I have to say that, for me , was our best game of the season. By no means perfect but exciting and almost back to our passing best. Before the game I said we'd never out-bully WHU and so it proved. When we went to to toe we did well but were always being stretched but as soon as the ball was on the floor with Carroll and Leon (later Emnes and Neson) making themselves available for a straightforward pass we dragged WHU all over the place. TBF to Dyer WHU really packed the defence and closed down space and he's never really been a player to beat a full back - gone passed with pace or played neat passes to out fox defenders but not big on taking them on ala Montero. Routs was off yesterday, no doubt. Apart from being 'krypton headed' I think the reason so many headed clearances go astray is we leave huge areas of grass between our defence and half way line when being attacked. I really do hope Monk forgets about Shelvey unless there are injuries.
It was a difficult game as West Ham were tough to break down with 8 defenders, I'm not saying they parked the bus, but maybe campa van in front of goals aye!...................
Opinions is like the weather it changes day to day. We have seen nearly every player we have on our books at some point during the season praised too high heaven and the very next week being chastised as a waste of space and should be sold. As far as i am concerned we have a very good squad of players capable of beating the best teams in the premiership but to do that everyone has to be right on top of their game and that dont happen very often during the season. Fans very often dont take into account how the opposition have trained all week to play against us and stop us using our strengths that they have seen on video's of our recent games and this is where monk and the players have to try and counteract their play and we do that with regular success and still create enough chances to win the game. Unfortunately this season and maybe last season our Finishing has not been our strong point and this has led us along a fine line of winning and drawing and in some cases losing games. There is of course a few games during a season where we have been totally out played by the opposition and have to take it on the chin as a bad day at the office and the manager have got his game plan well and truly wrong but we have to admit that dont happen very often or we would be down the bottom. What we have to remember is we have a squad of talented players who are not super stars but can at times play better than a super star and can be a match winner one game and just a team member the next... But as fans we sometimes expect them to be match winners every game and that is not going to happen so we wrongly slate them for it...
