West Ham v Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sunday 27th February, 2pm. SKY

alderz

Just watching MOTD2 before work, and I didn't notice yesterday, but as Rice was standing there with Yarmolenko's shirt, he was singing along to I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles. I love him more every week.

alderz

I've just got to the match analysis, and I can't believe how poor the analysis is. A lot of criticism of us player Fornals deeper, saying it was a negative move. We've not played particularly well in weeks, a lot of West Ham fans have been saying we need to try something different, and we do it and the match analysts just trot out such lazy analysis.

Barney

Antonio played much more down the middle and was all the better for it

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Loved Johnsons performance here

Feel he's been hard done by this season, he started as our RB at the start of the season as Coufal was injured and barely put a foot wrong

Coufal got fit and came back in but his levels were not close to what they were last year, I think Johnson had been as good if not better than the form coufal had shown and should've been recalled even before the injury

And then he has had to fill in at LB, where he is OK but you can see its not his preferred position, and he only has to play there as Masuaku is a liability

And then you got the other week when Coufal wasn't fit and Fredericks, another proven liability, got picked despite Johnson being clear now

He was very good yesterday , he still has a lot to learn and improve on but he's only 22 and is a very good player

Great opportunity for him to show he's ready to take the RB spot with Coufal out a while

OldCastleSwift

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years said:

Loved Johnsons performance here

Feel he's been hard done by this season, he started as our RB at the start of the season as Coufal was injured and barely put a foot wrong

Coufal got fit and came back in but his levels were not close to what they were last year, I think Johnson had been as good if not better than the form coufal had shown and should've been recalled even before the injury

And then he has had to fill in at LB, where he is OK but you can see its not his preferred position, and he only has to play there as Masuaku is a liability

And then you got the other week when Coufal wasn't fit and Fredericks, another proven liability, got picked despite Johnson being clear now

He was very good yesterday , he still has a lot to learn and improve on but he's only 22 and is a very good player

Great opportunity for him to show he's ready to take the RB spot with Coufal out a while

This is what has hampered Johnson's season. He was playing RB in Coufal's absence and was doing well, but when Cresswell got injured he had to move to left back. Coufal came back at RB and kept his place and Johnson was dropped when Cresswell came back.

He needs a run at RB now. Rest of the season, ideally. Coufal and Fredericks being injured will obviously help that, but he deserves a run.

Interestingly, I've just read a piece about Johnson turning down a six-and-a-half year contract. A ) Did we learn nothing from the Winston Reid debacle? And B ) I wonder why the new contract talks failed. Did the club not offer a big enough wage? Is Johnson concerned he'll never be considered first choice? Maybe they just agreed to see where both parties are in 2024.

Fortuneseeker

Pleased with the win. Antonio played well maybe due to Wolves pushing up giving him the space to run behind?

OutcastLondoner

OCS I think I read that there's a two-year extension to be activated for Johnson anyway but hopefully a run in the team will help convince him to take a new contract.

OldCastleSwift

OutcastLondoner said:

OCS I think I read that there's a two-year extension to be activated for Johnson anyway but hopefully a run in the team will help convince him to take a new contract.

Yes, we've taken the option so he's contracted until 2024. I just wonder what stopped him from signing the new, longer deal.

Fredericks will be gone in the summer so it'll be between Johnson and Coufal for starting RB next season. Without the latter out for a while, this is Johnson's chance to make a good case to be the No1 No2.

Kuchinghammer

Our sort-of wingbacks were the reason Rice and Soucek dominated the middle. Johnson's strength in the first half and Fornals' energy and passing in the second. This brought Antonio into the game, the beast released. Tomas scoring, what a lovely storyline. Altogether 🙂🙂🙂🙂

IronHerb

alderz said:

I've just got to the match analysis, and I can't believe how poor the analysis is. A lot of criticism of us player Fornals deeper, saying it was a negative move. We've not played particularly well in weeks, a lot of West Ham fans have been saying we need to try something different, and we do it and the match analysts just trot out such lazy analysis.

They just look at 90 minutes. In the away game at Wolves Cresswell was well and truly targeted as Wolves played the ball between him and Zouma consistently, and successfully. Dropping Fornals back yesterday totally nullified that tactic.
A well thought out plan by Moyes and his team.

👏👏

ScotHammer

I do think it may be that Johnson never believes he is going to be first choice, so he may want to go elsewhere for guaranteed playing time. Perhaps he is thinking about Ngakia’s situation . Johnson seemed to be even behind him!
However, the move is not working out well for him at the moment, so Johnson may well bide his time and see what chance he is given.

OutcastLondoner

Scot, I think Johnson was injured when Ngakia broke through. I saw it mentioned that one reason Ngakia left is that it seemed Johnson would come back in ahead of him.

It would make sense for Johnson to want to be assured about his playing position before he signs. He's been shifted about so much and I thought the Fredericks start recently was ridiculous. Get him playing right back and then come back to him with an offer.

OldCastleSwift

Didn't watch the game, but Fornals wing back?



Was it a definite 3-5-2? Would be interesting to see Cresswell's heatmap.

whupathman

He was and did well

alderz

OldCastleSwift said:

Didn't watch the game, but Fornals wing back?



Was it a definite 3-5-2? Would be interesting to see Cresswell's heatmap.

Yes he was, Moyes said about how we played a 3-5-2. Bowen was almost a striker for large parts, and Lanzini was just in front of the midfield two

Lukerz

What an appalling analysis from the MOTD2 team. I thought Fornals was one of our most threatening players.

OutcastLondoner

To be honest, I didn't massively notice it during the game. Fornals hasn't been a great threat anyway recently, so he looked good yesterday.

I guess when you have a one-match MOTD you don't get the best analysis. Leon Osman and Steven Warnock, who apparently everyone takes seriously when he puts on some hipster glasses.