West Ham UNITED vs City's Stars - Wed 1st Feb KO 19:45 London Stadium Fortress

Yeoldhammer

I cant accept "its Man City" as an excuse, so many other teams do not get consistently pummelled by them, they have put 12 past us this season alone... in reply to our 1 goal.

Man City are a decent team but have being shown this season they are no world beaters yet we make them look like world beaters.

tomkinsworldclass

Hutton, with respect, they have the best squad in the league, one of the best managers in the world, ridiculous resources, and a very difficult style to play against- they embarrassed Chelsea and Spurs at home this season, although the results didnt show that. The reality is that WHU could play a whole lot better and still lose by 3 or 4 to them as they have that inherent quality to their game. The new stadium is a struggle for differing reasons, but especially against elite teams on the counter but now is not the time for over reactions IMO.

Pearces_Left_Foot

I think it a case of us being poor and them being good on the day (twice) their range of movement, passing and pressing were excellent on all accounts . I don't think its an excuse either we could have done so many things better with our shape, work rate and decision making . Man City are the best team I have seen over the LS this season. They have the skill but they put the hard work in and were n't shy of a few tackles/fouls to nullify any promising breaks we had (which were n't many). I think City are our bogey team at the moment. ;puzzled

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

TwistAndShout said:

Slaven_A_Laugh_Lukerz said:

If Slav thought our squad was fine, you'd have to question his ability to take us forward long term.

Id agree with that if that was the case.

But in my opinion his hands have been tied by the board.
(Just my opinion, i have no inside info, just what i believe)

Respect your opinion Twist and believe me they wind me up no end!!

But I have no idea why you'd think this was the case and if it is the case did that happen with Slav's predecessor?

;wink

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Man City were very good, but we allowed them too much. Slav has got a bit stuck, chased them all over the park in the Cup game, cut us open.

Didn't chase them and stood off............same result they cut us open.

They were clinical as well, took most of their clear chances while reducing us to next to nothing.

people can think what they like but that performance would've beaten most teams in this league and that was without Aguero. Quite frightening really.

We are 2-3 years off challenging the top 6 in any shape or form.

;ok

Yeoldhammer

Pearces_Left_Foot said:

I think it a case of us being poor and them being good on the day (twice) their range of movement, passing and pressing were excellent on all accounts . I don't think its an excuse either we could have done so many things better with our shape, work rate and decision making . Man City are the best team I have seen over the LS this season. They have the skill but they put the hard work in and were n't shy of a few tackles/fouls to nullify any promising breaks we had (which were n't many). I think City are our bogey team at the moment. ;puzzled

Arsenal looked better imo, could have got double figures if they wanted.

Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham will be rubbing their hands.

Yeoldhammer

2-3 years seems highly optimistic. I don't think we will hit the top 6 ever until their is a massive shake up in terms of ownership of football clubs / culture change in football.

thornburyiron

Slav like everybody else knew how City play, for heavens sake they murdered us three weeks ago. We had 10 days to prepare for this game so why on earth did we appear to have absolutely no idea how to deal with them.
They are a good team but by no means world beaters because if they were they'd be streets ahead in the league and not sitting in 5th place.
We, on the whole, have played poorly all season and even in the games we've won we struggled. A few 1-0 wins, two of which involved penalties. Holding on for dear life at Palace and for the most part outplayed by Middlesbrough.
I don't know what the reason is but I'm not paid to but it seems to me that Bilic is not tactically aware and has no real game plan or back up plan. Last night he brought on Snodgrass but took off Carroll and we then started hitting crosses in. Maybe he's having to do it all alone because I'd be lying if I said I had any clue as to our trying staff other than Dicks and Woods.

Pearces_Left_Foot

I missed the Arsenal game Yeold I don't think we will top 6 unless we do some v good business in the next few transfer windows. I do think with the stadium we will a top 8-10 team and hopefully progress from there . Man City are 1 point off second so they ain't too shabby

IronHerb

So Thorn, at 0-4 you thought we could win? Snodgrass on as an introduction, hadn't trained with the 1st team for his last 12 days at Hull so 2 days with us. Carroll off to protect him. Makes sense to me.

OldCastleSwift

baracks_a_hammer said:

OCS

Was it cited as a "funds" issue re the r/b.

I don't remember this but perhaps I am wrong

It wasn't cited, but my take on it is if they were looking for a right back, it's because they acknowledged the need for a right back. There are right backs out there that could improve our first XI (which is what our transfer policy this window was alluded to be) but presumably those right backs are beyond our budget, ergo it's a funds issue.

That's not a dig at the board, by the way, it just doesn't necessarily support the argument that Slav didn't buy a right back purely because he was happy with his options.

thornburyiron

Iron herb at 0-1 I didn't think we could win. My point was with Carroll on the pitch why didn't we at least try to put in crosses but with him off the pitch why then keep putting in crosses.

Swissiron

Does anyone else have a funny feeling that the Davids are setting up Slav to fail using crafty PR tricks such as giving the exact impression OCS refers to above?

Every Manager wants to improve his team if there's enough money to do so, The quote attributed to Slav about being happy with the team sounds like he just doesnt want yet another DS stupid bargan basement punt with money yet again and he's been trapped into this quote as a way of saying no to DS's New Year annual cowboy shopping.

I have never liked the way they go about their relationships through public quotes about their employees which owes more to the Trump style than to giving their manager, players and other employess genuine confidence. Bilic knows more about what the team can do than the massed family ranks of the Sullivans and Golds put together so I do hope this isnt the beginning of a Daves campaign on the sly to get him to resign by end season. ;hmm

IronHerb

No. Or at least I don't.

alderz

Thorn

There are a lot of games you can point to as negatives, but beating Palace 3-0 is not the same as 'hanging on', and if you honestly think Middlesbrough outplayed us I think maybe you got lost on the way to a Spurs forum ;wink

tomkinsworldclass

Antonio did really well last night in difficult circumstances, beat Sagna every time. I havent seen the replays, but was his offside goal the correct call? Real time it looked a close one.

thornburyiron

Alders I never said we hung on against palace at home. It was the 1-0 away win where palace missed a penalty and umpteen chances.

ASLEFshrugged

And as usual I'm working (3:39pm until 11:13pm). Guess I'll record it and avoid the pub

brookingsirons said:

lets change the name to The New Boleyn Ground ( new Den )

Why not ;hmm

Because we'd have to pay LS185 a couple of dozen million for the privilege...

Fortuneseeker

I know I should find a way to move on but were we really that pitiful last night or was it just that Manchester City were that good or did we make them look awesome because they haven't got similar results against other teams? ;weep

MrsGrey

baracks_a_hammer said:

Has anyone else seen the rumour that cressers may be landed with a 4 game misconduct charge for aiming a punch at sterling??..

The Sun reported it, but nobody esle as far as I could see.

Then about an hour ago they reported that he has ESCAPED a ban.

In fact, the video footage was not deemed by the FA to justify even charging him. So more accurately, he ESCAPED a charge. But is doesn't sound as exciting. ;doh

SuzanneClaret

;doh

*rolls eyes

claretandbluesky

I think City just don't suit us at present as they press so quickly and and move the ball so quickly, they have players who we would be ecstatic about bringing in were even one of them like De Bruyen possible.

I think the disappointment is because last season we and others showed that there was no longer a gulf between the top four and the rest, well this season it's back bigger than before and clear for all to see, it's not to say they wont have a bad result or two but essentially can make other teams look poor.....and they did last night.

We need some quality and we didn't invest in quality this year but in Fonte and Snodgrass I think we have recognised our error, we will need find the money in the summer to improve our recruitment even further if we have ambition of progressing from a mid table team. For now what with the Dimi saga, the worst summer transfer window imaginable and the settling into the new stadium, I will settle for mid table, but hope the owners are able to match our ultimate ambition which speaking to fellow hammers seems to be a side that has something to play for come February and March, a cup run, a potential top 6 Europe place, just to be looking upwards in the table and something to play for.

Colchester_Iron

I thought we were lucky to get nil last night.

Bazshuayi

Didnt Bilic say we were looking for a RB but we couldnt get one in (that he and the board) that would improve the team/was better than what we had?

That leads me to believe that we will be trying in the summer to bring in another RB. Maybe I am naive, but that seems reasonable to me (bearing in mind Jan TF window availability and current TF price levels)

Oh and in terms of the game, its only in recent weeks our results have improved (2 months with Payets negativity and lack of effort wouldn't have helped the team).Last season I got to a point where I wasn't worried who we were playing because we were strong, pacey and scored goals. That's in marked contrast to the past when I was always worried when we played a top 4 team (or one with the capacity to be a top 4 team). My mindset then was that we needed to have a good day and they needed to have an average to poor day for us to have a chance of winning.

My mindset has reverted to us needing to have a good day at the office to have a chance. Last night we didnt and they did, pretty simple. Man City can rip any team apart on their day. There's no shame in it. However, obviously its disappointing when we are mistaken ridden and make it easier for them.

Huttonhammer

Man city can rip teams apart but generally it's only us they do.
They have lost 3 of their last 5 away games and recently got thrashed by Everton.

Let's face it they looked great because they played us.

They may have expensive players but that is no excuse for the awful way we approach games against them and the schoolboy errors we make in loads of games.

Other teams do not cave in on a regular basis like we do. I don't understand why it keeps happening as we have better players than lots of other teams and really should not regularly get smashed.

IronHerb

bbb

Thats for the clutching at straw emoji, not the pitch reduction.

TwistandShout

billybondsbeard said:

Just a silly thought - but for me, our pitch looks too big for us. I know that they train on it week in week out, but can the dimensions not be changed to that of the Boleyn to cut down space exactly for the detriment of the sides that have the players and systems to exploit a pitch like ours. we currently do not - we look lost on it.
I am clutching at straws - can we have a clutching at straws emoji please. I feel it would get a lot of use....

BBB, i think you make a good point.

Problem is if it is the same size as the Boleyn pitch the front row would need binoculars, let alone those towards the back....

IronHerb

Twist. The far side would be closer. ;lol

Yeoldhammer

Well the technical area is like 20 foot

NEoldiron

I thought I read on this forum that the pitch is only marginally (1-1½metres) bigger