West Ham v Bournemouth - Sat 18th August 3pm Match Thread

puddleglumhammers

It pains me to write this but Noble should be dropped now. Anderson should have one more game but play centrally, ahead of Obiang as defensive midfielder. I doubt we can play 2 up top for the next few matches and Pelle has a difficult choice for central defence after today's debacle. Maybe ....

Fabianski
Fredericks Balbuena Ogbonna/Diop Cresswell
Obiang
Snodgrass Wilshire Anderson Masuaku
Arnautovic

SuzanneClaret

We were very very soft and realy quite slow.

It was very disappointing.

Pearces_Left_Foot

Just home , same problems as last year too slow centrally and out worked by the opposition

Fortuneseeker

Sorry to add to everyone's frustration, and if you aren't I can't for the life of me fathom why you aren't, but Sanchez (the perceived solution to our central midfield problem) isn't reported to be that quick. ;angry

Huttonhammer

All the money we spend and Noble is still in our midfield.
He should have gone a few seasons ago.

Wilshere is s bit more lively but playing both together is suicide.

If the manager continues to play Noble nothing will change.

mike

Just back from the game myself.
Everytime bournmouth ran at us they cut through our slow,pondering defense like a hot knife going through butter.
Early days yet but anderson didn't impress,his passing was shocking and he didn't like to come back and help.
Did not deserve anything today and if it wasn't for fabianski we could have conceded more.
After all these years it still mucks my weekend up when we lose ;angry

ASLEFshrugged

Huttonhammer said:

All the money we spend and Noble is still in our midfield.
He should have gone a few seasons ago.

How many is a few?

In May 2016 the newspapers and pundits were asking why he wasn't getting picked for England.

The following season people were saying he was useless and it was eventually revealed that he had been playing with an abdominal injury because we didn't have enough players.

The obvious problem with Noble is if we drop him who takes over as captain?

Yeoldhammer

Spine of the team is just Pony, and Anderson is not a 40m player yet will have to step his game up ten fold.

Barney

Very disappointing start but it is crazy to get on the teams backs. Give Pelle at least 6 games to get his ways across. I may be being hopeful but I believe this will get much better.

MarkNobleLocalHero

Funny thing about our shiny new £40m player but I thought that Snodgrass playing on the other wing was much better. ;nonono

PrestonHammer

I don't want to get on the teams back but, it's the same old mistakes for most of these players and under 3 different managers.

Cuz1

In pelle I still trust he will get it right just a gut feeling so although poor again today as they say things can only get better COYI

EssexHammer

Love to know what they do at Rush Green all week because it certainly doesn't play out of a weekend.

Think as somebody else mentioned earlier we could be ths season's Palace.

Though on a positive note, we do have as many points as Arsenal.

BubblesNeverDies

I can't understand how we spent almost 40% of our transfer budget on a player who looks so ordinary. No better than Jaoa Mario who would have cost half as much.

Another thing, is Calum Wilson our new Lukaku? ;nonono

EXETERHAMMER

Abandon the back 4.
5 at the back Mr Pellegrini.

IronHerb

Get rid of Anderson after 2 games? Just think where we might be if we had done the same with Arnie. ;hmm

Lukerz

All I can hope (and I do trust Pelle) is that we have to go through this mess before things turn out for the better as the season progresses and we can move towards mid table. This high line/offside trap thing is gonna see us ship a lot of goals until the back line gets the hang of it or Pelle abandons it altogether. Not sure 4-4-2 is going to remain with our midfield but we have the players we have until Jan and he needs to use the options in the middle to get the best balance and make it work.

My only worry with yesterday was dropping three players who played a key part in our pre-season preparations and started at Anfield. Smacks of knee-jerk to me, to remove them all from the squad. Without Antonio (as much as I don’t rate him) and Fredericks down that right hand side we looked so laboured. Zab and Snodgrass should not still be first XI options.

Praying it will eventually click but it could be a nasty ride until we get there. Pelle needs to remain brave and strong in what he is working towards and the players need to keep working hard, whilst the fans keep the support. It’s early days.

Pearces_Left_Foot

Anderson seems to of inherited Kouyate wrist bandage ;lol

Pearces_Left_Foot

The first half we did have some decent interlink play I would consider Obiang for noble and Fredericks for Zabaleta to add some more pacy to the team and maybe start Yarmolenko instead of Snodgrass . Both goals came from mistakes and poor defending cut that down and we will be fine

MarkNobleLocalHero

Anderson seems to of inherited Kouyate wrist bandage

Goes with the number 8 shirt ;wink

Hammerex

Time is up for Noble. He has been a great servant to the club, but he has to go.
The whole team was pathetic. The owners have spent a massive amount
of cash this year, and yet it is still the same old story.
If we were playing against Man City fair enough, but Bournemouth ?
There was no passion there, and so slow when on the attack.
On this performance it is going to be another long season hoping to
survive for yet another season. I know it's early days, but we need to start
performing and getting points on the board fast.

alderz

Think it’s unfair to say time is up for noble based on a game where the manager decided he was capable of playing in a 4-4-2. He very obviously needs to be in a 3, imo. Pellegrini needs to work out his formation and best XI sharpish.

ASLEFshrugged

IronHerb said:

Get rid of Anderson after 2 games? Just think where we might be if we had done the same with Arnie. ;hmm

Arnie only started the first two games last season, he got red carded for an elbow against Saints and missed the next three.

heathrowhammer

Anyway journey from Hounslow to Stratford via waterloo, 1 hour 10 minutes
Good start. Met mate had 2 beers all good. Found our seats, happy with view.
Now for the game itself. We seemed slow and sluggish, showed no urgency when going behind. Ok it's early days, Pelegrine and players need time to get tactics right.
Hopefully we will get it right. Disappointing result& poor performance left the fans frustrated at end. Work in progress!!

OutcastLondoner

I thought Anderson showed some good signs actually. It didn't always work but you could see what he was trying to do in terms of trying to create opportunities and unlock defences with his passing. When do we get that? That formation didn't work for our defence or for him.

The shame is Hernandez and Arnautovic looked good together but how do we work that and also have a three in midfield and play Anderson? Maybe wingbacks with Anderson ahead of two CMs?

IronHerb

ASLEFshrugged said:

IronHerb said:

Get rid of Anderson after 2 games? Just think where we might be if we had done the same with Arnie. ;hmm

Arnie only started the first two games last season, he got red carded for an elbow against Saints and missed the next three.

But he was rubbish in his first half a dozen games. That was my point.
Anderson hasn't been poor at all imo.

SuzanneClaret

Agreed. It took Arnie a few games and some barracking from the crowd to turn him around.

Anderson was one of our better players at Liverpool and had a decent first half yesterday.

Dave Allen should not keep changing the team each week, it will just confuse them more. What he needed to do yesterday was push Rice back into a 3 and allow Anderson and Shodgrass to bomb forward.

grey_til_I_dye

"The fans must also trust again this season," said Pellegrini. "The stadium was empty with 10 minutes to go, we can still score in that time. They need to believe but if you don't have results it is more difficult for them.

"The squad, everyone, must forget about last season, trust what we are doing and look to the future.

^ THIS ^

SuzanneClaret

;hmm

It wasn’t empty with 10 minutes to go though was it.... people had started to leave but they always have done. Did it at Upton Park and do it at the LS. Leave early if we are 2 nil up or it’s 2-2 and looking like we might snatch all three points.

It’s irrelevant.

As for trust, we’ll that is earned. You can’t expect fans to ignore decades of experience and block out several seasons worth of memories.

SuzanneClaret

Having said that the whole shooting match gets my support (phew I can hear them utter) until they prove they dont deserve it.