Emirates FA Cup 4th Rd - Kidderminster Harriers v West Ham United, Sat 5th Feb 12.30, BBC TV.

BubblesNeverDies

"dithered for another five seconds" - you mean Noble's default mode.

IronHerb

I didn't want to say that Bubbles but you got my drift.😂

Slacker

I’m not buying the dodgy pitch thing.
They’re elite professionals and most are international players. They should be able to play on rocks.
It was just awful plain awful.

alderz

Slacker said:

I’m not buying the dodgy pitch thing.
They’re elite professionals and most are international players. They should be able to play on rocks.
It was just awful plain awful.

They can play in rocks. But not as well as on grass. If they were playing against guys who only played on rocks every day, they’d probably not play as well.

That’s why you get tennis players that specialise on clay. Or why teams struggle away in (I think) Venezuela at altitude. Or why Canada made Mexico play then at -18 in Edmonton.

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

The pitch was a factor but they're in the sixth tier. Too many of our players were sloppy and didn't apply themselves. Diop, Kral, Vlasic, Yarmo, Benrahma.

Rice, Soucek and Cresswell came on and barely misplaced a pass between them. Pitch wasn't an issue for them. They came on with the right attitude.

alderz

Oh, don’t get me wrong, we were rubbish. I’m just saying the pitch DEFINITELY had an impact on some of our players.

Slacker

alderz said:

Slacker said:

I’m not buying the dodgy pitch thing.
They’re elite professionals and most are international players. They should be able to play on rocks.
It was just awful plain awful.

They can play in rocks. But not as well as on grass. If they were playing against guys who only played on rocks every day, they’d probably not play as well.

That’s why you get tennis players that specialise on clay. Or why teams struggle away in (I think) Venezuela at altitude. Or why Canada made Mexico play then at -18 in Edmonton.

Maybe so but the chasm in class should’ve more than negated the fact that Kidderminster play on slightly uneven pitches every week.

alderz

Slacker said:

alderz said:

Slacker said:

I’m not buying the dodgy pitch thing.
They’re elite professionals and most are international players. They should be able to play on rocks.
It was just awful plain awful.

They can play in rocks. But not as well as on grass. If they were playing against guys who only played on rocks every day, they’d probably not play as well.

That’s why you get tennis players that specialise on clay. Or why teams struggle away in (I think) Venezuela at altitude. Or why Canada made Mexico play then at -18 in Edmonton.

Maybe so but the chasm in class should’ve more than negated the fact that Kidderminster play on slightly uneven pitches every week.

And it did, in the end. We scored more goals, we had one disallowed, and without some heroic defending we’d have got more.

IronHerb

So the pitch had nothing to do with it then? It was down to class.

Slacker

alderz said:

Slacker said:

alderz said:

Slacker said:

I’m not buying the dodgy pitch thing.
They’re elite professionals and most are international players. They should be able to play on rocks.
It was just awful plain awful.

They can play in rocks. But not as well as on grass. If they were playing against guys who only played on rocks every day, they’d probably not play as well.

That’s why you get tennis players that specialise on clay. Or why teams struggle away in (I think) Venezuela at altitude. Or why Canada made Mexico play then at -18 in Edmonton.

Maybe so but the chasm in class should’ve more than negated the fact that Kidderminster play on slightly uneven pitches every week.

And it did, in the end. We scored more goals, we had one disallowed, and without some heroic defending we’d have got more.

Well yeah we did score one more than them,but what I took from that game was that we were really, really fortunate to not suffer the most humiliating defeat in FA Cup history.

alderz

IronHerb said:

So the pitch had nothing to do with it then? It was down to class.

No, the pitch did. As I said here:

alderz said:

Oh, don’t get me wrong, we were rubbish. I’m just saying the pitch DEFINITELY had an impact on some of our players.

FWIW, my view is we were awful, the pitch played a part in that, we were very fortunate to get anything, but we did. We won, even when playing appallingly, because we were 6 divisions higher than them. If we’d played like that’s against even a league two team, we’d have got beat.

PrestonHammer

Alderz you're thinking of La Paz in Bolivia. Only a mere 3500 metres up in the air.

OldCastleSwift

Herbie, you getting the Watford match thread up? I want to complain about Diop probably having to start.

claretandbluesky

If he does Rice has to play the deeper DM to cover him.

ASLEFshrugged

Dion Dublin or the other bloke actually mentioned that the state of the pitch was slowing down West Ham's play. Don't care, job done, bring on Saints

This from Matt Prestonin the Express and Star

“All of them were really nice to us. I was sat on the floor and Andriy Yarmolenko came and picked me up and said: ‘Don’t be down, you’ve done unbelievable.’

“And Declan Rice came in afterwards and said: ‘You deserved more from that game’.

“So they were all very, very nice, they weren’t big time at all, which you sometimes get.”

IronHerb

MrsGrey said:

No complaints about the keeper for their goal? I thought it was poor.

Just reading through this thread and this is spot on MrsG. Areola came and got nowhere near it but some want him in ahead of Fab. Hmmm,

OldCastleSwift

It's not as if Fabianski has been faultless, though. Areola certainly made a mistake, but I think he needs a run in the side to show to build a relationship with the players in front of him.

No issue with Fabianski starting, but his decision making has cost us goals this season too.

jay_in_cpt

OldCastleSwift said:

It's not as if Fabianski has been faultless, though. Areola certainly made a mistake, but I think he needs a run in the side to show to build a relationship with the players in front of him.

No issue with Fabianski starting, but his decision making has cost us goals this season too.

Not convinced by Areola and don't think he'll be here next season, he's had a few wobbly moments in various games, again, perhaps rusty or just not good enough.

Play Fab all day for me.

OutcastLondoner

I think Areola's looked reasonably convincing most of the time but I'm not particularly attached to him. I think most keepers at our level will have a couple of shaky moments. Fabianski is, I think, slowly declining, but I think people also melt down about him a bit too much. I don't think he's costing us as much as our defence - and our all around defensive play.

thornburyiron

Can’t see how he’s not good enough as he’s a French international understudy to Lloris. He’s only played a handful of games behind a different defence each time. No reason to displace Fab yet.

OldCastleSwift

OutcastLondoner said:

I think Areola's looked reasonably convincing most of the time but I'm not particularly attached to him. I think most keepers at our level will have a couple of shaky moments. Fabianski is, I think, slowly declining, but I think people also melt down about him a bit too much. I don't think he's costing us as much as our defence - and our all around defensive play.

To be fair, every 'keeper will have shaky moments. Allison is full of them. Ederson has the occasional brain fade too.

Areola is plenty good enough for West Ham, but I agree with Jay; I don't think he'll be here next season. Sam Johnstone is free in the summer and would cost less in wages and would obviously save the £11m option on Areola.

thornburyiron

The question then would be is Johnstone an upgrade on Areola.

OldCastleSwift

thornburyiron said:

The question then would be is Johnstone an upgrade on Areola.

Ability wise? No, IMO.

Financially? Yes

Which is why I think it'll happen.

ASLEFshrugged

It seems Johnstone didn't like being put on the bench after serving a three match ban and has been left out of the squad for the last two matches despite being available.

I'm not sure Moyes would approve of that attitude.

BubblesNeverDies

ASLEFshrugged said:

It seems Johnstone didn't like being put on the bench after serving a three match ban and has been left out of the squad for the last two matches despite being available.

I'm not sure Moyes would approve of that attitude.

I'm not sure Moyes would approve of a goalkeeper getting a red card.

Kuchinghammer

That was Areola's worst game for us 'by a long way. He's been really good previously, especially with crosses. Let's hope it was a one-off.