Sunderland 1 West Ham Utd 0 (05/12/10)

[tjr008]

Why didn't he bring on Hines and Picquonne for Cole and Dyer and keep with a 4-4-2 pushing Obinna to the left wing?

Or aim high balls to Cole and Picquonne in the Centre with Obinna and Hines running beyind them.

WHAT was the gameplan behind those changes? I'm sick of inept managers. We've has nobody decent since Pardew.

[Aceface]

This week has been basically run the full spectrum of what it's like to be a supporter of West Ham United - Relief. Jubilation. Disappointment - in that order.

Carlton Cole has to go in January. I don't say that in anger, but in sadness - it's just not working for either him or the team. I think he could do well with another club and I wish him well, but he's had long enough - 'confidence player' doesn't cut it for this long for a professional sportsman on the type of wages we're paying him, it's as simple as that.

Positives: Tomkins was arguably our best player on the park for a second consecutive game, Spector showed enough to indicate that the performance on Tuesday wasn't a one-off, Rob Green very reliable again, Upson proving me wrong and showing he'snot a spent force just yet. We weren't miles off the pace but crucially, it just never felt like we were going to win.

Anyone have any idea how many of the goals against us from open play this season have come directly from crosses fired in from the left side? I wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night thinking about crosses sailing in past our hypothetical LBs at the moment...

[Coledinho]

We could put Samuel Eto upfront and he wouldnt get a sniff on goal atm given the ridiculous tactics. Its one thing to play a big man upfront but he is so isolated its ridiculous. Forget about no service, Cole isnt even able to put himself in a postion where he can contemplate getting him some service. Literally the only chance he has of scoring a goal atm is to turn and have a snap shot on his left foot. Otherwise hes completely reliant on defensive errors or set pieces. Not the best conditions for a centre forward.

Avram BETTER play Piquionne and Cole upfront together soon or we may aswell start planning for the Championship in January

[Coledinho]

We could put Samuel Eto upfront and he wouldnt get a sniff on goal atm given the ridiculous tactics. Its one thing to play a big man upfront but he is so isolated its ridiculous. Forget about no service, Cole isnt even able to put himself in a postion where he can contemplate getting him some service. Literally the only chance he has of scoring a goal atm is to turn and have a snap shot on his left foot. Otherwise hes completely reliant on defensive errors or set pieces. Not the best conditions for a centre forward.

Avram BETTER play Piquionne and Cole upfront together soon or we may aswell start planning for the Championship in January

[Lancaster Hammer]

I thought we did OK - much better at the back but lacking a real threat up top.

A not surprising defeat but some promising signs for the rest of the season.

[tjr008]

I thought defensively we were very good - that was James Tomkins best West Ham performance.

THe problem was Avram changing the formation to something nobody understood for the last 20, halting all forward momentum.

I really do NOT like that guy in charge.

[Yea Why Not]

Avram BETTER play Piquionne and Cole upfront together soon or we may aswell start planning for the Championship in January

:shock:

That would be awful. Let Piq and Obina gain an understanding together. both have done well for us this season

Put Cole on the bench

[nickkarkie]

if we had Eto'o up front he would score a bucket load because a) he can control the ball into his feet, Carlton can't, b) he can beat players with his dribbling ability, Carlton can't and c) he runs in behind and has the pace and awareness to do that while staying onside, Carlton doesn't

[Yea Why Not]

I can't believe more haven't mentioned Grants decision to play with 4 center backs. That was terrible

CC also shouldn't have played. Piq has been consistantly good all season and has showed week in week out that he is the all round better player

[Hambrosia Stu]

WHAT was the gameplan behind those changes? I'm sick of inept

Exactly!

It seemed like a case of get as many strikers on the pitch as humanly possible, and as we then had no one to provide any sort of decent supply, just hoof the ball in the general direction of their box and hope they don't all get in each others way.

It seemed a very poor use of the attacking options we had available

[AMC1964]

I can honestly say that it's been a very long while since I got that cold watching football. My ****ing feet are still cold now! Well done to those who decided they wanted to have a sing song and thanks to the very amusing bunch who consistenly abused Craig Gordon in the 2nd half. Had me cracking up and lightened an otherwise poor day. Mind you, the Saturday evening/night/morning in the Toon will take some beating!

Well played Tomkins/Upson/Green, but as said previously, we're weak in the full back spot aren't we. Gabbs got exposed and his distribution is appalling. We seem to be devoid of idea in their half though and until we get somebody with a creative spark, we're gonna stay rooted to the bottom.

Message to the 15 year old Ginger kid in the lower tier yesterday.

"listen up fella, we are ****ing West Ham. Please do not bother coming 350 miles to watch the lads if you are gonna squeal "get him off" every time somebody make a mistake. Also, please get a hat. You look like Ronald Mc-****ing-donald"

[Hambrosia Stu]

If we have 4 strikers on, then play 4-2-4 and keep them forward.

That change totally lost us our second half momentum.

Indeed. Up until the subs, I still felt confident we'd get something.
We were imposing ourselves, Sunderland were starting to back off, and we had the initiative I felt.
That's not saying I felt we shouldn't have made any subs. But the one's we did make meant the side lost all momentum, shape and any chance we had of piling the pressure onto them for the last 20 minutes

[matty.h]

I can't believe more haven't mentioned Grants decision to play with 4 center backs. That was terrible

CC also shouldn't have played. Piq has been consistantly good all season and has showed week in week out that he is the all round better player

just shows how poor we are in the full back posistion...

[Yea Why Not]

just shows how poor we are in the full back posistion...

At least if one of Jac or Ilunga played they might have got a few crosses in the box. Playing with 4 center backs is a ****ing joke and massively negative. As soon as I saw the line up I knew we would see a poor attacking display

Were both Jac and Ilunga fit?

[Syphalis]

Avram Grants selections puzzle me greatly -
Playing 2 centre backs at full back is a no no, time & time again we lacked anyone charging up the flank to support the midfield, TBH & Gabbs were far too slow in pushing on IMO. Its not natural to them to do it and time and time again they stayed back instead of pushing on.
Dyer was up front ? why ? and why was Dyer playing after missing the last 3-4 weeks ?
Obinna was pushed out to the wing, a few days after getting FOUR assists playing off Cole up front.


Another issue seems to be the apparant lack of team spirit.
On a couple of occasions Parker went to ground trying to win the ball or keep the ball, more than one Sunderland player then joined in trying to win the ball from Parker, sometimes 2 or 3 on one whilst our other players just stood and watched.


My daughter was our mascot for yesterdays game and she was allowed in the changing rooms to get autographs and stuff b4 the game.
I was not allowed in but was around the tunnel area. I asked her what the atmosphere in the dressing room was like ?
She said that there wasnt one ! It was pretty quiet in there, some players were listening to I pods, some chatting amongst themselves etc. OK, Ive only ever played Sunday League Football but from my experience, the dressing room atmosphere used to be key, you would normally get loads of banter, rip the pi55 out of your team mates and get it back tenfold. Thats how and where you bonded as a team. The clubs I played for where there wasnt any banter and stuff were the clubs that I didnt really want to be at or bust a gut for.
After our last 2 results/performances you would have thought that the atmosphere/mood beforehand would have been jumping

Something is clearly not right and for me, I just cant see Avram Grant inspring/motivating the players and he rarely plays the same team twice. I really dont think he knows what his best 11 is ?

[Geordie Hammer]

Geordie Hammer, that ball boy must be traumatised everytime he looks in the mirror.

It was the way he kept looking over his shoulder to see if you were still there! :lol:

[D C]

Thats why one plays for Sunderland and the other plays for United (and has been for how many seasons now?). Your right mate I am mad.......f*** form, how many of those Sunderland players would have got in the United line up we played against? 3 or 4 of the Sunderland line up are United rejects.

Evans has been well under par for months now. Mensah would be at a champs league club if it wasnt for his injury problems over the years, also had a great world cup. You argument makes no sense, just because they play for United mean they are better? OK so Bebe is better than Gyan and Bent by your fantastic logic.

[Post Horn Gallop]

When oh when oh when is someone in the West Ham management team going to have the b*llocks to play Jordan Brown. A natural left back, great tackler, great going forward. and can cross a ball. Ok he's young but even at this early stage in his career is streets ahead of what we have at LB. If he has a poor game (if selected ) I bet it wiil be far better than Gabbs / TBH. Knowing Grant I'm going to put a bet on that he'll move Spector back to LB.

[brewster]

Have not read this thread in it's entirety so might be repeating what has already been said. We showed a lack of ambition in the first half and, as has already been mentioned, nothing sticks with Cole. He loses possession all too often and suddenly another promising attack breaks down. Maybe Piq wasn't fully fit but if he was, playing Cole did not make any sense. It was Piq & Obinna that did the damage in the Carling Cup against Sunderland, so playing them again would have been a better option. You could say that there wasn't much in this game, especially in the 2nd half, and that Sunderland are Top 7 and unbeaten at home. But considering our lowly position, we need to win matches and I think if we'd shown more - a lot more - up front we would have got something. Defensively much better though and Tomkins continues to play well. But how many more games are we going to play quite well in ....and lose?