West Ham v Southampton 29th Feb 2020 - 15:00

Kuchinghammer

First off, they played as if they knew what their job was. What a difference that made. Thought putting our Big Four in a line at corners took pressure off Fab. Good management IMO.
Throw-ins :doh:
Rice was immense as a DM. Without him there, Fornals etc couldn't have done their thing
Bowen has a mean look about him that should worry any defender
I think we played 1-4-1-2-3... and the 3 can scare any defense
The Route One approach is a bit nerve-wracking: 34% possession relies on our defense too much for my comfort.
And I'm definitely a Happy Hammer today! :thumbsup:

buffybegood

Didn't feel like 34% possession though, I never felt like we were under the cosh. Not saying they didn't have a few chances, but it would have been criminal (although typically West Ham) if we hadn't taken all 3 points.

2nd on MOTD as well.

Hammerlegend

Hi all, for me this looks encouraging, if we can keep this form I think we will continue to pick up points and hopefully move away from the bottom 3. Next four games, think if we perform we have every chance of picking up results. Then the run in, just hope we hold our form, if we do think we will win more games than we loose. I live in hope this will be the case, but will not be surprised either if we loose our form and go down. This is the West Ham fan way!!!

Hamstew

I still think we will go down.

OldCastleSwift

Hamstew said:

I still think we will go down.

I keep flip-flopping. I mean, four wins should be enough, statistically, and we have games where those wins are achievable. Play like yesterday for the next 10 games and we'll do it, I reckon.

But we all know how inconsistent we are and I wouldn't be at all surprised if we only managed to pick up another two wins and go down by a couple of points.

Lukerz

I would say we needed 14 points before yesterday. 3 more wins, couple of draws.

More than achievable. Means we could basically lose half our remaining games & still get the required points.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Decent performance that, the kid at RB, Fornals as well as Bowen Antonio and Haller were excellent

I have no idea why Moyes and MP before him have taken this long to get players closer to Haller, he’s a very good player on his day that through ball to Antonio was a thing of beauty

I still can’t work out if we will beat the drop or not, this feels like the perfect storm what with the protests, fan discontent, owners now getting pelters from much of the media etc

Moyes wouldn’t of been my first choice, but always back the manager, he’s found it difficult second time round though

Oh and Ogbonna for HOTY by a country mile for me and he used to get slaughtered by many

COYI

Lukerz

To be fair, Moyes has not had an easy fixture list.

Arguably, the easiest games on paper have seen us take 8 points from 12 (Bournemouth, Everton, Brighton, Southampton). Hardly shocking.

Tough away defeats at Sheffield United & Liverpool by 1 goal, where we were pretty good in both. Even when we lost at home to LFC we could have easily scored 2/3 goals.

Leaving only really Leicester away & City away where we didn’t offer anything, yet both of those are in the top 3.

ianbishoplegend

Most of Southamptons posesión was between centre backs. I love the Antinio/Haller combo. Wasn’t impressed at all with Creswell going forward, even less defending, but he seemed up for it though.

whupathman

Did anyone notice another Mosiaha quote on the BBC, about when we stay up he will make his mark and we are not playing how he wants , no just no keep quiet

IronHerb

He musn't be positive then?

Cuz1

He’s not my choice for next season

IronHerb

I'm sure someone posted that the other day. :hmm:

EXETERHAMMER

Yep. Ogbonna has been immense.

heathrowhammer

A very positive performance, and more important 3 points.
Have to agree with others regards Ngakia, a mature and composed performance.
A great team effort all round.
Let's keep this up
COYI

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

I wonder how Johnson feels about this

I may be wrong, but it seemed liked Johnson was ahead of Ngakia in the pecking order but injuries have given Ngakia an opportunity that hes taken

buffybegood

Like most of you, I think Ngakia has done very well given he's pretty much been thrown in the deep end. However, I'm not positive, but it looked like he had picked up their goal scorer but let him steal a march for Soton's goal. Still plenty for him to work on, but, then again, there always is with our defence.

OldCastleSwift

Similar to Holland/Diangana. Holland was ahead in the pecking order by all accounts, but injury meant Dianganan got the call for the Macclesfield game and has a good number of PL games behind him and has flourished at the top of the Championship, whereas Holland has been loaned to League One Oxford.

alderz

For the love of god Ham would you please open the Arsenal thread!?

welovethehammers

buffybegood said:

Like most of you, I think Ngakia has done very well given he's pretty much been thrown in the deep end. However, I'm not positive, but it looked like he had picked up their goal scorer but let him steal a march for Soton's goal. Still plenty for him to work on, but, then again, there always is with our defence.

If both were fully fit, I imagine Johnson would still be ahead of him in the pecking order. Although that could change pretty soon if Ngakia does well until the end of the season.

Part of their goal came from Fornals pressing hard and they managed to counter the space he left behind him. I can completely understand why Fornals did this though and there's no blame attached to him at all. There's always the risk that if we press and they get behind us, we're left exposed at the back. Doesn't help that our midfield is quite slow and didn't quickly cover the space left behind (again, not easy to do at all when they committed many men forward).

BubblesNeverDies

Yes but look at James Ward-Prowse who, after taking a corner, sprinted back and stopped Bowen scoring from the breakout from said corner.

welovethehammers

BubblesNeverDies said:

Yes but look at James Ward-Prowse who, after taking a corner, sprinted back and stopped Bowen scoring from the breakout from said corner.

Not sure if your point is that Fornals should've got back in time? If so, there was no way he could've got back. The ball moves faster than the players can run. They simply exploited the space far too quickly for him to get back in time. If anything the rest of our midfield were more likely to cover this space in time but I'm not blaming them either as it was more a very good quick counter by them rather than our poor defence.

BubblesNeverDies

welovethehammers

No, I wasn't digging out Fornals, just pointing out that we don't seem to put in the effort that James Ward-Prowse did.
As you say, it doesn't help that our midfield suffers from a lack of pace.

Pearces_Left_Foot

I remember Bowen making a great tackle in our penalty area but also remember Noble being behind the play when Southampton scored , we could definitely do with an upgrade on Noble next season maybe keep Noble as a squad player

ASLEFshrugged

Pearces_Left_Foot said:

we could definitely do with an upgrade on Noble next season maybe keep Noble as a squad player

I think that is why Soucek's loan deal has a option to make the transfer permanent for £13m.

OldCastleSwift

Even if we keep Soucek, I still think we need another CM. Wilshere isn't reliable and possibly gone in the summer anyway, Noble should be a squad player next season (IMO) so we need someone else to be able to rotate with Rice and Soucek.

If we somehow manage to avoid relegation, the board simply HAVE to address the imbalances in the squad.

IronHerb

Surely it's the manager who has to address the imbalance, not the board.

OldCastleSwift

IronHerb said:

Surely it's the manager who has to address the imbalance, not the board.

The manager will obviously have an input, but ultimately it's Sullivan and Gold financing the squad. If Moyes (or whoever) doesn't have sufficient funds to fill the holes in the summer, then can he be held responsible if we don't get anyone in?

alderz

IronHerb said:

Surely it's the manager who has to address the imbalance, not the board.

I reckon the manager should be telling the board (or DoF if we get a new one?) what positions he wants strengthened, and then it’s their job to do the recruitment

Cuz1

I dislike and DOF should be manager who tells the board who he wants imo it’s the managers head on the block so help him with the tools he needs whoever the manager is