West Ham v Leeds (A): Saturday 25th September; 15:00

claretandbluesky

Pearces_Left_Foot said:

Leeds into the bottom 3 shame that , well shame it’s not Spurs

Normally it would be a 'shame' but I loved how they played today, down to bare bones almost but gave everything and ran themselves into the ground. One other thing I noted was how Phillips is their Declan Rice but you hardly ever see a transfer story about him where as our Dec is talked about in the media every third day.

OldCastleSwift

Looks like the away fans had another great day

OldCastleSwift

This guy certainly did

claretandbluesky

Soucek is loving it....

Hammerwombat

I have to admit, that I may have had a couple of glasses of sweet Sherry.
But……… Leeds lost.




I never lost the faith. I knew we would win.

Huttonhammer

Well done West Ham. We would have lost that game easily a year and a half ago. Such a good squad and spirit

Whitehorsehammer

Leeds are such a hard side to play against, they just don’t stop, it’s like playing a sack of vipers. To come away with three points would not have happened without a tremendous amount of hard work.

Fortuneseeker

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years said:

Love this current squad

Again, never say die

When have West Ham ever had a spine like this

1981 or 1986?

Lukerz

Raphina, what a player. Clearly a level above & it was always going to help us when he went off. He was the only player who was going to cause us problems that resulted in goals. Leeds played really well from about 15/20 minutes until around the 40th. I thought we were the more dangerous side other than that but both teams rode their luck. We were dangerous first half but I thought our overall play was sloppy. Full marks for the second half performance.

I thought Bowen & Benrahma were outstanding yesterday. Those two just give us so much directness & close ball control. It’s a nice balance with the right footer on the left & the left footer on the right.

The main thing I love about this side is the attitude. A proper football side full of proper footballers, determined to be the best they can be. Add that hard work to quality & we are going to push hard again this year. Gone are the days where we go 1-0 down & it ends 3-0.

Lukerz

It’s also a very big 3 points given we hadn’t won since the 4-1 over Leicester & given we have Brentford, Everton, Spurs, Man City, Villa & Liverpool as our next six.

IronHerb

https://twitter.com/Roger_J_coyi/status/1441902935508721668

Lukerz

I have seen a lot of comments saying Soucek is not playing as well as he has done. I think he is less influential due to Rice being the more advanced player this year. I feel Soucek sits back more now & Rice is the one given licence to travel with the ball (because he is more athletic). It is important though that we don't allow Rice to dominate that pairing as Soucek is far more of a goal threat.

IronHerb

Good performance, great and deserved win, lovely winning goal.
We now have a resilience that has been missing for years. If we concede first then no worries, we have goals in the team. Players make mistakes but get up and move on, that's football. Moyes has this squad believing and that can only be good for all Hammers.
Two more wins before the international break would make this a sensational start to the season.

COYI

OldCastleSwift

It could have finished 4-4 given the good chances both teams had. Meslier made at least three top saves and Fabianksi pulled off a worldie himself and they hit the post, too.

Watching the MOTD highlights and it showed how we had a shaky game at the back. I think it was probably because of Leeds' unique style, but we need to tighten up given the next round of games.

What did impress me was the defensive work of the forwards. The winner was started by Vlasic just outside his own D, and on more than one occasion Benrahma was doing some good work in our right back position.

Soucek certainly hasn't reached the heights of last season yet; Moyes himself has said it's partly because of Rice's licence to get forward, but he certainly improved in the second half yesterday.

MrsGrey

When they hit the post, it was unlikely to be a goal because Fab was down and across. If it had been an inch inside the post he would have had it covered. (Always with the Greeno caveat, of course.)

Benrahma I think ( if I recall) made a great clearance that stopped a goal threat.

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

Lukerz said:

I have seen a lot of comments saying Soucek is not playing as well as he has done. I think he is less influential due to Rice being the more advanced player this year. I feel Soucek sits back more now & Rice is the one given licence to travel with the ball (because he is more athletic). It is important though that we don't allow Rice to dominate that pairing as Soucek is far more of a goal threat.

It's not just that for me. Soucek has also been less effective at defending the box, and less of a presence in our own penalty area - that's my impression, anyway, though stats might not back it up. His passing also seems to have dropped off, not just the mistake yesterday but in general he seems to be losing the ball more this season.

Honestly he just seems a little tired after last season and the Euros, which wouldn't be a surprise.

Lukerz

OCS - yeah but I felt we had the better chances.

1st half:
Antonio - saved
Benrahma - saved
Benrahma - shot flashed across goal, missed by Antonio
Fornals - 1v1 saved
Bowen - shot from distance whistled by post

2nd half:
Soucek - goal disallowed
Bowen - OG goal
Antonio - 1v1 blocked by Cresswells face
Antonio - 1v1 blocked after swivel
Antonio - 1v1 goal

All I remember from Leeds was the Dallas shot, the goal, the post being hit & the deflected shot second half which just went past the post.

So when it could have ended 4-4, I think really it could have ended 4-7.

Lukerz

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes said:

Lukerz said:

I have seen a lot of comments saying Soucek is not playing as well as he has done. I think he is less influential due to Rice being the more advanced player this year. I feel Soucek sits back more now & Rice is the one given licence to travel with the ball (because he is more athletic). It is important though that we don't allow Rice to dominate that pairing as Soucek is far more of a goal threat.

It's not just that for me. Soucek has also been less effective at defending the box, and less of a presence in our own penalty area - that's my impression, anyway, though stats might not back it up. His passing also seems to have dropped off, not just the mistake yesterday but in general he seems to be losing the ball more this season.

Honestly he just seems a little tired after last season and the Euros, which wouldn't be a surprise.

I 100% agree his defending has not been great. If you see the goal yesterday, he makes an aimless run marking nobody. He could have dropped inside to try & cut the angle of pass.

The one where they hit the post, Raphina has acres of space, centre of the box, Soucek is stood by Coufal marking grass. He's the CM. This happened against Palace the other week too & happens quite a lot in the course of a game.

He'll be back to his best against the more physical sides, winning his headers & challenges, but we have dealt with less header-based teams the last few weeks & his weakness tracking ball-playing footballers has been shown.

BubblesNeverDies

Just watching Antonio's goal again and remembered thinking when I saw it yesterday that his first touch from Rice's pass was too heavy. What do I know!

Another thing is his reaction to scoring - no somersaults, no theatrics (Ronaldo, take note), just that lovely big smile.

IronHerb

OldCastleSwift said:

What did impress me was the defensive work of the forwards. The winner was started by Vlasic just outside his own D

What you'll see is Zouma heading clear, Antonio heading on from outside the D to Vlasic who passes to Coufal passing to Rice and the rest, as they say, is history.

Attackers defending and attacking from the back.

claretandbluesky

Rice's pass was superb he weighted it perfectly

OldCastleSwift

Lukerz said:

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes said:

Lukerz said:

I have seen a lot of comments saying Soucek is not playing as well as he has done. I think he is less influential due to Rice being the more advanced player this year. I feel Soucek sits back more now & Rice is the one given licence to travel with the ball (because he is more athletic). It is important though that we don't allow Rice to dominate that pairing as Soucek is far more of a goal threat.

It's not just that for me. Soucek has also been less effective at defending the box, and less of a presence in our own penalty area - that's my impression, anyway, though stats might not back it up. His passing also seems to have dropped off, not just the mistake yesterday but in general he seems to be losing the ball more this season.

Honestly he just seems a little tired after last season and the Euros, which wouldn't be a surprise.

I 100% agree his defending has not been great. If you see the goal yesterday, he makes an aimless run marking nobody. He could have dropped inside to try & cut the angle of pass.

The one where they hit the post, Raphina has acres of space, centre of the box, Soucek is stood by Coufal marking grass. He's the CM. This happened against Palace the other week too & happens quite a lot in the course of a game.

He'll be back to his best against the more physical sides, winning his headers & challenges, but we have dealt with less header-based teams the last few weeks & his weakness tracking ball-playing footballers has been shown.

This is why Kral could be a great signing. I think he's actually better defensively than Soucek. I'd like to see a Rice/Kral pivot against Rapid Vienna because a) it would give Soucek a rest, and b) it would allow both Rice and Kral to play arguably their natural games.