West Ham Utd 0 Manchester City 2 (11/08/07)

[bobcar]

Glad to see curbs pointing out the faults in yesterdays game, hopefully he will make the necessary changes before the next game, although dont hold out much hope of a result at anfield. Look on the brightside though, wigan got beat, and the blunts got held at home by colchester

What match at Anfield?

[chimchimcheroo]

I think our team is pretty good, we were missing two leaders in neill and Parker today. Both of them players will help control how the team plays, as neill will demand the best from the lads and parker will be the player making the passes and making sure we keep the ball.

I agree with you. A lot of our football will come through Parker (when fit), this will hopefully give Bellamy something to feed on and release Noble to move forward. We missed NRC yesterday and I feel for Noble playing alongside Bowyer, Noble covers a lot of Bowyer's running and mistakes, because Bowyer is spent IMO. Neill is the team captain and we are a far better team when he plays.

I like Upson, hes our best defender in my opinion but he was very poor today along with the rest of the defence, we all looked nervous. But things will improve, it was a new back line and its all about the players geting used to each other in a competitive situations. Its all good doing well in pre season but abrand new back line playing in the prem can cause loads of problems as no one is used to how eachother plays.

We have good centre-backs at the club, it was a disjointed team performance but you are right, it will improve. I was impressed with San Citeh, Ericsson has signed some quality and they took and created their goals well. I was expecting a bunch of mercenaries who we would beat comfortably but they played like a team and deservedly won the game.

Its just one game, not much to be depressed over, we are decent team and things will improve. Once Ashton is sharper we will get alot of goals out of him and once bellamy and zamora score their first goals they will be flying in.

chin up people for christs sake, and no more booing you c*nts

I like your style, remember Nauseating Positivity, it gets results.

FACT.

Good day off the pitch, got nicely pissed and the sun shone. It is always good to catch up with people at the start of a new season.

West Ham are trying to establish themselves as a Premier League side. That will take time and people should adjust their expectation levels accordingly IMO.

[smuts]

West Ham are trying to establish themselves as a Premier League side. That will take time and people should adjust their expectation levels accordingly IMO.[/color]

Yes, including the chairman and loads of people on here who c*nted me off when I said that I expected a lower half finish with our squad. :lol:

[mutu_20]

We were awful today we are desperately short of one if not two midfielders,a left backand another striker. What i always thought of this season is that we are relying an awful lot on either players who are either terribly inconsistant (Zamora,Ferdinand) Might be past their prime
(Ljungberg,Boa Morte), Too inexpierianced (Noble), or injury prone (Upson,Ashton and Ljungberg). Judging by today's performance we are desperately in the sh*t and we need players fast. There was absolutely nothing there to be excited about. The only positives to come from the game was Ashton played. Etherington lookedlike the player he was 2 to 3 years ago.

I will do ratings.
Green - Really didn't have much to do pulled off a world class stop in injury time. 6

Spector - I thought spector was poor today going forward and in defence. Constantly got skinned by Petrov. 4

Ferdinand - Im usually a fan of Anton but today he was very poor and too casual maybe he could of done more for the first goal. But im unsure if he would of got there in time to clear the ball. 3

Upson - Looked completely off the pace i think we should drop him for Collins in the next game. Looked off the pace his passing was shocking for the most part. give him couple of weeks to work on his speed get him a bit sharper. 4

McCartney - He didn't play particuarly well today but i feel after he went off we completely lost our shape. Wasn't great defensively either. 5

Ljungberg - Freddie was pretty anonymous for the most part showed a couple of decent touches when he was on the ball. 5

Noble - Young Mark was pretty poor today he improved when Mullins came on slightly. But it's the worst i have seen him play for West Ham. We are really desperate for a central midfielder of quality to be honest. It's asking alot of a player who has only played 13 games in the top flight to carry your central midfield. 4

Bowyer - Worst player on the pitch by a million miles. We should immediately transfer list him. Misplacing passes by about 30 yards!!! Giving away free kicks giving the ball away constantly. He is finished as a footballer in the top flight he has lost it completely not good enough . I think Daily and Quashie are both terrible but currently they are better then Bowyer. 0

Boa Morte - Was anonymous for the most part. Improved as the first half went on i was quite suprised to see him replaced. 5

Bellamy - He tried hard and ran all day the only problem was he was running into our half to get the ball. Tried his best but he never really threatened. 6

Zamora - The Zman was really awful today some of his touches were truly awful. Probably one of the worst games i've seen for him in terms of his touch and passing. Which even when he is down on confidence are usually not so bad. He played one nice pass to Etherington which created our best chance of the game he was for the most part very poor though. He was also at fault for the second goal. 1

Subs
Etherington (on for Boa Morte: Half time) - Ethers today was really the only performance which was lively and effective. He looked good going forward the only period of the game we were on top was mainly down to him. Then he was moved to left back when Ashton came on and we seemed to lose our shape completely. But he did well and looked sharp and hungry i hope he can keep up this form. 8 MOM

Mullins ( on for Bowyer: Half time) - I actually thought Mullins was good today he was composed and a one trillion percent improvement on Bowyer. He was calm and composed didn't give the ball away and looked solid. Far far better option then Bowyer really Mullins is fine as a squad player and does his job well nearly always. 7

Ashton ( on for McCartney: 63rd minute) - To be honest he didn't really see much of the ball when he came on. Had a chance although he was offside blazed over also missed with a header in injury time. 6

Curbishley - Today was a very very dissapointing match personally it was the worst i've seen since Charlton last season. We seemed to lack Anger and Hungriness but on a serious note we were very flat today. Hopefully he now realises Mullins over Bowyer and that we need 3 more players otherwise we are in trouble. His tactics today were pretty poor we seemed to be playing a long ball and we seemed to change formation constantly. He got his tactics right in the first 15 minutes of the second half then inexplicably changed them again. I feel if he had kept McCartney on and taken off Zamora we would of kept a better shape and might of knicked an equalizer.

What i learnt from this game was that we are desperate for a replacement for Yossi like we were for last season when he was off form. We lack creativity and pace a bit i feel we also need to keep the ball better going forward. There is an awful lot of work to be done judging by today's performance.Also i feel we are in desperate need of 3 - 4 players to come in so we can have more competition for places. At the moment apart from Central defence the players we have in reserve clearly arent good enough.

Brilliant post.

[nuddybare]

I dunno where this will stand in a 50 page thread, but imo...

- Bellamy especially, and to a lesser extent Ljungerg, weren't brought into the game enough. Too often I saw Spector making a futile run or Zamora plodding along for just enough time to meet a City defender and be dis-possesed

- Curbs was right last year in thinking we need a new LM, but Boa Morte??

- We're missing Parker, because his command of midfield will bring the best out of Noble for the time being. Pairing Mark with Bowyer was a BIG mistake

- And finally, I'm no Upson expert, so can someone inform me as to whether he has any more potential than what he displayed tonight? How much more (%) can he offer?

[chimchimcheroo]

Yes, including the chairman and loads of people on here who c*nted me off when I said that I expected a lower half finish with our squad. :lol:

You know what they say about opinions and arseholes.

[Lez]

You know what they say about opinions and arseholes.

I came out smiling yesterday, much to my fellow pboro hammers annoyance, it will get better and chim your call about establishment was on que. Might get to have a drink with you lot once i get me travelling and liquid stops adjusted... :lol:

[HollzTheHammer]

I watched the game yesterday online, obviously i agree with everyone, we were total *****, but im not gonna start worrying after one game, i still think that we will have a good season, but clearly curbs needs to sort out whatever the hell went wrong along with the players themselves.
i agree bowyer needs to go but who the hell would want him after performances like that, same with mcCartney, he got foward but he lost possession far too much.
I really do like noble and when he was on the ball yesterday you could see how good he can be on the ball, usually that includes passing, but like everyone else yesterday, it was very bad.
Zamora got really annoying giving away fouls and losing possession, i think if we get another striker in he might start performing like last season to fight for his place.
Curbs: get shopping!
so basically im just repeating what everyone thinks lol

[Harveys_HammersLH]

I'm not read through the whole thread on purpose because I know it will be full of knee jerk reactions like LBM is *****, Zamora is *****, Freddie is *****, Upson is ***** and so on after just one game.

We was awful. Man City outclassed us and deserved to win.

Noble and Bowyer kept on giving the ball away. Bellamy worked very hard but had no support from Zamora when he was on and had no service the entire game. Upson got destroyed for pace for their first goal and Spector was shocking.

My massive disappointment was the fact that City had a keeper who had never played in the Premier League before today and we never tested him. We should of been puting him under presure from start to finish.

I'm hoping this is the kick up the backside that the players needed. Curbs comments after the game do give me hope as he pulled no punches and said how bad we were. After the build up all summer everyone expected more than that.

However I refuse to push the panic button after just one game. Hopefully Neill and Parker will be back for next week. Also we might have one or two more players in before the Birmingham game. If we went on the first game last season we should of been in the top six but look how that season went.

[Hammer Laffers]

I agree about not putting the keeper under any pressure, if I was Curbs I would have been telling Bellamy to shoot whenever he had a sight at goal.

One thing that worries me is that we have no creative midfielder now that Yossi has left, this meant that a lot of the time Bellamy and Zamora had to drop deep to collect the ball, one thing that we really missed was a player that could beat a few players and make some space. As I said earlier Upson gets drawn out of position way to easily.

That said, City were brilliant, they got their tatics spot on and deserved the win.

[Harveys_HammersLH]

I agree about not putting the keeper under any pressure, if I was Curbs I would have been telling Bellamy to shoot whenever he had a sight at goal.

One thing that worries me is that we have no creative midfielder now that Yossi has left, this meant that a lot of the time Bellamy and Zamora had to drop deep to collect the ball, one thing that we really missed was a player that could beat a few players and make some space. As I said earlier Upson gets drawn out of position way to easily.

That said, City were brilliant, they got their tatics spot on and deserved the win.

I thought when Freddie got on the ball he looks creative. The problem yesterday was he never got the ball all that much!

[bubbles1966]

I agree about not putting the keeper under any pressure, if I was Curbs I would have been telling Bellamy to shoot whenever he had a sight at goal.

One thing that worries me is that we have no creative midfielder now that Yossi has left, this meant that a lot of the time Bellamy and Zamora had to drop deep to collect the ball, one thing that we really missed was a player that could beat a few players and make some space. As I said earlier Upson gets drawn out of position way to easily.

That said, City were brilliant, they got their tatics spot on and deserved the win.

Could be wrong but I think Noble probably scored and had an assist in as many goals in 10 games as Benayoun did all season.

Benayoun's magic was curiously missing in our 3-4 month virtually goalless run last season and the notion that he is a great creative player is IMO being massively overstated.

Always was a very poor man's Berkovic - but his footballing skills benefitted from comparison with one touch genuises like Dailly, Harewood, Cole and Reo Coker

[westlondonhammer]

Could be wrong but I think Noble probably scored and had an assist in as many goals in 10 games as Benayoun did all season.

Benayoun's magic was curiously missing in our 3-4 month virtually goalless run last season and the notion that he is a great creative player is IMO being massively overstated.

Always was a very poor man's Berkovic - but his footballing skills benefitted from comparison with one touch genuises like Dailly, Harewood, Cole and Reo Coker

Yes, Yossi's 3 assists and 3 goals (2 being in 1 game) from 29 games last season... going to miss a great record like that

[Romford Iron]

Zamora was rubbish last week against Roma and i don't even know why he was in the starting line up yesterday. Gave a carbon copy performance

[Ironball]

I have been slumped in dejection since yesterday. Here are my thoughts:

Noble was ****. Zamora was ****. Bowyer was **** with a flake on top. Upson was ****. I wish he was injured. Ferdinand was Ferdinand. Ie, ****. Mullins was ok. This disorientated me. Bellamy needs service and he is no Tevez. Ljungberg was alright but he won't get the party started. We need to buy nine central midfielders. Our fullbacks are mediocre. Our passing was crap. Our subsitution was identified by the manager as a mistake very quickly. Slightly before making it would have been better. Without Yossi there is nobody to put their foot on the ball. Everywhere I look I see supposed West Ham targets like Anelka, Elano, Santa Cruz, performing. Then I look into my imagination and I see Curbishley going for the same old has beens he wish he could have bought when he was at Charlton who are now past their best, like Boa Morte, Ljungberg, Dyer and perhaps soon Ian Wright and Rob Lee. And I see him thinking, Europe, well they don't eat pie and mash over there so I'll leave Bojinov, Elano and Chiellini to other people and see if Arsenal will accept a bid for Keown.

Conclusion: I am forced to join with Stockwell Pete and declare that my season ticket is going to be put in the freezer and taken out only when Bowyer is sold. Grays or Canvey Island might take him - if they are mugs.

Conclusion 2: death to Eggert Magnusson. £1m net spend. What the flaming f*** is that about? Stop wiggling those freakish ears you tight eskimo b*stard and get your cheque book out. I can't take another painful season. I just can't. Yesterday was ****. We need at least twelve more, new, decent, top class, preferably non-English central midfielders. With **** like that on the pitch there really is no need to move to a 60,000 seat stadium. Give it a few years and my seat will be free, because I can't take watching **** like that right through until I die. We are in trouble this season. It's time to overreact, it's time for stupidly early, utterly premature, ridiculously kneejerk proclamations. All these other clubs have genuinely strengthened, and I have a vision, hallelujah, of West Ham, Middlesbro and some other **** like Birmingham (hopefully) getting relegated.

Sunderland will stay up because their manager has 'banter' and is a terrifying motivator, as opposed to a bland soggy has-been. Newcastle have a real manager, Man City have a real manager, Derby have a decent manager if a lot of work to do, Wigan have Emile Heskey who is a powerful and handsome man, and West Ham have nothing in central midfield. Oh, I yearn for the days of Nigel Reo-Coker. Somebody stop me...

[Cardiff here we come.....]

Might have missed the answer in some of the other threads,but where was James Collins yesterday?

No one can get away from the fact Upson looked slow & out of sorts yesterday & looked like a mug for the 1st goal.

Pantsil is a better player at right back than Spector.Looks uncomfortable at right-back & not a great player.

I would start with Etherington everytime over Boa-morte who looks a total waste of dosh & Curbs could have found alot better than that.We pay 6m & 2.5m for Quashie & Man City buy a player like Elano for 8m.


Another thing that i disagree on that another poster wrote was that Ljungberg is a better player than Yossi.Have to disagree.Even at Arsenal in is top form would pick Yossi over him.

[hammerdivone]

A very disappointing start. The errors seemed to multiply and spread through the team as the game went on. I lost count the number of times we gave the ball away on a short pass.

Certainly not doom and gloom after 1 game like some of you though. Like Gibbins said there were the occaisional flashes of what we can do particularly from Matty :shock: and Freddie (who hugged the right hand touchline from centre midfield most of the time ).

Cardiff - I though Upson made a couple of very good interception first half and read the game well, but second half he seemed to catch the jitters as well.

And finally, to the the ****hole in the BMU who decided to stand up and berate the ref and smashed his arm into the woman next him splitting her lip, and who then with his big clever mate decided to have a go at her man because he told them what he thought of them - you're not big and you're not clever. There were young kids around you and you behaved like a couple of f*cking Milwank morons - you are a disgrace to West Ham supporters and I hope you get reported and banned. :evil:

[If only....]

Agree with all those that say we have only bought to replace players gone and in some cases they are no better than the ones we got rid of.

Lungberg obviously not an out and out RM and has less craft than Benayoun, Bellamy chased everything down but no service, Upson - would have preferred Collins myself.

We need a creative player badly - we didn't look like creating anything yesterday and as soon as Ashton came on we resorted to the punt.

LBM is utter cack and Zamora needed shooting after yesterdays performance.

Presently we look no better than we did for the first part of last season - no movement, no urgency, the build up play is far too slow and contrived and our defence looks shakey. Not sure Neill and Parker alone can swing that around personally.

Pretty fair summary of how I see matters. Take out our one world class player - Tevez - then start with a team that comprises the guys who dropped us in it last year plus signings who have yet to gel and, frankly, are unlikely to set the world alight anyway and 0-2 is what you get against a mediocre Man City inspired by that proven motivator Sven. Hearing his name being sung at UP was probably the worst bit.

With Tevez misssing and a no net expenditure it is hardly surprising that there were no signs of a leap forward. We have stood still and look at what that meant for most of last year.

Good news is that the writing is there for all to see and the window is still open so we can try to strengthen. Just a shame that if we do it it is after we haved gifted some soft points to the opposition.

[VeniceHammer]

trying to find something good in yesterdays game, if possible, we have to count that, among the fact that we played like crap, we passed like crap, bowyer was incredibly sh*t, our CB's where so so so sh*t and so on, we could have ended winning the game.

not joking, but we were so close scoring two goals, with matty and deano, probably in the only two occasions we shoot on goal.

I don't think man city played that well yesterday. We were the summa of what a crap team could be, yesterday, and we overplayed them for 40 minutes. yesterday, they were elano and petrov. full stop.

not saying that all is ok, who could do that after yesterday, but taking all this we have to admit that there is a light for the future, even if we need massive improvements and 3 or 4 signings, cause some of the players we put on the pitch clearly aren't fit to what we want to become.

[smfc]

I have been slumped in dejection since yesterday. Here are my thoughts:

Noble was sh*t. Zamora was sh*t. Bowyer was sh*t with a flake on top. Upson was sh*t. I wish he was injured. Ferdinand was Ferdinand. Ie, sh*t. Mullins was ok. This disorientated me. Bellamy needs service and he is no Tevez. Ljungberg was alright but he won't get the party started. We need to buy nine central midfielders. Our fullbacks are mediocre. Our passing was crap. Our subsitution was identified by the manager as a mistake very quickly. Slightly before making it would have been better. Without Yossi there is nobody to put their foot on the ball. Everywhere I look I see supposed West Ham targets like Anelka, Elano, Santa Cruz, performing. Then I look into my imagination and I see Curbishley going for the same old has beens he wish he could have bought when he was at Charlton who are now past their best, like Boa Morte, Ljungberg, Dyer and perhaps soon Ian Wright and Rob Lee. And I see him thinking, Europe, well they don't eat pie and mash over there so I'll leave Bojinov, Elano and Chiellini to other people and see if Arsenal will accept a bid for Keown.

Conclusion: I am forced to join with Stockwell Pete and declare that my season ticket is going to be put in the freezer and taken out only when Bowyer is sold. Grays or Canvey Island might take him - if they are mugs.

Conclusion 2: death to Eggert Magnusson. £1m net spend. What the flaming f*ck is that about? Stop wiggling those freakish ears you tight eskimo b*stard and get your cheque book out. I can't take another painful season. I just can't. Yesterday was sh*t. We need at least twelve more, new, decent, top class, preferably non-English central midfielders. With sh*t like that on the pitch there really is no need to move to a 60,000 seat stadium. Give it a few years and my seat will be free, because I can't take watching sh*t like that right through until I die. We are in trouble this season. It's time to overreact, it's time for stupidly early, utterly premature, ridiculously kneejerk proclamations. All these other clubs have genuinely strengthened, and I have a vision, hallelujah, of West Ham, Middlesbro and some other sh*t like Birmingham (hopefully) getting relegated.

Sunderland will stay up because their manager has 'banter' and is a terrifying motivator, as opposed to a bland soggy has-been. Newcastle have a real manager, Man City have a real manager, Derby have a decent manager if a lot of work to do, Wigan have Emile Heskey who is a powerful and handsome man, and West Ham have nothing in central midfield. Oh, I yearn for the days of Nigel Reo-Coker. Somebody stop me...

While I disagree with 80% of your post it did at least make me laugh out loud, I'm hoping that was your intention