West Ham v Brentford (H): Sunday 3rd October; 14:00

Hammerwombat

Apparently, my name is not Wombat the bold.

FlorinRaduclious

That was frustrating. Too many people at not quite their best IMO. However we could have scored more that second half, and got the win.

Hopefully this finally teaches them that we cannot start so slow. We can't always guarantee we will pull it back.

Particularly irritating that it's just pre the international break too.

FlorinRaduclious

Also, while he's been a bit unlucky, and not playing badly exactly, Fabs seems just a tiny bit slow on the reactions this season. Been an incredible servant for the club, but with a player of Areola's quality ready and waiting, I agree with others call that I'd like to see him tested in the premiership. Was player of the season for Fulham last season so has prem experience.

Slacker

OldCastleSwift said:

OldCastleSwift said:

Bowen misses with a header. Fella ain't scoring this season.

Bump

Mate, can you start a thread saying that we’re not going to win the FA cup, league cup, Europa League or qualify for next year’s Champions League?

Ta.🙂

chicagohammer

It will always hurt to lose to literally the last kick, however I enjoyed the game, I felt actively engaged throughout and felt that overall we played really well once our poor start was behind us.

A bit more composure in front of goal and with the final pass and we could/should have won this game comfortably.

I only really feel personally cheated when I feel that we have not put a decent shift in, and that was certainly not the case today, let’s be honest, Brentford did not even look like scoring in the 2nd half but when that foul was given away so late in the game and after gaining a deserved equalizer, you just knew, didn’t you.

I am really enjoying this season and this team

COYI

Lukerz

Yeah I can’t moan about the performance. We reacted well to the early slow start & deserved the equaliser, despite not everybody being at their best.

But we are letting in some sloppy goals this season. Every goal we have let in has been very poor.

chicagohammer

Their second was well struck but IMO, was more down to Ogbonna giving away the foul and Fab patting the ball back into a dangerous position, I recall getting mauled for doing that when I was about ten, “push away from goal, push away from goal”, I think that I still carry the scars, however, I think we were a bit unlucky with their first, Fab made a decent first stop and reacted quickly to the second effort and it was literally millimeters over the line.

Hamstew

Abysmal officiating today imo

BubblesNeverDies

chicagohammer said:

Their second was well struck but IMO, was more down to Ogbonna giving away the foul and Fab patting the ball back into a dangerous position, I recall getting mauled for doing that when I was about ten, “push away from goal, push away from goal”, I think that I still carry the scars, however, I think we were a bit unlucky with their first, Fab made a decent first stop and reacted quickly to the second effort and it was literally millimeters over the line.

I actually thought that Fab was slow to get back up after the first stop. If he'd been quicker he probably would have stopped the ball going over the line.

jay_in_cpt

jay_in_cpt said:

Imo Peter Bankes is not worthy of his newly acquired ( last year) FIFA badge..
Very fussy, poor decision maker and overrated…Possibly the worst of select group 1 referees IMO , let’s hope he has a good day tomorrow and not spoil it…
COYI ⚒️⚒️⚒️

Sadly my original thoughts were confirmed, He was as useless as I've seen him before, and FIFA award him a badge, hopeless IMO.

I'm over today's result, on another day we could have won, only concern, soemtimes Moyes does not seem to have a plan B, that lack of 2nd striker ( full on striker ) does hamper us sometimes IMO...

claretandbluesky

Very disappointing as any neutral watching that second half would have said there was only one team who was going to net a winner.

Oggie was to blame in my view as it was unnecessary, the guy didn't have a clear chance. Were it in isolation it would be ok but he fouled Toney earlier in the game in another very dangerous position but as Toney had a go back and the ref was too far away so Oggy managed to win the foul. A few matches ago he held a player and even VAR didn't pick it up, he is a great defender but cost us a point today. Fab could have done better I feel but the free kick shouldn't have been handed to them in that position.

That feels like two points lost now with the penalty miss at Man Utd in the last minute and now conceding this way.

OldCastleSwift

jay_in_cpt said:

jay_in_cpt said:

Imo Peter Bankes is not worthy of his newly acquired ( last year) FIFA badge..
Very fussy, poor decision maker and overrated…Possibly the worst of select group 1 referees IMO , let’s hope he has a good day tomorrow and not spoil it…
COYI ⚒️⚒️⚒️

I'm over today's result, on another day we could have won, only concern, soemtimes Moyes does not seem to have a plan B, that lack of 2nd striker ( full on striker ) does hamper us sometimes IMO...

Yeah, I'm getting increasingly frustrated with the striker situation. We've been lucky with Antonio's fitness so far, but when he's being pocketed by a defence we have no-one to replace him or support him. I do feel we're missing that Plan B and Moyes doesn't seem to have a lot of confidence in Vlasic to influence a game.

Pearces_Left_Foot

Just back from match thought we deserved a point but we missed too many chances and got punished. Thought we allowed Brentford to bully us the first 25 mins and they are probably the worst team I have seen in awhile for time wasting from when they scored. The ref did n,t get a grip of the game and allowed the darks arts to prevail. Thought it was a good second half performance but sloppiness cost us again at the end of game after a European mid week match. Not sure why we didn’t make any subs we could have done with a bit extra in the last 15mins. Taken a real dislike to Brentford they are up there with Burnley with their tactics in stopping the flow of the games and when the sub threw the ball into crowd and got away with it I had a feel8ng it was going to be one of those days. Hope they get relegated now

claretandbluesky

I think that's the gamesmanship of managing the game, nice to see their keeper come out and help Rice. I wanted us to get at them today and get the better of them but I will be cheering them against most other teams, It's really hard for promoted teams to put up a fight in the premiership and Brentford appear to be having a proper go, It pains me more to say I respect Leeds for the same thing.

BubblesNeverDies

I think next PL game I'd like to see Dawson instead of Oggy, as aside from his defending, which is not worse than Oggy's is at the moment, he provides a greater threat at set pieces.

Pearces_Left_Foot

Claretandbluesky could not disagree more I don’t watch football to see people wasting time and faking injury

Pengeman

I can't help wondering whether the adulation for Soucek, Coufal, Ogbonna, Fabianski is working against them. They seem to be guaranteed starters and poor performances don't seem to dislodge them. Soucek is a shadow of the player that he was last year. His passing and tackling was poor, He seemed to have a very poor first-touch, which was evident in the Leeds game as well. The same goes for Ogbonna too. I think Moyes, should drop both of them for the next EPL game and give Diop and Kral a game. Try some other combination in midfield. They have to feel that they must earn their place.

MrsGrey

Soucek had the highest pass accuracy of all our players- same as Dec- 81%.
(Stats from Whoscored)

whupathman

Rice moving forwards is hurting Soucek's game, Rice a better defender but wants a more advanced role

claretandbluesky

Yes you can't have both Rice and Soucek getting forward as one remains back to protect the defence. I am never certain who I prefer going forwrd, Dec carries the ball better but Soucek did get into some great scoring positions last season. I would probably like them to mix it up a bit depending on opposition. Better teams Dec stays back and lesser teams he goes forward, Soucek does give height n the box where as Dec is more of a threat outside the box.

thornburyiron

That’s 4 out of our last 7 home league games ending in defeat. We’ve only won 1 of 4 this season and both our losses have been after a EL game. The Thursday Sunday scenario seems to affect teams more than Wednesday Saturday.

OutcastLondoner

I don’t think Soucek loses out from Rice getting forward. They do it in different ways. Rice carries the ball forward, which is when Soucek has to hold back. But when Soucek got forward it was when others had the ball, not him and usually not Rice. It should be possible to accommodate both.

Soucek was timing his runs into the box much better than he does now. He often seems to get caught just under or in front of the ball now instead of meeting it cleanly. I think he was on a spectacular run of form last season that gave us very high expectations and now is on a little bit of a bad patch (though not that bad apart from a couple of mistakes in the last two games). His real form will probably be somewhere in between.

Kuchinghammer

After 20 minutes I found myself thinking "Dawson and probably Diop would sort these bullies out..." or maybe bring The Ginger Pele back 😉 Hated their fake injuries and time-wasting, and the ref kept being fooled. I thought play only stopped for head injuries, not for resting on the pitch.

puddleglumhammers

Didn't get to see the match and disappointed by what I am reading here. It seems a draw would have been the fairest result.
Any ideas why no subs used at all ? Were there any warming up at any time ? Utterly bizarre not to refresh the side a bit, especially after getting the equaliser. Does Moyes have such little faith in Yarmo, Lanzini or Vlasic to improve our chances of winning the game, or Kral, Diop and Dawson to help us hold out for a point. Weird.

OldCastleSwift

I think Vlasic was due to come on just before we scored, so I can only assume as we were comfortably in the ascendancy and looking likely to get the winner, Moyes didn't want to risk breaking the momentum.

A draw was certainly the fairest result. We won a half each so no-one can really argue that either team deserved to win.

welovethehammers

Despite the loss, did anyone else feel pride when Bowen scored and his celebration involved him pointing to his badge and then to the ground, indicating he wants to stay at West Ham?

I also love how it’s the second successive match where a commentator has pointed out Bowen’s pre-season work on a family farm in Hereford!