West Ham have had 8 shots on target so far this season in the Premier League. We had 12 against Cardiff.
I think we averaged the most shots per game last season and we're topping the charts again this season with 21 per game. We do take a lot of long shots though and without Bale we're a lot less dangerous shooting from distance.
OK PNP, I think everybody knows my take so I won't repeat it. Is there any room for Lennon in the set up?
I believe we had the greatest disparity between shots on target and shots on target given, and that we were second in most shots. I thought we did pretty well attacking today (and extremely well controlling midfield with Paulinho and Dembele). For the most part we worked the ball patiently and got reasonably good shots. Their keeping was great, and our shooting was fairly poor. The only thing I didn't like was the continued propensity for long range shots by players who don't look like they'll find the net in a month of Sundays. Walker always seems good for one comedy effort, and Townsend and Paulinho tried too many shots from long range as well. Holtby continues to be superb this year. I thought Dembele had an excellent game. Gylfi was good as well, though I think he's now hit the woodwork more often than the onion bag. Bar him from ever doing the crossbar challenge. The training seems to have stuck. Lamela's cross with the outside of his left foot reminded me of a certain goal scored by Dempsey against Man City last year.
I remember a couple of people saying Phil Brown should be the man to replace Ramos over on Old606. He's currently in charge of Southend...
Agree. I'm not a dembele fan personally, but from what I could see he looked good today. More of the same please Moussa. Sandro would start every game for me, and right now i'd be giving him paulinho's place. He's disappointing for me, and nowhere near Sandro's standard.
tempting. I think verts showed the other night that he has a lot to bring to lb in terms of going forward, but I would be loath to break up the cbs at the moment personally. I've never been a dawson fan personally, but there's no denying they are doing a really good job atm.
In terms of left back I don't even see it as a debate, with rosé out we have to shift verts out there. Naughton is either not good enough, not a left back or low form/confidence or indeed all of the above. Paulinho today for our good 25mins today was running the show. Everything was going through him like it used to with modric (different styles of course). Then Cardiff changed tactically and pressed him hard and it nullified him and us to a certain extent. I think the attention Cardiff gave him spoke a great deal about his importance currently. In terms of central mid importance I would go: 1 - Paul 2 - Cap 3 - Sandro (could well be no2 in a few weeks, still early days after long time out) 4- dembele And I'm a dembele fan!
Personally I'd go for Sandro and Paulinho as our 1st choice midfield pair, with Capoue as the defensive back up and Dembele as the box-to-box back up.
Since Steven Nzonzi scored for Stoke City on 12th May, Spurs have only conceded one goal in 897 minutes of competitive football. Well it's an old cliche but true nevertheless that the best form of defence is attack, and no team in the Premier League has done more attacking this season than Spurs. Then you have our tigerish midfield, who have fought hard for the ball when we're not in possession. After that, you have our defenders who have acquitted themselves very well so far this season. And once you've got past all those hurdles, you still have to face Hugo Lloris who is not only arguably the best goalkeeper in the Premier League but plays as an extra sweeper too. Not really surprising that we've only conceded just once this season.
Malky says their goal should have stood because lloris was holding not vice versa. Debatable. What isn't debatable is the chap who scores climbing all over Dawson
Just got home after spending a really enjoyable weekend in Cardiff. Lovely stadium and facilities, added bonus at half time they open the gates and the smokers are free to go out and smoke. On the game I thought that we were the better team but simply ran out of ideas after 65/70 minutes and Cardiff had a lot of pressure & chances after that. I thought that Eriksen, Townsend & siggy all faded alarmingly in the 2nd half, dembele had a lot of the ball throughout but didn't do much with it. Walker linked up well with Townsend and done well at the back, Dawson was very steady but his distribution was wayward at times. Verts had far too many shaky moments. Pauliniho was simply man of the match. But we were the better team and deserved the 3 points.
How Sandro isn't in the team is beyond me. He was our player of the season last year until he got injured, and that included Bale. It's crazy for him not to be playing imo. He looked really sharp the other night as well I thought. Get him back in.
With regards to left back, the amazing thing is how good Rose has looked. Even up til his injury the other night, he was the best player on the park by some distance imo. I wouldn't play naughton there again, but might be tempted to play fryers (or even chiriches) if rose isn't back.
Yeah, I was saying Eriksen should have gone off earlier, he works really hard closing down and I think Holtby coming on and bringing his energy a lot helped in the final minutes. I liked seeing Dawson going in trying to get the ball early but he was always struggling to get their in time and in the end couldn't which led to a bit of a silly booking and he got away with one in the first half too. Both he and Vertonghen were poor today. And the less said about Naughton the better, Bellamy did a number on him today. There was only one ocassion when Townsend looked up after he'd cut inside and it led to him being able to lay off to Sigurdsson for a much better shooting chance(where he hit the bar) but I think the guy's really talented, if he improves his decision making and/or shooting we'll have a top player on our hands. I wouldn't mind seeing him get a couple of games on the left too to stop him becoming too predictable cutting inside all the time.
