Watford (A) 25/02 - 17.30 k/o (BT Sport)

MIAHammer

Now with Antonio out, who will we play upfront. Will Slav finally give Fletcher a chance?

claretandbluesky

Same as last match, much better team, all the possession but no finish, Watford the worst I have seen this season offered so little threat and without their early penalty would have lost for sure.

We have the makings of a really good team I am pleased to say once we sort out the toothless attack when Carroll is away.

Lanzini was superb in the second half, Fonte was good, Antonio was good before anywhere outside the area but seems to lose it once entering into the area, but the less said about his stupid second yellow the better.

Pleased to say someone I have been critical of had a great game, Fergouli looked dangerous, up to speed and more in tune with his team mates.

Exactly the same as West Brom for me and 2 points dropped but through our own making through having no alternative to Carroll.

Hammerwombat

MIAHammer said:

Now with Antonio out, who will we play upfront. Will Slav finally give Fletcher a chance?

Andy will be fit. But maybe not enough, maybe Ayew got his pecker up after getting a really
Important goal. We will find out next week.

baracks_a_hammer

Scary just how reliant we are on our injury prone first choice striker. He makes the difference between winning games like these and not

Adam

Feghouli is getting better every time he plays.

Hantshammer

Deserved at least the draw. Can't argue Antonio going off but we would have won but for poor reffing decisions. Thought the arm holding Kouyate was a nailed on pen?

jay_in_cpt

A very well deserved point..
Antonio a bit silly , but up till that moment had been everywhere and unlucky not to score .
Well done to Ayew , he bust a gut to get in that position to score ;ok

MrsGrey

Up to 9th.

I feel dizzy ;wahoo

MrsGrey

From the BBC

[Antonio's} match got worse late on when he was given the first red card of his professional career and West Ham also had Argentine Zarate - who won the penalty - taken off on a stretcher after appearing to twist his knee in the first half.

Safe to say the Beeb put the B-team on our match write-up. ;doh

madridhammer

After the early penalty I feared the worst but I think we showed a lot of character & with 10 minutes to go I thought we might even nick it until Antonio got sent off. The thing I am pleased about is that we have now rectified our abysmal performances against Southampton,West Brom & Watford in the return fixtures.Let's keep going & see how high we can finish.

MrsGrey

Last on match of the day.

After Hull-Burnley.

baracks_a_hammer

we've got virtually nothing left to play for this season, so I reckon we are likely to be lower down the pecking order most of the time from here on in.

steve

instead of watching us play can we have a camera on slav for 90 mins great enteriment ;clap

claretandbluesky

I just love Slav as you know if he feels like that watching then he must be really firing them up behind the scenes.

Give him a one top proven striker and another as back up and also a right back and this team could really look good.

puddleglumhammers

Cracking game. Watford were physical and we matched them, then out-passed them 2nd half. Lanzini great 2nd half, Obiang both halves. Sluggish start but good pressing and better width gave us the edge. Real fight and determination unlike earlier this season. Bodes well for the remaining matches.

chicagohammer

MrsGrey said:

From the BBC

[Antonio's} match got worse late on when he was given the first red card of his professional career and West Ham also had Argentine Zarate - who won the penalty - taken off on a stretcher after appearing to twist his knee in the first half.

Safe to say the Beeb put the B-team on our match write-up. ;doh

Fake news!!

MrsGrey

Maybe they were excluded from the press conference, so had to make it up.

;wink

Yeoldhammer

Good Performance again like West Brom 2 weeks ago. At least we look like a team putting in some performances and go toe to toe with teams we actually look like a premier league team, a lot different to the first half of the season.

Antonio will be a massive miss for Chelsea.

2 more wins to go.

chicagohammer

All in all I think we did well there,I thought that Watford were quite niggly and they really did not create much. I also thought that overall we did not get the rub of the green on the major decisions, I thought their pen was probably correct but we should have had one as well when kouyate was held back.

Agree with earlier comments, Snoddy put in some effort but had a poor game, he really was brought in for his high quality crosses but they were not present today.

Fegoulie had much better game and I like the partnership between Ried and Fonte.

Should have got the three points but am happy with the one we got.

COYI

Vorselaarhammer

A point away from home with 10 men and a pen against plus playing posting stuff.

Happy hammer...

grey_til_I_dye

Not sure we need to be digging out Snodders this early.

Give the bloke a chance, eh?

EXETERHAMMER

Decent game and result in the end I think.

Calleri up front next game for me and Lanzini has to start in the centre.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Pengeman said:

I don't think Antonio should have been sent off. I think he thought he was fouled and got a free kick and made a natural grab for the ball to keep the momentum going.

Unfortunately he slipped there was no contact it was a daft thing to do and a definite second yellow

Ironduke

Awfui tackle on Zarate to concede a 3min penalty...well dispatched by Troy...the Hammers grew into the game, and lets be Frank here we shouild taken at least a 4-1 win....but what troubles me most
is the number times our players get caught in possession too often...as for bfreze

FlorinRaduclious

RaducliousReport:

Awful first 8 minutes where we just didn't have the impetus from KO; it's happened a few times now and it's annoying. An early correct penalty scored by Deeney, foul by Kouyate. After that however a decent first half where we had the majority of possession and created a couple of chances, but struggled for clear cut opportunities. Second half we were fantastic. Moved the ball around well, created lots - it was almost attack vs defence at times. We had a definite penalty turned down and I feel had a ref that in general favoured the home team causing us to miss out on many minor fouls about the pitch too. Eventually got a goal our play deserved from a good run and shot by Antonio, rebound tap in by Ayew. Strongly pushing for the winner and then unfortunately Antonio got a second yellow for handball and we had a tough last 5 mins or so - they almost scored with the last kick of the game.

Our better play stemmed from moving Lanzini central. It is something I bang on about but he is far more influential down the middle. He is easy to hassle out of the game when wide and becomes ineffective. Please Slav play him from the start centrally now. He was simply superb second half, completely dictated play - the Watford defence were terrified of him.

Antonio IMO had his best game at CF today. Worked his 77% Nylon, 20% Cotton, 3% Elastane socks off. Unlucky not to score, although a more 'natural' predatory striker may have nicked in one of his efforts from crosses. Also, some of his best work was running the channels, only to then have no-one in the box to assist. Tireless display slightly marred by a silly second yellow.

Snodgrass had a relatively quiet game and struggled to be an influence. Awful crossing first half. When central found some good space and made a couple of good moves. Subsequently bumped to the left to accommodate Lanz coming central late first half onwards. For me, he struggles on the left hand side as he is almost totally left footed so he has no right boot to cut inside and when the full back shows him the line he hasn't the pace to just go by so is forced to slow down play . Play him on the right, he can cut in (the marauding full back provides natural width) and this was his predominant position for scoring goals at Hull.

I thought the two centre backs were excellent. Fonte possibly the pick of the two but they seem to have formed a great partnership. Fonte is a far calmer influence then Ogbonna and it allows Reid to play LCB which I feel he prefers. Both looked very comfortable and assured today.

Again the two centre mids were very good. They spread the ball about really well, kept us ticking over and did a lot of covering work that often goes unnoticed. Obiang probably the pick of the two but Nobles passing was continuously effective.

I have long been a champion for Feghouli and thought he was good again today. Nothing spectacular but did his job well, and never shied from the ball - or impressively - from tackles. Another with a top work rate today.

Cresswell not at his best but put in a decent solid performance. Obviously has had some niggling injuries so understandable. Put in a couple of really superb crosses overlapping second half which showed his quality.

I had Kouyate in my team at RB pre-match so I won't moan at Slav for doing the same. I can understand wanting him in the team yet our current CM duo are playing too well to drop. Unfortunately his positioning and occasionally decision making at RB are not great defensively and he made a couple of errors. However, it is understandable as it is not a position he knows well, and he was excellent on the attacking part of the role. For me though Byram comes back in next week and although saddening: Kouyate starts on the recaros.

Randy it is hard to judge, only had one shot on target which he dealt with. Generally comfortable when the ball was played back to feet and no glaring errors. Solid and reliable like a 2006 Ford Mondeo.

FlorinFactoid:

Outstanding away possession stats of 64:36 (BBC) in favour of the Irons.

thornburyiron

I think people have forgotten that Snodgrass had the trots all week and only resumed training at the end of the week

IronHerb

I don't know about forgot, I wasn't even aware. ;lol

tomkinsworldclass

A point is a decent result and keeps us ticking over, whilst the performance was good and showed our character in being able to recover from a difficult start because other WHU sides in the past might have conceded a 2nd and lost our way, but we regrouped and grew in to the game. I thought the penalty looked worse than what it actually was, though i can understand why the ref gave it; when broken down, Zarate actually causes Kouyate to trip, who then falls over into him. Theres some comments regarding Kouyate at RB in a makeshift position, but I thought he had a decent game and probably matched up better with Niang then Byram.

As for Snodgrass, he is having to play in a different team, style and set up than for his previous clubs when, perhaps, they were more structured around him. Theres no doubt in my mind that Snodgrass has suffered recently from a lack of an out and and striker as Antonio doesnt have the same movement/understanding as conventional CF, so our play becomes abit congested and played in front of the opp Defence; When Carroll/Sakho/Ayew are back to full fitness Snodrgass will be more potent/influential than his last few games, though it must be stated he hasnt let the team down and has always wanted the ball.

Lanzini and Cresswell were excellent in the 2nd half for us which is so important as they at the heart of so much for us and when they are quiet we suffer alot. Fonte + Reid looked decent at the back which bodes well, whilst Antonio (except the dopey 2nd yellow) had a great game and was our best player; I think his best position is on the left but his versatility and impact is incredible. I think we've been abit too accommodating with our personnel/set up (for differing reasons) and going into the CFC game i would like us to get back to consistency and balance in our line up; for me, that is 4-2-3-1 and players in their best positions, even if it means 1 or 2 have to drop out.

Huttonhammer

The penalty that Bournemouth got in the first few minutes against West Brom was a carbon copy of the Kouyate penalty claim we didn't get.
The ref though gave the decision against Kouyate early on before the players had hit the floor he was so keen to give the decision.
It just shows how anti West Ham referees are , they basically cheat.

Why does this keep happening week after week?

Lukerz

It wasn't a pen, IMO.

Kouyate was second best to the player and then made physical contact to illegally get ahead of him and then was tripped.