......into the new Bolton? They were physical, the played hoof ball, they are doing what a lot of teams try to do which is to bully their way out of this league. I have seen many West Ham sides over the years and have always thought they deserved the "academy" tag but not this side. If I was a West Ham fan I would be very disappointed with the way the team is developing. Newcastle dumped Sam because their fans, like West Ham fans, have always enjoyed watching good football. Will the West Ham fans put up with such limited football much longer or will they be true to their heritage and demand a manager whose team would play with style and panache?
I actually thought West Ham looked decent, they were very strong at the back especially and they were always onto us and our passing
Individually they are a strong team, but the consensus during a half time chat was the disappointment that they have turned into hoof merchants. It seems most people used to have a soft spot for the Hammers and how they played: hopefully the hoof tactic is purely a reflection on how good we are at the moment.
They did seem to intercept many of the longer passes (not hoofs upfield, which we don't do!) by a good level of anticipation. Where they disappointed was an inability to keep any possession as we harried them, even running the goalie down when passed back, but their defence was pretty good. How often have we only scored one at St Marys this season.
They were a typical 'Big Sam' team I felt. Two big centre backs, uncompromising in the tackle, hard working and difficult to play against. I think they will go up. However, John Carew is nowhere near as effective as Kevin Davies was at Bolton. He was very poor. What impressed me though was how we coped with it. Awesome.
And I think that's perfectly fair...you're not really in a position to favour style over substance at the moment. Better to go up ugly than go into administration lyrically.
Exactly. We've played pretty football over recent years, but where did it get us ? We haven't played well since the Redknapp era.
No one at West Ham listens to the fans any more!! First a proposed move to a **** hole that will mean the death of my Club. Then, a manager who has got to be the exact opposite of what I think a West Ham manager should be i.e., Greenwood, Lyall, Bonzo etc. St G, as a lifelong fan I am disappointed because the one thing that makes us WHU has always been our skill in passing and the flowing game. BFS has turned out a fitter team that look as though they'll last longer than the first half and he's also brought out the best in certain players. He's shoring up our woeful defence, to a point, but this long ball **** has got to stop.
As I said in another thread: Tactics were all wrong for West Ham, they need to get the ball down in ping it about more. With all the quality on display, you would have thought they'd do more than just lump the ball up for Carew everytime. For a side that used to pride themselves on free flowing attacking football, Allardyce has ruined them. Did the same at Newcastle and the same at Blackburn in my opinion. Hoofball may have worked well 30 years ago but it doesn't work well anymore!
In a interesting one. I thought they were the best side to come to St Mary's this season, and they certainly dealt with our attacking threat much better than anyone else has done here. So I give Sam massive thumbs up for that. Put in that sort of strong performance each week, and most of the division wont be able to score against them let alone beat them. But yes, going forward it was very one dimensial and not attractive - albeit it did require a lot of strong defending on our own part to deal with it. With the players they've got though, I did expect them to do more on the ball - even with Sam in charge. In all honestly, if West Ham play like that for the whole season, I'd expect them to get promoted. But I certainly wouldn't expect them to run away with the league (which I did think they'd do at the start).
Whatever works for them. Both sides crested chances. They'll probably get promoted s it makes little difference what way they go about it.
west Ham tend to play that way away and try to play attractive at home, now look at the results home and away. for the last 2 1/2 seasons we've tried to play football and where are we? Allardyce is rebuilding the team, and the first thing you do when you rebuild a team is sort out the defence, which has been poor for a while. I think we'll see a few more faces arrive soon, hopefully including a playmaker.
My opinion is that Fat Sam will get them up. Having said that a side with the history of playing the way they do, should be playing like Nigel's got us doing. Whiskey George's sides played some great stuff, but had a soft underbelly (we would have lost last night under Burley). Nigel has us playing the best stuff since Bally was manager and Matty was in his prime, yet we are mentally tough and have charactor. Start to believe folks, because if Rickey and the Centre halves stay injury free we'll be joining Fat Sam's Hammers in the top flight.
