the season. It will be interesting to see if Ralph picks a full strength side to create some positive energy going into next season or if he'll bring in some fringe players.
Silly comparing ourselves to West Ham, as I think we have finished above them most seasons since we both returned. This was an experiment today to give a few players one final chance. The experiment went tits up, but so what, it's end of season and the game counts for nothing. Fair play to West Ham, they could be a handy side next season.
We have conceded 10 goals in our last four games. We concede too easily and are not clinical enough - the story of our season. With a goalscorer and a leader we could be mid table next year.
Also credit to them for managing to pull themselves from the brink of an utter club-meltdown. We've had a couple of bad seasons but at least it hasn't gotten to the point of fans protesting in-front of the president's box.
A couple of tweaks to our first choice XI (as you say CB/leader and a goalscoring forward plus some more creativity) and a few more solid squad back ups and we'll be ok. This Summer is much more about pruning the squad I reckon
Except knowing our luck, they will already be crocked so will hardly play any games. We are committed to signing Ings and that doesn't fill me particularly with any excitement, and I expect that signing will be a fairly large percentage of our transfer budget
Assets have no value if they are sat in the warehouse sucking up cash flow! There are going to be some tough decisions to be made
Yes...and. didnt things start to look better with the Bed and Vest pairing, with also Yosh available when needed to help out also ..? think we have actually missed Vest since he has been out with injury ...
Don’t feel any better or worse about our season after today. The revival since Christmas has been impressive but these last few games we’ve dropped points to wolves, Newcastle, Bournemouth and now West Ham which is not good. No one really played well today so not sure why Ely being picked out as he caught my eye a few times first half.
But you just saw him have a perfectly adequate, if boring performance against an average PL team. It was basically a Yoshida or Long-like performance. Which means he would, without a doubt, destroy League One and most likely the Championship. He was never awful. He did a few good things, but not enough but the same could be said of the entire squad. I realize that is well below expectations and not exactly a cry for more playing time. But the point of the game was to assess our players. A backup winger is still a potntially useful piece. Maybe with more time he could still be good. Was Elyounoussi's performance today really much different than the average Redmond performance prior to this year? I'm not mad at JWP. He came into a weird side in a weird situation, and not in his usual role. I don't think he or Hasenhuttl anticipated him playing there today, it was just kinda like "Well, we seem to have screwed the pooch here, just go in and try and do something?" Today JWP was worse than Elyounoussi and most of the side. He's still a fine player. But when it's JWP everyone is just "Oh he was alright. Just a little quiet." And when it is Elyounoussi it is "He did not create two goals. League One standard!" Same with Stephens. We all know he is not without skills but his fatal flaw is positioning and general game awareness. He did not get stung by that today. Maybe in part because the game was not back and forth enough for him to get caught out. But maybe it's because he was told by Hasenhuttl "I just want you to stay here, and cover this space." So a quietly mediocre game was a good thing. My point is, we chopped up the side today too much. I'm not surprised we looked bad and lost. But hopefully, Hasenhuttl is looking past the results and just assessing each individual player and what little things he wanted to see from them. It's too easy to just say "We played our subs and looked ****ty. Get rid of all of them." We're going to need some if those players even if they are only backups.
I watched the match on a decent stream. Ely is definitely not worth pursuing. He is a total irrelevancy. JWP has nothing to prove. He put in some decent balls and some poor ones. Forster is no longer a goalkeeper.
Your defence of the lad is admirable. But anyone who knows even just a little bit about football can see that this lad is out of his depth, big time. He is seriously off the pace. He doesn't know how to jockey, and he can't tackle; he gets beaten for pace easily, his passing ability is average at best, and he waits for the ball rather than approaches it. At the very least, he should have something in his locker. Pace, passing, dead ball delivery. Something. But he doesn't. Redmond when he was playing poor, was still showing potential. He's got pace to burn and good control, at a bare minimum. Boufal was able to remind us every so often of his potential too, by scoring an absolute cracker, and he's quick, and clearly naturally gifted. Elyo has sod all mate. He can't even take a decent set piece. He would not "destroy League One", no way. That's an insult to League One. He would do a job there, but no more. That's his standard. We did not change the team that much from last week. But exchanging Redmond for Elyounoussi in a game against quality opposition, away from home, is as good as just surrendering three points from the get-go.
