West Brom vs West Ham - Saturday 16.09.17 3:00 Match Thread

claretandbluesky

I think Chico will come into his own when Lanzini comes back and that for me is the key to moving us to the next stage, should he come back motivated and at his best he will attack the box more directly and Chico will give him an outlet and hopefully finish, as he is our finisher that we lacked all last season (hopefully).

Both ourselves and West Brom lacked a creative force and Lanzini should offer that. Sadly we have paid big money for both Arto and Ayew who we could reasonably have hoped to offer creation yet none has been sighted yet. I would happily have swapped them both for a carvalho figure who can bring solidity to the midfield.

I do wonder at Slavs tactics at times and taking both Chico and Carroll from the pitch would seem a strange one if looking to take the points. The main thing for me however is that the team spirit is good at present and we do have players who can win games so it's a case of just picking up some points and getting mid table by Christmas for me and seeing what we may be able to do after that.

ASLEFshrugged

Pullis seems happy with the point which considering they were 8th at the start of the day at home to a team that were (and still are) 18th is some sort of compliment

The heatmaps suggest that Hernandez wasn't playing as a winger,

ASLEFshrugged

Just watched the whole 90mins, Hernandez was definitely not playing as a winger

Brother_Sledge

Hernandez was in a great position begging for the ball - when Antonio chose to shoot following some good work # if only

OutcastLondoner

He definitely wasn't playing as a striker either though. Some in-between midfieldy role that meant he wasn't in the places we needed him to be.

baracks_a_hammer

Didn't a stat show he only had one touch in their penalty area?

It may have been a combination of him not playing in a position that suits him best and not getting the service

From a creative point of view, both sides were very poor. But the clean sheet of course is brilliant news.

One thing's for sure - Carroll and Hernandez are not conjuring up memories of Hartson and Kitson

Kuchinghammer

I hope, when an attacking combination finally clicks, Slav has the sense to stick with it. Forget reputations and past performances, just keep the chemistry going. And I have a sneaky feeling that Ayew might be part of it. Or is that wishful thinking? ;luck

Lukerz

After 20 mins, the pattern of the game was set. We were gonna dominate the ball, they were gonna sit back as a result of their loss to Brighton. Pulis went back to what he knows. Make sure you don't lose back to back games. They were happy with a point from the moment they kicked off.

The emphasis was on us to win the game. This is where 3 at the back does limit us. Whenever the CB's had the ball, they couldn't do anything with it to influence the play. So it ended up with us only having one creative player on the pitch; Antonio. And in any case, he is not creative in the sense of Lanzini, more through being direct, which often results in a worse than 50% chance of actually leading to anything productive. Several times he looked like he was going to threaten the backline of WBA but just did too much or took on that extra player and was muscled out of it by 2/3 WBA players.

Carroll never has an impact on Pulis sides; it's what they want. Sakho, Ayew and Hernandez would've caused bigger problems.

As a result, no Lanzini results in no real goals . All our goals this season have been fortunate. All the result of some kind of rebound/pinball moment.

0-0 is not a bad result. Problem is next weekend could see yet another defeat and the slowly increasing positivity will go back to '4 points from 18' negativity.

Shame Obiang's effort didn't bounce down over the line. The sort of moment the game needed. 0-1 to us would've given our start a whole new perspective.

IronHerb

Just woken up! ;biggrin

West Brom were rubbish. Parking the bus at home to a team struggling with confidence defies belief.

Barracks mention of Hartson and Kitson is all very well but they were being supplied with opportunities, Carroll and Hernandez are not.

I think most of us would have taken a point and a clean sheet but this was probably an opportunity missed.

The home crowd were atrocious and actually booed Ginge when he went off with an obvious hamstring issue, he even reacted against that.

Best part of the afternoon came when two guys were being marched out by stewards from the home fans seats down by the away fans to a chorus of ;quaver cheerio, cheerio, cheerio ;quaver when one of them looked up, smiled and unzipped his top to reveal his West Han shirt. There was much laughter and cheering, a real funny moment.

FlorinRaduclious

Lukerz, agree heartedly with all your comment there except that all of our goals being purely 'fortunate'.

I feel we did play into WBA/Pulis' hands a bit with our formation and play, yet at the same time very pleased to see us stop conceding silly goals so I'm a bit conflicted!

First half though I agree Ant was our only creative option aside from knocking it up for Carroll, and that simply isn't enough to cause ruptions in a defence as tightly drilled as Pullis' Albion. Seriously though, how bad and negative were they for a 'home' side?! I don't think I've ever seen a side at home to us be so negative - we aren't exactly MCity - poor WBA fans if they have that every week.

I disagree with a few here as I think Arnie showed promise when he came on the field and I think he can be a good player for us on that left wing, that we have struggled to fill since that french urchin left us.

FlorinRaduclious

Going back to the Foster incident, I'm still not sure if it was fully deserving a red card. However, I fully believe if the same 'tackle' had been committed by an outfield player the ref would have been reaching for his red so quickly he would have pulled a muscle in his arm.

Adam

FlorinRaduclious said:

I disagree with a few here as I think Arnie showed promise when he came on the field and I think he can be a good player for us on that left wing, that we have struggled to fill since that french urchin left us.

Agree Florin. People need to give him a chance. He's only played more than half a game once and it was away to Man U.

I get that he got a stupid red card but you can see he's got quality.

ASLEFshrugged

Slaven said it wasn't a red in the post-match, it wasn't two footed, there were two defenders back. Yellow

IronHerb

Lunge with both feet off the ground. Red

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

His foot was almost at Hernandez's knee. Bewildered anybody could think that isn't a red.

ASLEFshrugged

IronHerb said:

Lunge with both feet off the ground. Red

Foster did not have both feet off the ground, his left leg was out, his right leg was underneath him. His foot was level with the ball and he clipped Hernandez's foot not his knee.

Slaven watched the replays and he thinks it wasn't a red. I agree with him.

https://highlightsfootball.com/video/west-bromwich-albion-vs-west-ham-united-highlights-full-match/4/

IronHerb

I watched Goals on Sunday and they freeze framed it with showing feet off the ground.

whupathman

It would have been a red for an outfield player, but just happy to be out of the bottom 3, how bad are everton with all that money spent.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Decent point, poor game that's the way it goes sometimes, people wanted us to stop leaking goals and we have

Wasn't a red, ball was going away from the goal and players back, barely touched him, wasn't impressed with Reid's reaction or Hernadez rolling around as if shot

grey_til_I_dye

Disagree about the red.

It has nothing to do with a goal scoring opportunity; it is to do with endangering an opponent, which is why Luiz was sent off for an almost identical challenge yesterday.

He comes out of his area, out of control with his foot up at shin height, studs showing; it doesn't matter how much or little contact is made, it should be a red.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Wasn't an identical challenge at all Luiz went over the top with an out of control lunge that could've broken the lads leg

Foster was coming from a different angle and was a typical keepers "I'm committed but might not get there in time" challenge

Completely different scenarios one may of been to cynically stop a forward the other was to go through someone and do some damage.

Hence the refs got it right on both counts in my opinion

;ok

grey_til_I_dye

That's your opinion, but I disagree. Looked identical to me.

Any time a player's foot is up, going studs in to another player, I think that's a red.

Imagining the intentions of the player is irrelevant. Did Mane mean to do serious damage to the Citeh keeper? Almost certainly not. Was it a red? Yes, every time.

Not sure what difference it being a keeper making the challenge should make.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

If it's good enough for Slav, it's good enough for me, even if he did get carried away initially

More disappointed with some of our players reactions than the refs decision tbh

grey_til_I_dye

If it's good enough for Slav, it's good enough for me

Well, unless you are never going to doubt or disagree with anything he says/does in future, that really isn't much of an argument, is it?

MrsGrey

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard said:

More disappointed with some of our players reactions than the refs decision tbh

I was actually quite impressed that once the ref told them to step back, they did (or so it seemed from the stream I was watching).

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Who said I'd agree with everything in the future? In this case after his initial reaction (card waving at the 4th official - don't agree with that at all!) then when he saw it again he agreed with the ref and that a yellow was right and I happen to agree with him

Just a shame that the ref had to remind Reid and the others to take a step back, he was clearly counting how many Hammers were in his face. Reid didn't really stop though, heat of the moment probably but not sure he had to run 50 yards to do that, there again other clubs seem to lap it up, just doesn't sit well for me

;ok

MrsGrey

Wasn't Reid the captain? He's entitled to ask the ref for an explanation, and doesn't have to 'step back' when there's a bunch of players around the ref.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Yes he was.....

I just didn't like the way we acted in that scenario, even our manager got carried away

grey_til_I_dye

Slizzy

No one said you would agree with everything Slav said in the future.

That was rather my point.

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

I don't blame players for getting carried away when they think a tackle is dangerous/reckless and has endangered a team-mate.

It's different when you're trying to get somebody booked/sent off for something like handball, where a team-mate wasn't endangered. Then it's not very classy surrounding the referee.

Foster was high and out of control, and I'm glad we tried to get him sent off. Hernandez could have been out for the season if he'd been caught.