West Ham Utd v Newcastle Utd. Saturday 19th February, 12:30pm. BT Sport.

MIAHammer

Bowen doesn’t get the same criticism when he has a bad game. It thought he was pretty poor today. He was absent for much of the game. IMHO Benrahma was better than Bowen and Fornals today.

At this point, if Antonio has to come off let’s just put Dawson up front.

Barney

Not sure what role Antonio is supposed to be playing. it appears more like linesman for most of the game. Certainly not CF

Lukerz

We weren’t great but Newcastle were very good. Give them some credit. This was a tough game. A point was a fair result & I’m sure they’re delighted with it. Possibly one of the toughest games we’ve faced all season. I’ve not seen anybody dominate our midfield that easily even when we’re playing badly.

I felt parts of the first half were good. We stared slowly (well they started well, like a team full of confidence), but after about 15-20 mins we showed some real nice bits of attacking football with quick passing between the front four. Benrahma I thought made a lot of things happen. I felt the CBs played well over the course of the match.

The game was lost in midfield. They won that battle with Shelvey/Joelinton/Willock against Rice/Soucek & they won it easily. We couldn’t get any sustained control of the game & when they attacked there was acres of space in that area. They won all the 50-50 balls, Soucek was brushed off the ball countless times, we barely won a header in there. They overpowered the centre of the pitch.

At the end of the season it may be a good point. Now it feels like a bad one, especially with Arsenal & Spurs winning & Wolves & Man Utd to play today. Positive news.

Pearces_Left_Foot

Newcastle worked very hard and they had some confidence which showed. I thought we contained them pretty well but a Declan 50p head header gifted them the equaliser. We are not playing well but still picking up points despite a lot of our players underperforming. I think teams know they have to put a shift in against us now and we are no easy pushover . Yes we are having a bad patch in terms of performance but will are still getting points . All teams and players have dips in form Man City lost to spurs who had lost 3 on the bounce .

Hamstew

I think you do find at this stage of the season the club's down the bottom pick up and become harder to beat. Just look at yesterdays results.

OldCastleSwift

Barney said:

Not sure what role Antonio is supposed to be playing. it appears more like linesman for most of the game. Certainly not CF

Fair point, this. Antonio's heat map from yesterday backs this up. He was more active in the LWB position than he was in Newcastle's box.



No real issue with Antonio pulling wide if someone else gets in the box. But far too often yesterday no-one did.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

MIAHammer said:

Bowen doesn’t get the same criticism when he has a bad game. It thought he was pretty poor today. He was absent for much of the game. IMHO Benrahma was better than Bowen and Fornals today.

At this point, if Antonio has to come off let’s just put Dawson up front.

Thing is Bowen has been carrying the offence since the New Year, he can't ALWAYS do it all himself

Don't think any of Antonio, Benrahma, Fornals, Lanzini or Soucek have had a good game in 2022 (ok Lanzini was good agaisnt Palace on the 1st Jan)

Lukerz

What were those long throws all about. Need a goal so you take your only (converted) striker out the equation by getting him to take a long throw, which he winds up for & it doesn’t even reach the box. Need to get rid of that tactic. We’re better than reverting to Rory Delap desperation.

IronHerb

I think that was Antonio trying to make a contribution.

Lukerz

Only lost 2 of our last 10 (Leeds & Man Utd), 5 wins (Watford, Leeds (FA Cup), Norwich, Kidderminster (FA Cup), Watford) & 2 draws (Leicester, Newcastle). I think one more league win & I would have been happy with the return.

whupathman

not going down, hope to beat spuds, not enough to keep our best players, not sure what would have been, but much better than relegation drama I guess

OutcastLondoner

What are Benrahma, Lanzini or Fornals supposed to do if Antonio is not in the box? I think this adds to why they can look like they’re dithering. Bowen has the instinct and ability to just attack directly himself but the others are different players who need Antonio to be in place.

Lukerz

I thought Benrahma was really good yesterday. It was the decision making of others that was the issue.

thornburyiron

As I said before Antonio is desperate for a goal to boost him but at the same time I think he’s a little scared to get in the box in case a chance arrives and he fluffs it and exacerbates his problem. Probably down to his not being a natural striker who would get in the box at every opportunity

Lukerz

Last time he scored he started on the bench & came on at HT. That’s what we need. I also would like to see Vlasic start as a number 10.

Areola
Johnson - Dawson - Zouma - Cresswell
Kral - Rice (c)
Fornals - Vlasic - Benrahma
Bowen

Let’s just freshen it up a bit for Wolves. The side just needs some legs.

OldCastleSwift

But Fornals isn't a winger. Never has been, never will be. And this is the issue with squad depth. The only alternative to Antonio is Bowen, but we have no other RW good enough to start a PL game. So Moyes' stance that Bowen is the next best centre forward we have (and that there's no-one better out there) creates an issue somewhere else on the pitch if he plays through the middle.

I agree things need freshening up, but I don't see a lot of point of just moving out-of-form players around. I'd rather play Oko-Flex or Nevers on the right than Fornals, or maybe keep Bowen out wide where he's most effective and play Vlasic as the CF.

Or just give Perkins a game. Honestly, just try something new. We've been stale and predictable for too many games now.

yoyo

Drawing wasn't so much the issue for me, it was the performance. Newcastle upped their game but we offered so little and looked blunt upfront. We're still doing great but just have to find our mojo again if we want to hang on

PrestonHammer

I think we've had our 18 months in the sunshine. I see us next season as a top ten also ran. We will have to rely on young relatively unknown players as our signings because we won't pay the money or unable to afford the players or they won't want to come to us, for us to stay in the top 6 shootout.

Lukerz

This would have been a bad weekend for us even had we won looking at all other results. As it is, with us not winning, it’s horrendous.

whupathman

How did we lose to Leeds they are awful

IronHerb

Looking quite good at the moment.

Lukerz

Nothing better than seeing Fernandes knocked to the ground & the goal stand.

thornburyiron

Now 2-3.

whupathman

2-4 I stand by my comment

MrsGrey

MrsGrey

That's pass accuracy of forward players.