Southampton. Away 27 dec 2018 19:45

Yeoldhammer

Cresswell showed again why he should start ahead of Masuaku.

I do wonder with limited rotation when the tired factor will kick in over this cluster of festive games.

Burnley and Brighton. We could be sitting on 30 points come the New Year.

Expat_Hammer

grey_til_I_dye said:

Anyone think we'd be on 27 points after the first 4 games?
coyi

With only three points from a game and 27 after four games .....

Oh, I see

;run

eskimoking

Pearces_Left_Foot said:

Im glad Antonio is starting to look better ,the last year or so he has been woeful at times I lost count the number of times he would be standing in the centre circle looking disinterested. I m hoping it was his injury problems was the root of this and he can continue the improvement and get back to the Antonio of the last season at UP

Antonio has always been an odd one for me. This is hard to articulate but in my mind he's not a good footballer but he is an effective one. He's the type of player that would never get into a top team but can excel at a lower team when in the mood. His short passing is poor, decision making is poor, shots from a standing position are usually poor but he is effective because of physical attributes combined with his mentality. So, when earlier in the season he looked disinterested or when he gets fed up of being moved around positions, it nullifies everything that he offers and the other stuff becomes more noticeable.

Anyway, we were class yesterday. Anderson is proving a snip. Rice needs a new contract. Cresswell needs to be first choice. Obiang's passing was better than recent starts but needs to hit his crossfield balls a bit flatter. Everyone played well tbh apart from maybe Perez and Diangana, as already mentioned, looking a little out of sorts.

MrsGrey

Antonio, on coming back from injury.... “I[t] was difficult, even though I started the first game of the season against Liverpool. When your mind is telling you to do something, but your body isn’t doing it, that was the bit I was struggling with at the beginning of the season.

“I’m starting to get my sharpness back now and I’m enjoying my football again.”

Read more at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2018/december/27-december/antonio-im-enjoying-my-football-again#0ZFik7JwzA6iFvUU.99

eskimoking

Also, (sorry for double post, past the edit time), Saintsweb is a good read. I usually hate saints forums but this is a little better. They still have 30-40% moaning about the ref and going into meltdown on the match thread when the second goal goes in, my favourite comment being "admittedly our goal shouldn't have stood, but their second one shouldn't have either which makes it 1-1" erm…

Anyway, the other 60-70% is a lot of praise for our team, which is nice to see on an opposition forum.

OldCastleSwift

I was out last night so was watching the game through slightly hazy eyes, but have watched the highlights this morning Fabianski again played such a huge part in the win.

Two great saves and I remember a couple of commanding catches towards the end of the game too.

Anderson will quite rightly be getting the headlines, but Fab has been, well, Fab and had to be the bargain of the season.

horshamhammer

I've watched that second goal over and over and it really is superb. Love seeing Diop tearing up the field and ending up at the back post! Finish from Anderson is superb and the fans go absolutely crazy. They were brilliant BTW, non stop singing throughout. Did us proud as always.

Slacker

Morning all.New bloke here.Having been a hammer for more years than I can remember,when Shane Long came on for them last night and the commentator said he hadn’t scored all season my obvious first thought was “ Well, he’s obviously going to get a hat trick now”That’s what you get when you know “The West Ham way”.
So glad I was wrong .

IronHerb

The other thing is that Austin has scored on six different days of the week but not on a Thursday, so we dodged that one too.

IronHerb

Oh and welcome Slacker. ;ok

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

Welcome Slacker ;thumbsup

grey_til_I_dye

Welcome aboard, Slacker.

PrestonHammer

The commentator was saying every little cliché for us to lose.


Welcome Slacker

Hammerwombat

Slacker, you didn’t go to the same school as me did you? I had a teacher that used to call me Slacker all the time.





Mind you, he had a point.

McHammer

PrestonHammer said:

The commentator was saying every little cliché for us to lose.


Welcome Slacker

Yeah I was cashing out seconds after he said Fabianski never makes a mistake!

grey_til_I_dye

Table at end of Nov



Table after last night

chicagohammer

Hammerwombat said:

Slacker, you didn’t go to the same school as me did you? I had a teacher that used to call me Slacker all the time.





Mind you, he had a point.

Given that my surname actually is Slack, you can imagine my school nickname

“Alice”

I have Larry Greyson to thank for that
;weep

puddleglumhammers

Horshamhammer, I also noticed Diop charging up the whole pitch next to Anderson for the winner - a central defender there in case of a rebound - crazy, but it sums up our commitment at the moment, as it should be. Rice did the same in the 94th minute, picking up the rebound after a lung-buster of a run. Everything left out on the field, as it should be.
And the reaction of the players after the whistle spoke volumes - utter unity and joy, as it should be. I particularly liked Anderson hugging Noble - mutual respect, as it should be !

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Cousin just got promoted from Saints U18 to the first team squad -till end of the season

A) going to watch it back and see if I can see him on the bench, squirming.

will text him relentlessly that we had 11 players missing and oh what fun it is to watch West Ham win away!

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

I honestly was not fancying us last night, when seeing Zab out and the amount of injuries plus their bounce in form I just didn’t see us scoring let alone 2 and all three points.

Pellegrini is doing a fantastic job, he’s installing a much more expansive way of playing, it’s the same at home and away, he can interchange and the squad players don’t look out of place.

Anderson is really showing what he can do, I couldn’t give a monkeys of some of our fans and Tony Gale think he can’t backtrack, he does his bit but more than anything I want to see him lighting up the other end. He lost the ball a fair few times in the first half, but he was trying things to get us going, the best bit is, he doesn’t let it affect him, as was shown by the second half performance, true quality, at a similar level to Payet in 15/16.

Diop, the boy is a steal at 22m so composed and loves a tackle, special mention for Ogbonna as well, been out a while but you’d never of known.

The star of the show for me was Declan Rice, that kid is way beyond his years, I don’t remember him giving the ball away, only once did I remember seeing someone go away from him, in the second half, at the end the final Anderson attempt; who is up there supporting - Rice, fitter than a butchers dog, please just sign him up!!

puddleglumhammers

Looking back it seems the 2 keys for our turnaround were Rice finally coming good as holding midfielder in game 5, and the injuries to Sanchez and Wilshire who were playing so poorly anyway. Once the centre of midfield was settled we started to play with more composure and better passing. Yesterday epitomised that - we could even start without Noble and still we had the work-rate and composure from Rice, Obiang and Snodgrass.

chicagohammer

So many positives last night, Snodgrass, Cresswell, Fab, Rice, Anderson, Diop all deserve being mentioned in dispatches, a little shout out for Obiang, whenever Antonio went on a rampaging run, which was quite often, Obiang can be seen slotting back in to cover.

Perez failed to impress and AC, not totally unexpectantly looked ponderous and out of touch but overall, a great result and performance

COYI

whupathman

Rice said he needs to learn from the grab that VAR would have given a pen for, wise lad at his age