Brighton (Home) Friday 20th 8pm (match thread)

TwistandShout

The players shouldn't escape criticism. Their 'effort' today was abysmal

thornburyiron

I'd love Sky to go and spend a week filming us train so we can all see what goes on because whatever does go on doesn't translate to anything positive on the field.
Most of our squad are internationals but if their national manager saw them playing for us they'd never win another cap.

EssexHammer

Adrian by a country mile is a better keeper than Hart.

Was never keen on Hart coming in and have seen nothing that has changed my mind.

As for Arnautovic, biggest waste of money i've known in all the years of supporting the club.

I think most of us guessed that from the beginning.

Used to have one good game in four for Stoke.

Just worried that Chicharito will see his form decline rapidly and decide to move on.

What do we do to players?

Snodgrass wasn't brilliant but his form nosedived when he joined us.

There's something systemically wrong at the club and there has been for a while.

Huttonhammer

Is it the manager.

These sort of displays have been happening for years now. We get thrashed by teams who are rubbish all the time. In fact we seem to get thrashed quite often.

It doesn’t seem to matter who our manager is or who plays for us. We have no real leader on the pitch or real leaders running the club. Also players that join us do not care about the club or the fans . We have become a bit of a nothing club and after the move the club seems to have lost a lot of its soul.

We are in a really bad place at the moment.

Pengeman

I don't buy this sop about how the new stadium is responsible for dip in form. How it come other teams can win at WHU? It was a very poor bench today with little for attacking options. As established players are not delivering why not try younger and hungrier players. Arnautovic has been a big minus so far and Ayew isn't the speedy forward that he appeared during his Swansea days. May be give Martinez and Holland a go. Not sure why 3-5-2 which gave us a few points has been abandoned.

Next EPL game we would be back to the usual problem of where to play Hernandez. He can't be the sole striker and is wasted on the wing. Why buy a player who does not fit the game plan (did I say Bilic has a game plan?).

MarkNobleLocalHero

Bilic = fake manager. = clueless. How did it go...Koutyate (midfield) off replaced by Ayew (striker) and then followed some time later by Arnie (striker) for Fernandes (midfield) errr isn't that back to square one in terms of approach?
Talk about ;quaver don't know what your doing ;quaver

Hart << Adrian

I never understood why we went for Hart while we had Adrian oh hang on yes I did.....he was cheap and the Daves thought a crowd pleaser! Fools!

Terrible evening but I should have been prepared so partly my fault.

Zabaleta easily our best player but a MOM wasn't announced probably to avoid laughter/ridicule that would have followed.
Thank god it's over!!!

SuzanneClaret

I agree Penge.

It isn’t the stadium.

thornburyiron

Watching Sky now and Hart has the lowest save rate % in the PL and has conceded the joint highest number of goals.
Possibly time for a change but I can't see Bilic making it.
It's embarrassing when on Sky our performance is termed woeful and disgraceful. Arnie was singled out for particular criticism with Gary Nev saying he thinks he's a lot better than he is.

OutcastLondoner

I won't be happy if Arnautovic starts another game until he's shown something from the bench - I think I could run 10 yards, lose the ball and sulk as effectively as he does. Masuaku should be the winger.

There have been some really awful performances this season and I no longer think Slav knows how to change things.

Yeoldhammer

good luck whoever is making the spurs thread

Huttonhammer

It’s not just the stadium (getting into it getting out of it etc is a joke) . it’s the board the manager and I never thought I would say this but it’s mainly the players . Do they really care at all about the club?
Everything about the club at the moment is contributing to an utter mess.

welovethehammers

Just read some comments about Adrian being better than Hart which I agree with. The worst thing about it is that as Adrian has been dropped he is probably likely to leave. Hart is also likely to leave (we won't want him or we will but he'll be too expensive). So that'll leave us goalkeeperless. Yes I did create a new word.

If this does happen there is a risk that the next goalkeeper may be a shambles and he may initially flop due to taking time getting used to the defence and the defence getting used to him.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Don’t agree about Adrian being better than Hart, up until tonight I didn’t think Hart had stood much chance with all the goals we’d conceded, plus he hadn’t dropped the kind of rickets Adrian was capable of (stoke/CP)

chicagohammer

Was disappointed as I had to miss this game, reading the comments above, I think I dodged a bullet.

I did not see the game but believe that these are good players, easily good enough to achieve upper mid table status - by all accounts we were terrible today against a team which only has spirit going for them, honestly, how many of Brightons squad would we take.

So how are we going to instil some spirit of our own, I always fancied Bilic as manager, he seemed right to me, but I am now thinking that a change has to happen.

ho hum

Lukerz

I hope Antonio has an underling injury which he is playing through because, if he doesn’t, he especially should be embarrassed with that performance last night.

Lukerz

Was it Carragher who said we had one of the poorest sprints and ground covered records in the PL.

jay_in_cpt

I know many on here have their gripes over playing AC & Noble but IMO them 2 & Collins are the 3 who really put their heart into it...
Slav might not get his tactics right & right now I'm unsure what I feel the board should do, but the players last night with the very odd exception should hold their heads down in shame, most international players who looked like they were playing with their legs tied together..
Of course I feel that the coaching/ management might be part of it all, but these last night were woeful..
Clueless, gutless & no fight...

grey_til_I_dye

https://twitter.com/whu606forum/status/921639076998074369

;weep

baracks_a_hammer

We are in a pretty desperate state. We can slate xyz players, however there is a real crisis of confidence right through the core of the first team. It seems as though the players are terrified if the ball goes anywhere them.

We are real need of a Scott Parker type influence on the pitch

welovethehammers

jay_in_cpt said:

I know many on here have their gripes over playing AC & Noble but IMO them 2 & Collins are the 3 who really put their heart into it...
Slav might not get his tactics right & right now I'm unsure what I feel the board should do, but the players last night with the very odd exception should hold their heads down in shame, most international players who looked like they were playing with their legs tied together..
Of course I feel that the coaching/ management might be part of it all, but these last night were woeful..
Clueless, gutless & no fight...

Agreed - I'd add Adrian to your list with Noble, Carroll and Collins.

Bazshuayi

I feel like I need to be compensated by refunding my ticket price after watching the game. The fact that I didnt attend does not seem to be a good reason to be denied that refund ;hmm

I said earlier in the thread that Bilic will not be offered a new deal so we should already be looking (or already have a replacement ready) to bring in someone else well before the Jan window.With a lot of tough games in the near future I am sure virtually all of us we expecting/hoping for 3 points from Brighton more than any other side in that run. ;weep

Adam

Baz

I don't think the squad needs an overhaul or even any players brought in, necessarily. The Jan transfer window shouldn't affect the timing of the sacking, even though managers like to have their own players.

Bazshuayi

Yup I agree no wholesale changes but like you said, managers like their own players and its patently obvious at the moment that there are issues with some of the squad (whether its desire, fitness, lack of confidence or any other number of excuses).

Sakhos contracts up at the end of the season so I hope we at least look for another one in January ( a sort of fit one that sometimes scores as well ;hmm )

madridhammer

So it's the day after & I'm now calm (relatively). I went to my first West Ham match way back in 1970 & I've seen us get rolled over by good sides.I've also seen plenty of abject performances against poor teams but at the moment I'm really struggling to think of a worse performance. I watched the match in a pub in Madrid & sitting on the table next to me was a Brighton fan. When the first goal went in I said 'you'll win this tonight' & what I expected was one of those frustrating nights where we hammer on the door but can't force the equaliser. I left the pub after the third goal (after shaking the guys hand & saying well done) utterly furious. To be taken to the cleaners by the likes of Brighton (no disrespect to them,they played well & I've got a lot of tine for Chris Hughton) is just plain embarrassing. I like Slav & I think he'll still be there at the end of the season but I don't want him there next year.

thornburyiron

We've all said squad wise there's nobody in the Brighton squad we'd want but I'm pretty sure Brighton fans would say exactly the same about our squad as theirs at least show 100% commitment.
They turned up last night determined not to get rolled over and even Hughton said he was more pleased with the clean sheet than the goals. We should have been at them from the first whistle and put them under so much pressure they'd either have buckled or determinedly kept us out for which we'd have praised them and said good on them. What actually happened was we strolled around passing it amongst ourselves with no impetus or ferocity and they sensed that we weren't really going to bother them and that's how it panned out. We had 2 shots on target both from way out and never troubled their keeper.
The Lanzini free kick from 25 yards out went so high over the bar Owen Farrell would have been delighted with it.
Our passing, unless it's within 5 yards is abysmal. The only longish pass I'm confident will reach a teammate is the one from a kick off and I'm guessing that's only because we've had to do so many of them this season they've become practice perfect.

puddleglumhammers

End of the season could be too late if we have been relegated. We have time to look carefully for a new manager now, and give him resources for the next transfer window.
What summed it all up was Hart over-hitting a free kick square to the right and it going out for a Brighton throw-in. Laughable. Reminded me of the panic and ineptitude England showed in that 2nd half vs Iceland. Zero confidence or self-belief leading to safe, non-threatening passing or crazy errors like this.
If Manzini is available get him in soon.

puddleglumhammers

..... or how about an emergency telephone call to Sir Trevor Brooking ?

imagelost

I lick to see a vote on SB staying or going

MrsGrey

Distribution




Indvidual players sats, pass range, success rate, heat maps etc https://www.whufc.com/fixtures/first-team/fixtures-and-results/season-20172018/west-ham-united-vs-brighton-and-hove-0

SuzanneClaret

We are less than the sum total of our parts.

It could be argued that this is a better squad than the one Pardew took to the FA cup final.

Yet we are very poor.