West Ham vs Stoke City (H) Match Thread 16.04.2018

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Ngl i thought it was soft...and i think Carroll started the tussle as he was waving his arms about

Dont think the ref got too much wrong tbf...it was a phtsical game cant be super soft or the game would never get going

Hammerdublin

Hart cost us two points tonight. He is unreliable; he had his chance after the Chelski game, and look what's happened. Imo Adrian should play in all the remaining matches.

madridhammer

I'll take that. Apart from anything else it will hurt Stoke mentally as indeed Chelsea's comeback will hurt Southampton mentally. i reckon we will stay up which is pretty much all I care about. I'm still not convinced by Hart,who after being a hero v Chelsea nearly cost us the game. I'm delighted for AC & I think he should be kept if only as an impact player of the bench. I'll be glad when this season is over though because it hasn't been a good one.

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

On the plus side, another top class performance from Rice.

MarkNobleLocalHero

A very frustrating game. Hart can pass on the baton to Adrian now thanks but no thanks.
Andy Carroll is such an excellent striker he has a bit of everything. He scores some superb goals in many different ways, he is the best hold up player in the country and brings others into the game effortlessly and while he is there the oppo defenders are so busy with him the others get space and opportunities. I don't think I've seen him have a bad game for us. By the way did I mention his defensive qualities!! ;ok If only... if only... if only he could stay fit what a different career it would have been. I still think he could go to Russia if he continues to play as he offers something that England do not currently have.
That ref was awful btw, a true successor to battenburg. I will watch my recording with interest tomorrow and see why those three disallowed goals were disallowed. Not saying they shouldn't have been but I couldn't see why the middle one was ruled out.
Luckily Arsenal are complete rubbish atm what with Sunday's game being the "save our season" match ;wahoo

Lukerz

Moyes, who I have been generally positive about since his appointment, set the side up to not lose the game. His gameplan, at the moment, is all about the Arnie show, and to a lesser extent the Masuaku one. The side is set up and organised to get the best out of Arnie and the hope is he produces the goods and wins us the game.

The first half showed us one thing; Stoke were there for the taking. A truly shocking side with no form and no real quality. Unfortunately we didn't produce a performance and an intensity to make the most of it. This wasn't helped by the fact the more adventurous players were sat on the bench, but I can understand why Moyes went with an unchanged side given our last two results, and he obviously believed we'd have enough to win with Arnie up front. It doesn't always work out though.

The problem was after 45 mins, then after 60, then after 70, the chance to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and win it was drifting because we still had the same XI out and Arnie wasn't as influential as he has been (he was still reasonable, but not a MOTM performance) and Masuaku was also struggling to make an impact. But Moyes held off making his change until the final 15, 3 minutes later we go 0-1 down (Zab and Hart both equally at fault, IMO) and then he brings on the other two attacking options who should've been on far earlier in the second half. What happens, we have our best 10 minutes of the match and couldn't easily won the game after equalising.

But I think Moyes was hesitant and safe during this game, and it almost cost us. Luckily, Andy produced a quality finish and the point will probably mean we're going to be safe, but we almost handed that game to Stoke and Moyes didn't seem to do anything to address it until it was almost too late.

But it wasn't an easy game given Stoke had to win and their constant fouling gameplan didn't allow any kind of flow. Thought the ref had a good game.

welovethehammers

Can I just say Noble was absolutely incredible this evening. Kouyate had a great game too, particularly in the first half (he seemed to tire a little in the latter half of the game).

Cuz1

Rumour as it Kane wants to claim arnies off side goal cus at the time of the incident Kane was with his dogs and therefore not offside lol

MIAHammer

Lukerz said:

Moyes, who I have been generally positive about since his appointment, set the side up to not lose the game. His gameplan, at the moment, is all about the Arnie show, and to a lesser extent the Masuaku one. The side is set up and organised to get the best out of Arnie and the hope is he produces the goods and wins us the game.

Unfortunately, Arnie seemed off his game today. He looked tired all game. The 2nd disallowed goal was due to him just jogging back and not paying attention.

Bazshuayi

PrestonHammer said:

It would have been easier for Hart to just put his hands on the ball rather than try and use his leg. He is a disaster.

I think (not judging) that he just didnt have the courage to put his hands there. If he had done so he probably wouldnt have held the ball but could easily have deflected it and most likely drawn a foul when Crouch kicked it.

IronHerb

welovethehammers said:

Can I just say Noble was absolutely incredible this evening. Kouyate had a great game too, particularly in the first half (he seemed to tire a little in the latter half of the game).

You can of course say it but I personally don't think it was so, re Noble that is.

grey_til_I_dye

Lukerz

Don't agree Stole were there for the taking. They were well-organised and committed in defence, coming off some decent performances with poor results.

Welove

Some of Noble's passing was excellent - the sort of passes the commentators were drooling over when Shelvey hit them on Sunday, but passed unremarked last night. I thought he had a really good game.

welovethehammers

IronHerb said:

welovethehammers said:

Can I just say Noble was absolutely incredible this evening. Kouyate had a great game too, particularly in the first half (he seemed to tire a little in the latter half of the game).

You can of course say it but I personally don't think it was so, re Noble that is.

You don't think Noble had a good game?

SuzanneClaret

Some of the worse football (for the lack of another word) I've seen in a while.

Moyes must take responsibility for not putting that game to bed, for not recognising early on that we needed a striker or two.

Poor game management by the manager.

Massively fed up by the whole thing. Can not wait for the season to end.

Hammerex

As we drew last night with a last minute goal the relegation dog fight stays
as it was.
What concerns me though, is where are the next points coming from.
Looking at our last five matches matches Arsenal a, Man City h, Leicester a,
Man Utd h, and Everton h.
Looking at those fixtures I would think home to Everton would be our best
chance to get some points, but on the downside it could well be that we
score zilch.
Where as Stoke have matches against, Burnley h, Liverpool a, C. Palace h and
Swansea a.
So apart from Liverpool they have three winable games.

ASLEFshrugged

ASLEFshrugged said:

Lawro gave us a 2-0 win

The bookies are giving almost the same odds for a 1-1 draw or us winning 1-0

1-1 draw it is then......

And tomorrow's lottery numbers are.......

Hammerex - If we can get a point at Stamford Bridge we can easily get a point at the Emirates and if WBA can win Old Trafford anyone can

Vorselaarhammer

;nonono ;doh one good game against Chelsea.... It's amazing really how bad he has been, just fallen off a cliff since the Euros...


---
Joe Hart (18 appearances) has made as many errors leading to goals this season (four) as every other English goalkeeper in the Premier League put together (179 appearances).

thornburyiron

As we all said leading up to the game, it was a must not lose rather than a must win. As for delaying the subs Moyes said after the game that he thought the side were playing well enough to win until we conceded.
Stoke defended as you would expect seeing as they really couldn't afford to lose but we still had chances and had Arnie not been lazy and walking out of the box when we still had the ball on the edge of it Fernandes goal would have stood. I really don't understand why players do that unless the ball had been whacked upfield. Similarly if he had held his run for the first disallowed goal by a fraction of a second he would have been onside.
Had Shawcross not been manhandling Carroll I doubt the ball would have hit his hand and probably not fallen to Chico but it could easily have been a penalty.
Carroll made a big difference obviously but by his own admission after the game he had only trained for five days since January so it would maybe have been a big gamble to play him for too long.
I think Arnie was effective without being his usual self and was unlucky with the shot that hit Buckland full in the face but he'd also fluffed a really good chance before that.
As for what effectively up until now had been England's numbers 1 & 2 I think we are in a keeping mess leading to the World Cup

alderz

Whilst it was frustrating that Arnie took so long to get out of the box for Fernandes 'goal', I think that the only reason it beat Butland was because he was there. Had he burst out of the box the keeper would have gathered it, IMO.

IronHerb

welovethehammers said:

IronHerb said:

welovethehammers said:

Can I just say Noble was absolutely incredible this evening. Kouyate had a great game too, particularly in the first half (he seemed to tire a little in the latter half of the game).

You can of course say it but I personally don't think it was so, re Noble that is.

You don't think Noble had a good game?

Not particularly. He went back to his old ways of whenever offered a choice between going backwards and forwards he went back and killed any impetus we may of had. He made a few good passes of course but in general not so good.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Yea butland reacted late, the ball wasnt far from him

But that was a shocking result...I lay the blame at Moyes

Got the team wrong and is never proactive enough with his subs

Hernandez has 9 goals and will be off this summer. Could see in his brief cameo all he needs is one chance in the box...moyes playes for the draw...that is inexcisible with our run in and how bad stoke are

Also i dont buy the stoke limited us because imo they didnt. Actually was surpised how many times we got down the channels

The problem wasnt cutting through stoke, it was when we did there was only Arnie to aim for so it had to be perfect...which is often wasnt

This season is a joke

jay_in_cpt

Watched the game , saw Moyes interview afterwards & had Andy Townsend & Owen Hargreaves in studio, they agreed with Suzanne's comment above and couldn't agree with Moyes view.
My own view, we controlled it without playing great, but not shocking..Hart fluffed up as usual.. It took Andy to grab an additional time great goal.
We had enough chances to win it, certainly didn't deserve to lose and just about possibly deserved a win.
But the longer it went on it could have easily been one of those games were we would just not score.
But do think Moyes waited to long to change things up, regardless if he thought we were playing well, did he forget who was on the bench!....

PrestonHammer

There seemed to me to be a "If in doubt, hoof it out" mentality in the first half, or the first bit of the first half.

alderz

IronHerb said:

welovethehammers said:

IronHerb said:

welovethehammers said:

Can I just say Noble was absolutely incredible this evening. Kouyate had a great game too, particularly in the first half (he seemed to tire a little in the latter half of the game).

You can of course say it but I personally don't think it was so, re Noble that is.

You don't think Noble had a good game?

Not particularly. He went back to his old ways of whenever offered a choice between going backwards and forwards he went back and killed any impetus we may of had. He made a few good passes of course but in general not so good.

Last night: 90% pass accuracy, 66.7% forward passes
Whole season: 83% pass accuracy, 63.2% forward passes

Squawka had him as the best performance in the side, Whoscored had him 5th.

Kuchinghammer

Lanzini did in a few minutes what Mario should have done all game - attack by dribbling and playing one-twos. I was disappointed with Masuaku too, he seemed lethargic: Creswell got further forward than he did. As a result, our play looked more negative than it should have done.
But a point is worth more than a point at this stage of the season ;wink

IronHerb

alderz said:

IronHerb said:

welovethehammers said:

IronHerb said:

welovethehammers said:

Can I just say Noble was absolutely incredible this evening. Kouyate had a great game too, particularly in the first half (he seemed to tire a little in the latter half of the game).

You can of course say it but I personally don't think it was so, re Noble that is.

You don't think Noble had a good game?

Not particularly. He went back to his old ways of whenever offered a choice between going backwards and forwards he went back and killed any impetus we may of had. He made a few good passes of course but in general not so good.

Last night: 90% pass accuracy, 66.7% forward passes
Whole season: 83% pass accuracy, 63.2% forward passes

Squawka had him as the best performance in the side, Whoscored had him 5th.

Good for them.

alderz

IronHerb said:

alderz said:

IronHerb said:

welovethehammers said:

IronHerb said:

welovethehammers said:

Can I just say Noble was absolutely incredible this evening. Kouyate had a great game too, particularly in the first half (he seemed to tire a little in the latter half of the game).

You can of course say it but I personally don't think it was so, re Noble that is.

You don't think Noble had a good game?

Not particularly. He went back to his old ways of whenever offered a choice between going backwards and forwards he went back and killed any impetus we may of had. He made a few good passes of course but in general not so good.

Last night: 90% pass accuracy, 66.7% forward passes
Whole season: 83% pass accuracy, 63.2% forward passes

Squawka had him as the best performance in the side, Whoscored had him 5th.

Good for them.

It's not good or not good, it's just a fact.

If you think he passed backwards whenever he had a choice, then the facts don't support that.

Lukerz

We controlled the game whist having no real gameplan to me. I thought we were the better side and you would expect that given our players, the fact we were home, the points difference between the sides and the comparative form. But I was expecting far more. The urgency and intensity we played with after going 0-1 down I was expecting from the start, a real "let's go out there and confirm our PL status" type approach, not a nervous, hesitant mentality. The commentators mentioned the 'size' of the game and that both sides knew it, which is fair enough, but I wasn't sure why we were so nervous and cautious. We would've had every right to be had we lost the game, but at 0-0 and 7 clear of Stoke, 6 clear of the bottom three, the best GD and 6 games left to get 3 points (roughly), I didn't understand the anxiety in the ground and from the players. The game was approached negatively instead of proactively.

And the side we had didn't allow for that intensity either. It wasn't just the mentality. Mario, whilst talented technically, is lethargic in his play and, at times, lightweight in a physical altercation, Fernandes is the same, and I struggle to see what he offers the side. Even if he'd continually pressed it wouldn't been something. The whole team sat off Stoke, with no real pressure until we were losing. And, when we did get into promising positions, those chances often fell to people like Fernandes, Kouyate or Zabaleta, and none of them have the ability to make the most of it. I counted four times Kouyate got into the box down the channel, but he is not suited to being in that position and then making the best of the chance. A Lanzini may have.

A loss certainly would've been harsh but we gave them a chance to get a vital win by going about the game all wrong, IMO.

MrsGrey

Lukerz said:

We controlled the game whist having no real gameplan to me.

I think 'controlling the game' WAS the game plan.

It seems to me we approached the game with a view of not going helter-skelter and getting caught out, but at the same time getting forward sensibly, not being overly defensive, and trying to create and take chances when we could,

By and large, I think that game plan was adhered to for the majority of the game.

We had the ball in the back of the net 4 times - not the sign of a team playing for a draw, imo.

IronHerb

alderz said:

IronHerb said:

alderz said:

IronHerb said:

welovethehammers said:

IronHerb said:

welovethehammers said:

Can I just say Noble was absolutely incredible this evening. Kouyate had a great game too, particularly in the first half (he seemed to tire a little in the latter half of the game).

You can of course say it but I personally don't think it was so, re Noble that is.

You don't think Noble had a good game?

Not particularly. He went back to his old ways of whenever offered a choice between going backwards and forwards he went back and killed any impetus we may of had. He made a few good passes of course but in general not so good.

Last night: 90% pass accuracy, 66.7% forward passes
Whole season: 83% pass accuracy, 63.2% forward passes

Squawka had him as the best performance in the side, Whoscored had him 5th.

Good for them.

It's not good or not good, it's just a fact.

If you think he passed backwards whenever he had a choice, then the facts don't support that.

Didn't say he passed backwards but on many occasions he turned back towards his own goal first before making his pass. This cost us time and impetus.