Brentford vs West Ham (A) Sunday 14:00 KO

jay_in_cpt

I think when people are negative including me, it's spot on...why not, we are not talking about the last 30 odd games, we are on a match thread, discussing the game that happened today,like I said earlier, I said we've had a great season, but today was poor, we talk and discuss what went on today...
It's the truth...anyone who knows anything about football could see that all day long, we were lacklustre, slow, looked tired, etc etc...
As posters, we speak as we see it, and today we saw a poor performance, we can be negative today, discussing today's shoddy efforts but most would agree, on whole so far it's been a very good season in general.

Slacker

I’m not disputing anything in that post Jay , we were poor and deserved what we got. But the constant dragging up of “ we should’ve done this in January “ and how thin the squad is , does get very boring on nearly every match thread since half way through the season.
We are where we are so I for one am going to try and enjoy the rest of the season.
It may turn out great, it may blow up in our faces, either way it won’t be boring.

claretandbluesky

I think Jay's point is the often made one that this is a forum for views and opinions and if we play as we did today those views and opinions won't be complimentary. I understand that there is repetition regard the lack of activity in the January window but that's inevitable when we produce performances which the poster feels may not have been as they were had we done some business.

Today was that day once again to a tee. We lost Zouma and had to rely on Diop who isn't good enough, we then had Antonio who was lacklustre and ineffective, we had no one to replace him or to allow him to rest today. Both of these again due to the absence of the two bits of business everyone was hoping for in January, so January was very pertinent to today's performance and so will get mentioned.

We could have two possible outcomes, maybe we scrape into the Europa next season by taking 6th or we even go on and win the Europa!!! no one coughs up for Dec and we bring in Lingard, The Serbian centre back or Tarkowski and a striker and we all say yes Moyes did the right thing in waiting.

We could also have a scenario in which our season fades away now and we get knocked out next week and fail to qualify through the league, Dec goes for Euro football and we fail to look attractive enough to recruit our targets in the summer, we all say what a missed opportunity to go for it when we had the chance.

Lets see what happens!

What I will say is we are not alone in missed opportunities, United should have found a way to beat Everton yesterday, Burnley should have been able to beat Norwich today which undoes all their hard work in coming from behind to beat Everton in the week. We missed our chance today also, win on Thursday and it will be forgotten.

OldCastleSwift

C&BSky 👍

PrestonHammer

It's all a bit annoying though hahaha

Fortuneseeker

https://www.claretandhugh.info/irons-accused-but-is-it-moyes-fault-or-the-players/

Pengeman

What is the point of having a 'squad' of those players are not sued and Moyes insists on using the tired payers? Today, Moyes could have had a sprinkling of fringe players in the starting 11. Other top teams rotate players, why not WHU?

OldCastleSwift

Moyes doesn't trust any of the bench players. I think it's imple as that really. I get Yarmolenko and Masuaku, but why weren't Kral and Vlasic used today? As discussed earlier, Moyes signed them so must have seen something he liked.

chicagohammer

I am not conv8nced that our back up play

Slacker said:

chicagohammer said:

You would like to think that given the chance, that our 2nd string players would have shown up today, chance to shine etc, but unfortunately, I have not seen any evidence that they are up for the task and even more unfortunately, it does not appear that the coaching staff have seen any evidence either.

Humpth

Apart from beating Man City and Man Utd. you mean?

All right, all right, I grant you that, but what have the 2nd string ever done for us, eh eh :-)

Bazshuayi

I admit to being concerned prior to the match. Mentally and physically the big games recently and the lack of depth were always going to be a factor. Allied to this, I remembered when we played them away and whatever their level is, they are a hardworking unit who are physically strong plus motivated to stay up (now sorted). So it wasn't the biggest surprise at all. I had precious little sleep on Friday and Saturday plus set my alarm for 6am to watch. I fell asleep before half time and whilst that was fatigue on my part, the game didn't exactly do anything to stimulate me into keeping awake.

The same thing was not true (I also set an alarm for 830am) when I watched the City/Liverpool game (I'm not comparing, just saying that was a proper on the edge game that kept you watching!)

I have hope and worry for Thursday. Of course hope we do something special and get through. If not, I fear a pretty anticlimax type of end to the season for us (and if honest, a dramatically lessened appeal for potential new signings that are very much needed!)

Lukerz

I think the issue is that without getting Europe next season, it will inevitably feel flat in comparison to this & that goes for the players & fans. I think that can risk bringing a general malaise over the club but I think Moyes is as good as there is at ensuring that doesn’t happen.

3 of our next 5 games are Chelsea, Arsenal & City. Even if we beat Lyon, it’s likely Barca in the semi-finals. Europe next season is going to be very tough.

Lukerz

What I do find slightly amusing is, at the start of the season, it’s we need another striker, Antonio won’t play enough games. Now it’s, we need another striker, Antonio’s playing too many.

Fortuneseeker

Antonio should be used as a super sub with a recognised striker starting on a regular basis.

ASLEFshrugged

We were poor but Martin Atkinson gave us nothing.

We got two free kicks for fouls, Norgaard's scissor tackle on Zouma which should have been a yellow and Jensen on Vlasic at the end of the match. On the other hand he awarded free kicks to Brentford for fouls where we had won the ball (something Tony Gale mentioned on commentary)

There was at least one goal kick that should have been a corner but worst was giving a free kick for handball against Lanzini after he'd clearly been fouled.

I'm not so worried about losing to Brentford or Antonio have a mare as I am about Zouma's fitness for Thursday

alderz

Fortuneseeker said:

Antonio should be used as a super sub with a recognised striker starting on a regular basis.

I don't agree with this. I think Antonio has proven himself to be a Premier League level striker, the problem is that we only have one of them.

OldCastleSwift

Lukerz said:

What I do find slightly amusing is, at the start of the season, it’s we need another striker, Antonio won’t play enough games. Now it’s, we need another striker, Antonio’s playing too many.

Nah, I think most of us were saying it wasn't just about Antonio's fitness. Form and fatigue were also factors.

Lukerz

No, I think it was all about his hamstrings. The form argument became a bigger thing when the season started & he hadn’t yet got injured.

Hamstew

My mate who is a Brentford fan confirmed that Sunday's game was their most comfortable win of the season. And he's a good guy who doesn't gloat etc.

ASLEFshrugged

Anyone going to start the Lyon away thread?

alderz

Just seen the club post a Coufal interview where he said that from before the start of the season he was playing in pain, and yesterday was the first time he has played without pain all season. Obviously he was rusty yesterday but that just explain his poorer form this year.