West Ham Utd 1-3 Southampton (30/08/14)

[Hampshire Hammer]

FWIW I met up with a regular Saints fan after the game. He told me thet that is the best he has ever seen them play away. Maybe we could give the opposition a bit of credit. I thought they were bloody good yesterday. I also thought that the team looked completely leaderless. Sam's fault maybe but we need a proper Captain.

I thought that first half was pretty even, I was enjoying seeing us breaking at pace as opposed to the last couple of seasons. Even though we hadn't created many clear chances, I'm not sure that Saints had created any in the first half before their goal, I can see why someone would say that we deserved our lead. Second half it was obvious that Koeman had changed things as they were pressing us even more, higher up the pitch. We couldn't cope and the entire team seemed to lose their shape. No leaders in our team at all. As for the short corners if most of the crowd could see it happening you would have thought that professional footballers would have, especially after the first warning.

A poor game, not helped by new muppets we have near us in the BML. Make one correct assessment that the opposition is playing better than us and get a drunken rant about being positive, that same person then starts shouting at Sam to f*** off.

[irving boleyn]

We are as one there, Hampshire..

I didnt think to blame Sam,other than my lingering frustration that this is the second season he hasnt had in place a tested deputy for Carroll.

The same team beat a weaker Crystal Palace then lost to a stronger Southampton..that's Football.

[mushy]

We do indeed need to give Southampton great credit, they were awesome second half while we were poor.
I pointed out earlier in the week that I thought they would be ok, now I think they will be more than ok and will surprise a lot of teams.
Koemann it seems has bought well and has the makings of a great manager, Daves take note.
This did not disguise the fact that we were generally poor, I did not see any of our players coming out with much credit, including Kayoute who many have said had a decent game, to me he went missing.
They totally dominated our midfield second half, and their high pressing game disturbed our back four(as it did when Palace did it for a while last weekend).
That is an ominous sign in my book. The back four tried to play through them but are incapable of doing it.

I will single out Vaz Te as a footballer unable to cope with this sort of pressure, he left his fullback (O'Brien) exposed on too many occasions and is simply not strong enough at this level.
He is a puff cake and the slightest touch on him leaves him rolling on the floor.
The Prem is a tough physical place.No room for passengers.
I am also worried that the more I see of Valencia, the more he reminds me of Maiga, he even runs like him.
Too early to make any sound judgement as he needs time to adjust and get to full fitness.
Lets not press the panic button just yet.

[The Gibbins]

I thought we looked tired from the hour mark and got the thumping we deserved. The players were half asleep and lazy and slow. We looked like we lost our belief in the second half as soon as Southampton come out all guns blazing.

I think we can give Southampton credit for sure but the players just couldn't keep up and got punished for lack of concentration.

[_fortunes_]

I watched other games over the weekend where everyone just b*llocks and harasses their opposition in order to get the ball back, or move forward with such pace and intent, they're bound to score, or even to give a proper account of themselves, and I just get depressed.....If we're getting tired after 60 minutes we are well and truly ****ed.

[Estuary]

We got a real going over in the second half. But Saints didnt make the most of that, it was terrible defending that hurt us most as we lined up for defensive set peices like a team of strangers.
The first Southampton goal was a result of terrible marking that left three Saints players unmarked beyond our defence. The second goal from the corner was a comedy of errors, the ref gave a corner when the ball clearly came off the Saints forward. We then get distracted by this and instead of picking early as they had already taken quick corners we are mostly concerned with bickering, so have nobody on the near post, they play into the space and bingo the lead is with them.
In open play our centre backs were comprehensively outplayed by the Southampton centre forward, and they were trying to pass him on to each other, neither had a good game, but Reid for me was beyond awful. He can't pass the ball 5 yards without pannicking, and he consistently directed his headers anywhere but at one of our players. Noble had the worst game in a West Ham shirt I have seen from him, he got caught in possesion time and time again. Ward Prowse had Mark in his pocket.
I would be interested to see if any of the players had a birthday last week, as some looked like they been on the piss big time.
The team lacked energy from the off, according to someone who was at Chadwell Heath on Friday and watched the training the lads were very sluggish, and flat and that hung over into Saturdays game. We also lacked leadership and defensive organisation, lets hope they can shrug this one off and move on.

[_fortunes_]

Double Post ( 'You can't make a post so soon after your last' )