Match Day Thread West Ham United vs Southampton 25/09/2016 4pm Kick-off

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I'm not sure anyone can. It's not even like Puel seems to be learning his lesson. It's almost just a case of musical chairs as to whether an attack of ours will include in the box. Look at the EL game, less than 10 mins after scoring his second, Austin found himself back out wide, playing LB.
If they were wearing orange shirts then the media would be drooling over the "total football."
 
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Although there are obvious reasons why the head injury rule is required, i do think it is far from perfect. All a player needs to do to stop a counter attack is hold their head. 90% of the time they arent even hurt. It is a very difficult one to resolve.

Nothing new there. All Mourinho teams will have a player down on their own corner to stop counter attacks and Drogba used to do it several times a game at Chelsea.
 
The interesting bit for me about the Cedric chance to square it was that everyone has gone on about Austin, who was in front of the near post and with a player there to pressure (Which obviously doesn't make it not scoreable for Austin) when Hojbjerg had ghosted in around the penalty spot with about 10 yards of open space and a clear avenue for it to be pulled back. Either way, it doesn't matter which it was because I think Cedric just never got his head up.

Also coming on and reading through the thread from early in the game is pretty amusing, few people are veeeery quick to heap blame on some players whilst others can do no wrong! Certainly an incredibly stale start to the game for both teams, but once again would think we had been horrendous from reading through the thread.
I always find it amazing how people can be typing out critique of the players whilst watching all the action, must be girls as we know blokes are only capable of doing one thing at a time
 
Not really a surprise no Saints got in Garth Crooks' team of the week is it really? Arsenal tore apart Chelsea 3-0, Man Utd scored 4 against the defending champs and Liverpool scored 5.

His teams are usually the biggest joke around (if you score a goal you basically get in), but this week I don't think you can blame him too much.
 
I thought we were not so good the first 15 minutes or so.

After that, the game may have looked drab, but I felt we were starting to get our footing. The midfield started to get more in sync, and we were more patient with the ball. West Ham had everyone behind the ball, so it takes awhile to break a team down. But after that point until it was 2-0, they never did anything threatening.

I don't know that Puel did anything to inspire the team at half. I mean, I'm sure he gave a talk and everything but it was probably like "Got them where we want them." We were well in control after the goal.

No one was ever really bad. Davis was a bit out of sorts, but nothing serious. I criticized Cedric because I felt like he was wasteful with the ball, having played some lazy, no hope crosses and then not passing when we had a chance to seize the moment and put the game away. He was doing okay on defense, and he was trying to get forward and in good positions. It was not a call for Martina but just frustration that Cedric has the talent to do more. And he showed it the second half when he was excellent.
 
I'm trying to figure out how much of the game some of you guys miss, when you have your heads down typing messages on this forum. Quite a bit going by some comments, that come back and bite you on the arse.
As already stated, a poor start, attack wise, but not so bad from a defensive point of view, in as much as we prevented any on target shots, whilst settling into our game. We were the away team, so the onus was on WHU to bring the game to us, which they tried to do, but we wouldn't let them impose themselves on the game.
Initially our crossing was dreadful, but as the game wore on we were looking more and more for the pulled back cross, for an incoming player, which was very promising and should have produced better results.
Not getting hung up on the Austin should stay through the middle argument. As one or two have said, we are very fluid up front and all those that play there rotate, with each spending some time through the centre. From a defender's point of view, this must be difficult to defend against, owing to the different strengths and abilities of the individual players not allowing the defender to settle and dominate. Even the great SRL spent a lot of time drifting out to the touchline or deep into midfield.
Now we have become more settled, I'm looking forward to our next "big team" clash, to see if we can bring the same level of control to a game we are expected (by the media) to lose.
Very good win today.
 
Got a technical issue - can a mod help? Just tried changing my password to 'WestHamDefence' but got told it was too weak?
Put less on the end.... works a treat..

And those of us of a certain age know the definition of a treat... How do you get a peanut out of your ear?..... Cover it in chocolate and it comes out a treat.... I'll happily get my coat and watch MOTD 2 avec le grande smile on my face... Calvados does it to me every time... yipeeeee.....
 
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The interesting bit for me about the Cedric chance to square it was that everyone has gone on about Austin, who was in front of the near post and with a player there to pressure (Which obviously doesn't make it not scoreable for Austin) when Hojbjerg had ghosted in around the penalty spot with about 10 yards of open space and a clear avenue for it to be pulled back. Either way, it doesn't matter which it was because I think Cedric just never got his head up.

Also coming on and reading through the thread from early in the game is pretty amusing, few people are veeeery quick to heap blame on some players whilst others can do no wrong! Certainly an incredibly stale start to the game for both teams, but once again would think we had been horrendous from reading through the thread.

not going to say any player is wrong with taking a shot from 3m
 
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I'm trying to figure out how much of the game some of you guys miss, when you have your heads down typing messages on this forum. Quite a bit going by some comments, that come back and bite you on the arse.
As already stated, a poor start, attack wise, but not so bad from a defensive point of view, in as much as we prevented any on target shots, whilst settling into our game. We were the away team, so the onus was on WHU to bring the game to us, which they tried to do, but we wouldn't let them impose themselves on the game.
Initially our crossing was dreadful, but as the game wore on we were looking more and more for the pulled back cross, for an incoming player, which was very promising and should have produced better results.
Not getting hung up on the Austin should stay through the middle argument. As one or two have said, we are very fluid up front and all those that play there rotate, with each spending some time through the centre. From a defender's point of view, this must be difficult to defend against, owing to the different strengths and abilities of the individual players not allowing the defender to settle and dominate. Even the great SRL spent a lot of time drifting out to the touchline or deep into midfield.
Now we have become more settled, I'm looking forward to our next "big team" clash, to see if we can bring the same level of control to a game we are expected (by the media) to lose.
Very good win today.

But what you're saying there is pretty much what everyone said commenting on the game in real time. So not sure really anybody got bitten on the bum?
 
In fairness, the genuine story is West Ham at the moment, not Saints. I'm happy with us ticking along under the radar, as we often tend to do.

Agreed. West Ham has shipped 11 goals in 3 games to teams who, in their non-West Ham matches, have averaged less than a goal per game. That deserves to be the story, and I'm perfectly fine with that given that said story is hilarious.

Not taking anything away from our performance, but they featured some of the slackest defending I have ever seen in the PL. We were playing at a walking pace around their box and still finding people in acres of space.
 
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