Brighton (H) - 27/12

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

We have a finite amount of funds...If it has run out its run out

Moyes has said we won't be active so don't expect much

Our squad is thin, but we are a mid table club, all of us have thin squads

We aren't in any danger of going down, today we were about as awful as we've ever been under Moyes and still got a point, there are worse teams then us this year

D&S aren't going to spend money for the sake of it, and I don't think they should

Remember a lot (myself included) on here were raging that we didn't go for Manning, but he's only had 2 starts in the championship and seems like we probably did the right thing avoiding him

Fortuneseeker

baracks, see my comment @ 4.22 re GSB. It's quite sad and frustrating.

baracks_a_hammer

Sully has (to be fair) had one go at “going for it” when it comes to investing to push us to another level

Sadly he put his eggs in the basket of Husillos and Pelle. We paid for it massively with the signings of wilshere Carlos sanchez and others. And we are still paying for it.

We are still carrying the legacy of that through Anderson and Yarmo. Add Haller to the list. And Diop doesn’t start these days. Lanzini on big wages.

You have Anderson, Diop, Fornals, Yarmo and none of those were starting for West Ham today. All cost £20m plus. And Haller only starting as there is literally no-one else.

Kicking this club on is likely beyond Sully now. Roll on 2023 I guess.

Cuz1

Just seen moyes interview how can he defend that performance

OutcastLondoner

IronHerb said:

ASLEFshrugged said:

We've played eleven times with 3 CBs and 2 WBs, it got us 18 pts.

We've played four times with a back 4, just 4 pts and we've not managed a clean sheet.

Risking being overrun in midfield seems to work well for us

And I think Fornals has played in most, if not all, of those 11 games.

I know what you mean but I think Fornals has been having less effect on games for a while. I think Lanzini can do a similar job but with a bit more forward bite. We can also end up with the ball bogged down in midfield. I think that was our problem today and while Fornals will be an upgrade on Noble, I’m not sure how much. But I’m not against him. It might make sense to start with him then use one of the other two if it’s not working.

The choices Moyes made were really baffling today. It made sense to tinker with the back 5 system to allow Bowen to play closer to Haller but having everyone else so far from the two defeated the purpose. Noble looks lost in the more advanced position. Even if you want him as a playmaker, maybe he could be a deep-lying one behind Rice and Soucek - Canning Town Pirlo style. He’s the last person you want having to run around as the link between a very deep 7 and two strikers. I think that must be the end of Noble starting.

Haller’s training sessions should just be jumping. He seems to always want to bring it down with his feet but he misjudges the flight so often.

BubblesNeverDies

Outcast:
Noble looks lost in the more advanced position.
Fixed it for ya

thornburyiron

My guess is he thought, probably rightly, that Southampton on Tuesday would be a much tougher game and decided to rest Fornals and not risk Benrhama who he has said isn’t yet up to a full PL game.
Having said that I’ve no idea what he thought Noble would add to anything.

ScotHammer

Cuz1 said:

Just seen moyes interview how can he defend that performance

Because it was mainly due to HIS selection, and he can’t admit getting it so wrong!

Barney

Moyes has said the lack of creative players in the first half was not the right decision in hindsight. so at least he recognises it. He should come on this forum to get some advice!

claretandbluesky

If he said Benrahma isnt up to a full premier league match yet as Thorn as quoted I am astonished. We are 14 matches into the season so is there a health problem? if not keeping him on the bench all match isn't going to help things.

Dodger58

Claret, I think he wants Behrama to grow six inches (at least!)

claretandbluesky

He could still outjump Haller as it is!

thornburyiron

Claret I think he means the pace and tempo of the PL compared to the championship.

Pengeman

This is a mischievous thread to suggest that Benrahma did not get on the pitch today so that West Ham can somehow wriggle out of the deal to sign him on a permanent basis. The rumour monger thinks that WHU can only wriggle out if Benrahma does not make a predetermined number of appearance. I hope there is no substance to this.
https://www.hammers.news/analysis/is-this-the-real-reason-david-moyes-didnt-bring-said-benrahma-on-against-brighton/

OutcastLondoner

I doubt that’s true. Brentford have a whole strategy based on transfers so I’m not sure they would agree to something so stupid.

Fortuneseeker

https://www.hammers.news/match-report/gary-neville-truly-baffled-by-one-decision-west-ham-boss-david-moyes-made/

Shows you how bad things were today even Gary Neville found the starting line up baffling.

Brother_Sledge

Since his debut Soucek has scored 4 headed goals which equals the most in that period with Harry Kane and Dominic Calvert-Lewin ! (He also had the near post header forcing the own goal against Wolves)

Lukerz

The starting 11 was possibly the most baffling decision I have ever seen from a manager at West Ham.

I had no issue with reverting to a back 3 (which gets the best out of Balbuena, Ogbonna & Cresswell). It meant Soucek & Rice could return as a midfield pair &, other than Masuaku, it’s the same back 3 & middle 4 that has done well all season. Masuaku is a big loss though to our balance & we need a left-footed LWB in January. Happy with that.

To then play Noble in the No.10 role behind Haller &, I assume Bowen, but Bowen kept drifting out to the right hand-side. So it was almost like our normal formation (3-4-3) but Noble was to the left of Haller when we had Benrahma, Lanzini & Fornals on the bench. What was even more annoying was why Moyes did not decide to change something sooner, before we handed them a 1 goal start. It’s like he feels it’s illegal to make a substitution in the first half. He spent the whole half chatting to Paul Nevin, clearly unhappy, yet made no changes.

I really don’t know what the game plan was. It seemed sit back & counter attack them, yet we had no pace in the side to counter. The midfield was clearly going to be leggy with Soucek, Rice & Noble on the pitch. I mean what did he want Noble to do? What was Noble’s instruction in terms of his role in that game. I really have no idea.

Yeoldhammer

All it did was show that Noble is done at this level. His contract expires end of this season and i wouldn't think about renewing it.

Cuz1

Moyes does all that good work and then last two games selects noble and goes back again imo

alderz

IMO Noble isn’t done at this level if you play him as a deep lying central midfielder. He should be a backup to Rice & Soucek, and shouldn’t be starting unless one of them is absent and there’s no other option.

Noble at his peak wouldn’t have done anything in that role in that system, because he was basically playing as a left winger.

BubblesNeverDies

Noble should only be used as a defensive midfielder when we're trying to see out the game with 20 minutes left. IMO of course.

Lukerz

I think Moyes is playing him as when we stayed up last season he played ahead of Soucek & Rice off of Antonio. I think Noble could still play that role behind Antonio with Bowen & Fornals (or Lanzini/Benrahma) out wide. But he cannot offer anything there with Haller up top. Antonio draws defenders away leaving more time for Noble to do things.

Soucek - Rice
Bowen - Noble - Fornals
Antonio

That did work last season in our good end of season form. It hasn’t worked this season. Noble has started 3 games & we have lost 2, drawn 1 & let in 7 goals in those games. We haven’t taken the lead once with him in the starting line-up.

OutcastLondoner

Noble was never fast yet put into a number 10 position as a 33yo in a game that has much more intense pressing than when he was in his prime. Noble is probably done as a starter but the position he’s played in the last two games has set him up to fail. He’s a decent sub option still, for me. I’d be interested to see him played behind Rice and Soucek, with them acting as a shield for him to pass out from but also allowing Soucek to make attacking runs. It felt like Noble was in his way a bit yesterday. A system like that good be useful for when we want to see out a game but not just sit back.

Cuz1

I love noble always will, but Father Time catches up with us and imo noble should only be used as a substitute with no more than 15-20 mins remaining

BubblesNeverDies

OutcastLondoner said:

Noble was never fast yet put into a number 10 position as a 33yo in a game that has much more intense pressing than when he was in his prime. Noble is probably done as a starter but the position he’s played in the last two games has set him up to fail. He’s a decent sub option still, for me. I’d be interested to see him played behind Rice and Soucek, with them acting as a shield for him to pass out from but also allowing Soucek to make attacking runs. It felt like Noble was in his way a bit yesterday. A system like that good be useful for when we want to see out a game but not just sit back.

Outcast, you mean a bit like what I said 2 posts up

claretandbluesky

Noble should be back up for injuries and offered a coaching role at the club at the end of the year in my view. Only possible role is as someone with the ability to help bring the tempo of the game down for a final fifteen minutes if holding a lead. In this situation a Benrhama or Lanzini, who may have run their legs and helped secure the lead, can come off and he can slot in and use all his experience to kill it off, coming on so late his age will be less influential against players who had just played 75 minutes already.