Hammers ⚒ v Man City - “AND IT’S LIVE”

ianbishoplegend

I watched Palace v Everton after. Zaha was excellent in his cameo.

Cuz1

He’s about at his level there though so he should shine

Colchester_Iron

thornburyiron said:

I don’t quite get Pelle’s comments. He doesn’t think the score was a fair reflection of the game but says he wasn’t happy with how we played in the first half and we conceded in the second half by giving them too much space and time.

I agree with Pelle. I don't think the score was a fair reflection of the game.

I thought we were lucky to get nil.

baracks_a_hammer

The problem is that when we lose the ball, our defensive “unit” look like a group who have just met each other. This is even when we win - eg Watford, last game of last season who found no problem slicing through us even with 10 men and half an eye on their cup final

Yet remarkably, Fab, Diop, Balbuena and Rice are all highly coveted and praised time and again. Completely bizarre.

It is absolutely no different to last season - with exactly the same personnel, so it’s been going on for over a year.

If this was any normal company, Pelle (with whom the buck stops) would be hauled in front of HR and given a disciplinary on performance grounds

The amount of support he has been given for transfers the likes of Sam and Moyes could only have dreamt of.

Brighton could be topping the table after the second round of games.

Lukerz

The first half was ‘ok’, if by ok we mean we played some tidy stuff in patches, had a relatively decent amount of the ball compared to recent seasons & almost allowed them to have their 0-1 lead without overcommitting.

Second half, after it went to 0-2, & City had upped their game, it was cruise control from them. On another day we get a goal when Hernandez should have scored, made it 1-2 with a nervy finish. But we are just nowhere near the level required to make it difficult for them.

Hammerex

I was only one goal short in the predictor game, so I was not that surprised
that we got a thrashing.

Lukerz

No leader on the pitch for me. Said it all when Cresswell takes the armband. We need to start looking at a replacement for Noble as when he is not on the pitch we really look lost at times.

Feel sorry for the back four. At times they had no chance.

thornburyiron

Not sure what our new signings made of today. Must be wondering what they’ve let themselves in for.

IronHerb

Probably thought that they've just played against one of the top five or six teams in Europe, and it's tough.

IronHerb

Sorry Lukerz but Nobes would have made little difference out there today.

Cuz1

Some people will always be negative where I think we have a cunning plan

IronHerb

Do tell, do tell.

Cuz1

Get beat by a big score opening day and lull the rest into a false sense of security it’s the future lol

secrethammersfan

Reading this thread has helped me reach a decision. I don’t mind losing 5-0 to a team that won 4/5 of all potential trophies last year, in our first game of the season. I just can’t stand coming on to this forum afterwards and reading the kind of reactionary posts here. “Always the same, Pellegrini doesn’t know what he’s doing”, “Player X is a waste of space”, “Even though player Y had a good game, he’s not good enough”. I watched the game, and enjoyed seeing Man City being Man City. I thought West Ham had decided not to give it their all and injure a key player on opening day. I also thought Man City were about 30% sharper and quicker to almost every ball, constantly on West Ham -even at 5-0 up with 2 minutes left. I think West Ham will improve in this respect over the season, as their match fitness improves.

Whenever I write here, I always try to write “West Ham”, and never “we”. This is because I have zero input into what happens on the pitch, and I have zero experience of Premier League training regimes, tactical and physical instruction. Nor do I know anything of sports psychology. I reckon the players, coaching and training staff of West Ham have a better idea. So I leave it to them. I can understand wanting to discuss the players, tactics and business of the club, but I don’t want to read the kind of negativity on here any more. I’ll just have to look elsewhere for my West Ham related content.

Enjoy the forum, guys.

Cuz1

Not all of us my friend but I get you, I wonder what we expect end of the day I’d put my house on who finishes above Man City will win the league end of

Fortuneseeker

I admit I might post some negative comments at times but they are born out of disappointment & frustration. Should we be losing by such a large margin to the same team on a regular basis? We must have learnt to play in a certain way if only to limit the damage. As one Premier League manager is reported to have told his team “minimum requirement is maximum effort” Did we show that throughout the team today?

thornburyiron

I’ve watched the whole match again and it was even more disappointing. Every time City lost the ball every player within 10 yards or so was ready to fight to get it back which for the most part stopped us attacking quickly. When we lost the ball players stood still and let them run away with it and this led to three of the goals at least.
Lanzini was a particular culprit in this. I think Pelle needs to lay down the law and make them watch this game over and over again this week and make them realise what they need to do. Yes man for man the city players are probably better than ours but there shouldn’t be such a marked difference in commitment between two sides as seemed to be apparent today.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

I think fans are entitled to being disappointed if you get thrashed 5-0. I also dont think we shouldn't be allowed to voice negative comments. Sure they can come across as moaning, but fans invest a lot into their team both with how they use their spare time (e.g. watching games, talking about games, reading news) or actually spending money (shirts, tickets, hospitality, TV deals)

I dont buy into this idea that "it's Man City so its ok"

If we genuinely want to get into europe and get 7th, we should not be going into games with the mindset that getting thrashed is acceptable....because if we think that then why shouldn't the players

I do think Pellegrini is still the right man for us, but he is not without criticism and losing 5-0 at home is worthy of criticism. The worst thing about it is despite the fact we have a very good squad and have made some great buys recently, you just knew that they would batter us

Also let's not act like it flatered city. Yes we played some promising stuff in the 1st half but we were never that close to scoring and by the end they were well worth the 5-0

Lukerz

Lanzini was pretty disgraceful today. Not happy with those diving antics to try and buy a free kick.

Lukerz

Also, I wonder why Yarmolenko & Masuaku were not in the squad at all? And how serious is Anderson’s knock?

Cuz1

Maybe they were not match fit, I get I hate losing against anyone but sometimes you have to say we were beaten by a far superior side who we ain’t close to at all if we play well have the ability to up there game and some simples

Hamstew

I think people have a right to be a bit fed up and negative about today's result

claretandbluesky

Whilst I wish t wasn't so in my view City have gone so far ahead of everyone except Liverpool at present that it is a little like the Spanish league has so often been that Barca and Real just beat other teams and the title is decided between them mostly from their matches against each other and their ability to remain consistent against the lower teams such as ourselves over the course of the season.

City are simply that good that I don't feel it too fair to judge any of our players against them any more than we judge a league one side against premiership cup competition, you do what you can, hope to be resilient for as long as you can and of 10 such matches you might get lucky one time, but most of the time they will simply be too classy for you. Lets wait and see what the next four matches bring.

ASLEFshrugged

IronHerb said:

Sorry Lukerz but Nobes would have made little difference out there today.

Noble might have stopped Hernandez from taking a free kick when Snodgrass should have taken it.

jay_in_cpt

Secret i respect yours and everyone elses opinion, however I do not agree with all u stated.
Why should we be around 30% less fit than them, if this is the case I think we need to look at who is in charge of our fitness regime, I guess Pelle decided who they should be IMO there should be little difference with fitness among teams, skill is another thing...

I do agree that City are obviously miles ahead of us, that is plain to see with the players they have etc...
My gripe is with our manager, I admit that I never wanted him when appointed & was a bit surprised how much acclaim he got last year ( when we won games and how attractive football we played, IMO it was no more attractive than Slav's season finale at Upton Park.)

I have a few issues with Pelle, he seems very stubborn & set in his ways, he refuses to adapt depending on who we play, for sure it's great to try to " always play attractive " football, but this simply won't often work when the team we are playing are far superior on all fronts..
Lots of fans, yeh that's all we are have wanted a proper DM added to our squad, whether he needs to play all games, possibly not, but again IMO against teams that have the ability like City this a prime example when we do...

Again IMO he is getting a very easy ride and so far has not really improved us or taken us up a significant level while spending a small fortune compared to our last few managers...

While he is here I will always want our team to win & will give them/him my support, but I am not in the camp that think he is right for us...

Saying all this I will be very happy to be proved very wrong come the end of the season when we finish higher than last year and get into at least the latter stages of 1 of the cup competitions, any less then I personally would like to see him gone at the end of the season, please prove me wrong Pelle!

MrsGrey

Lukerz said:

Also, I wonder why Yarmolenko & Masuaku were not in the squad at all?

Who would you have left out to accommodate them?

Fornals ...and :hmm: Ogbonna?

Lukerz

Sanchez & Cresswell.

Cresswell is done as a top level LB.

baracks_a_hammer

Thorn

I read your bit about Pelle needing to lay down the law, making them watch it over and over again, etc.

Personally I don’t believe this is Pelle’s style. It is absolutely, you imagine, the sort of thing Dyche might do and do so effectively.

And that is why it keeps on happening time and time again.

As we know, yesterday was far from being a one off.

OldCastleSwift

Lukerz said:

Sanchez & Cresswell.

Cresswell is done as a top level LB.

The Masuaku thing is a bit odd. The club gave him a new long-term contract, bigged him up as an important player and then Pellegrini drops him from the squad.

For me he should be starting over Cresswell, but at the very least should be on the bench, if only because he can play two positions. Could have come on for Anderson and provided Cresswell with much needed cover.

Lukerz

We have a much better chance this season beating Brighton next week; they have completely shifted their mentality to being a more offensive side. There will be space for us on the counter.

I would still say Snodgrass should be playing next to Rice in Noble’s absence. We can play Wilshere just ahead of them.