West Bromwich Albion 3 West Ham Utd 2 (13/09/08)

[smuts]

I totally agree with a lot of you....
This defence looks like it will sieve goals all year.......and certain people back slap the board for "good business".

Selling those two with no adequate replacements is the worst bit of transfer business this club has done for years.

[QuintonNimoy]

Sorry for being so gloomy but I think its an absolutely dismal result.

Even last year, when we were getting thumped, at least we were getting beaten by the likes of Torres, Drogba, Berbatov etc.....

I really fear for the club. 14 days ago I was quite optimistic.... we played some great attacking football against Blackburn, aside from Ferdinand our best defence in years was intact, and our manager knew how to survive in this league.

Some terrible decisions have been taken since then........

I agree that the result was very poor. I think it's fundamentally meaningless regarding the rest of the season in itself because of Keen's involvement, but I thought it was instructive in that the attacking commitment left the defence hopelessly exposed against mediocre attackers.

We'll see what Zola can do - he'll need to be willing to be practical and cover our soft underbelly. Apparently his sadistic new trainer should give us a fitness advantage in a few months or so. If he's looking to improve players then I think building attacking fluency with a small unit will be key. He's Italian though so tactical discipline should be second nature.

[Cuenca 'ammer]

Ventrone is a TRUE modern day "Guru."

MANY MANY MANY fitness people follow him (from what I can make out). Bangsbo is another one.

**** or Bust for some of these players.

However:

Vialli, who would not reveal what was said in the meeting, is believed to have recounted his career from start to finish, giving details of training regimes at his various clubs.

He too puts his muscle development down to strenuous work programmes devised by Juventus trainer Gianpiero Ventrone, which he says have prolonged his playing days to the age of 34.

[D&G]

Could somebody please tell me what Keen said in the interview that everybody is finding so funny. My laptop is not playing vids for some reason.....

KEEN WAS ASKED:
"Would you be happy staying as reserve coach as you've been doing?"

HE REPLIED:
"Cor, what a question that is! Bloody Hell!
If I say f***, sh*t, b***ocks you can't put anything on can you?"

Was very funny!

I don't think it was live thank God!

[prophet:marginal]

In terms of effort - didn't look too bad...

Hansen and Lawro can jog on

[active]

My god just seen you on match of the day you really are as bad as everyone thinks.....good luck zola you'll need it

[west ham dancing shoes]

In terms of effort - didn't look too bad...

Hansen and Lawro can jog on

If its not one of the 'top 4' playing, they're not interested in the slightest.

Mugs.

[Roaring Repka]

Having refreshed my memory with the MOTD highlights I stand by my statement that Di Michele was nowhere near as bad as people are making out. Yes, there was one bad miss (that eventually culminated in the second goal) and I thought his decision to go for the second overhead kick moments after the first was a bad one that perhaps showed an overeagerness to impress but he played a part in both goals and even if he was no better than a 5/6 out of ten today, I didn't think he was bad enough to warrant becoming the new scapegoat for some people - who are probably annoyed that he came on instead of Bellamy? - just over an hour into his West Ham career.

I loved the blatent lack of subtlety of Lucas Neill's Steve Clarke reference in his BBC interview. I thought that as we were on fourth there might be more analysis for once but of course not. No discussion of whether West Ham will suffer without Curbs, what they think of us selling half our defence, whether they think we were right to switch to a more attacking style today or whether that proved costly or even seeing as they are Big Four obsessed discussing why Clarke might want to move to us and how big a coup it could be. Not even a slight bit of an analysis over WBA's counter attack for the third. I don't usually get too involved with criticising the MOTD coverage but it is a bit disappointing that the only WHUFC insight tonight was a sneering 'good luck Zola' from Hansen.

EDIT: Oh yeah, another thing they didn't bother analysing was their penalty - a major turning point in the game. The commentator said it definitely was one and refused to change his stance after the replay and then Lineker, Hansen and Lawro didn't even mention it.

[HammerTime1984]

My god just seen you on match of the day you really are as bad as everyone thinks.....good luck zola you'll need it

[The Green Man]

Err.. who are you?

We're without a manager and have a dodgy board who have sold 2 of our first choice defence. Yet we should really of won against a dire West Brom side.

Explanation enough for why we lost 3-2. Plus Deano got injured and Bellamy didn't play.. so what's you're point?

[neilbob]

we really should have won? I'll be honest and say either side could have scored a hatful more today. We could have been on the end of a much heavier defeat just as easily as managed to hold on for a draw.

[Jonny]

i thought we played really well....
we had no manager.... we have lost two key defenders.... what clearly showed today.....
See what happens but you cannot say we played poor today... maybe the back four... but still when its an open game we are always dodgy....

[w4hammer]

i thought we played really well....
we had no manager.... we have lost two key defenders.... what clearly showed today.....
See what happens but you cannot say we played poor today... maybe the back four... but still when its an open game we are always dodgy....

we made a very bad side look good


like we made watford look good when they beat us twice in 06/07

and they were ****ing *****!!!

really mate, wake up

we are *****, and in line for alot more *****

[bobcar]

i thought we played really well....
we had no manager.... we have lost two key defenders.... what clearly showed today.....
See what happens but you cannot say we played poor today... maybe the back four... but still when its an open game we are always dodgy....

We did not play well at all. I didn't go but saw us on football first and we were awful. This wasn't Zola's or Keen's fault but I can't remember us defending this badly in a long time - it was worse than Reading just that West brom weren't as lethal in front of goal. This is the sort of game that under Curbs we would have won 1-0 , we are going to be in a relegation battle this season so this was a real 6 pointer.

Cole was by a mile our best player but he still seems to have got stick in some quarters.

[bobcar]

cole worked his ass off all day long

as for that other c***

Still a pile of sh*t who you'd think would be improving but is still as crap as he ever was, i think most of us on here would work our nuts off aswell, that doesn't mean we deserve a game.

If you think that you working your nuts off would be anything like as good as Cole on the pitch then can I have some of what you're on?

[TampaHammer]

Looked an entertaining affair. The penalty was ****. But, the game was a good watch. I enjoyed it, even if we lost.

[speculator]

WBA are a very poor side in my opinion, I felt we should have come away with three points. Zola must have seen enough to realise some players are not good enough.

[The Sherriff]

just got in from the WBA experience ... its been a long day and i cba with reading 35 pages of cyber warrior drizzle.

kevin keen lost west ham the game today with totally inadequate tactics. apart from George Weah's cousin and Boogers that is the worst debut I have ever seen, total ****ing disgrace that Sears, Stanlias, Hines and more notably Bellemy are further down the pecking order.

Best player was LBM ... good move to sub him. The system needed changing not the personnel.

Best home support I've seen in many a long year.

Away support was ****ing woefull. To those mugs who sang 'sing when your winning' was ****ing embarassment. Please try and get out more.

Not a bad debut from that Congo blokey who's name I dont even know.

Curbishley style tactics will not aid Kevin Keen's career. Dont pick half fit players if they and put them on the bench.

Totally ****ed off, we let ourseleves down on and off the pitch.

England's number one? at shot stopping maybe but not crosses ... sadly folks thats why he never will be.

Brassed off with the whole affair, up against an average side ... not good enough. KK i'm so disappointed ... sorry son

[Aussiehammer1975]

we concede 3 goals and loads of chances against a team that hasn't scored in open play so people look for a scapegoat = criticise davenport. I'll admit that he wasn't as good as in the homes this season but from where I was sitting Upson had more of a 'mare, should have done better with two of their goals, wasn't in the opposition box helping to create one of our goals and wasn't one of the two fullbacks that (1) let the west brom player have too much space to cross (Ilunga) or (2) got caught out of position all day long (Neill).

Cole was crap as soon as the west brom defense decided to let him win the first ball and then take it off him after his poor second touch. Someone earlier mentioned that his decision making is poor -

Although the three teams that came up are favourites for relegation I think we have a false level of comfort. Not once since the premier league started have the same teams that came up been the ones that have gone down. If one of stoke, west brom or hull have a bit of luck I can really see us going down - fulham, boro, sunderland, bolton, wigan all look better than last season. blackburn, newcastle and us look in trouble.

Wasn't Ilunga in a two against one situation? He couldn't exactly close Valero down because that would have opened up the whole flank yet further.

I have to agree. llunga was in no way to blame for the first goal. For an England international the defending by Upson was shocking. Not sure if anyone watched the Australia V Holland game but Lucas Neill is a CB, not a fullback.

[prophet:marginal]

I wasn't there, was the performance that bad, peeps?

It seemed to me to be destined for West Brom to finally chalk up 3 points against us:

1. We simply cannot keep a clean sheet
2. Ashton didn't last the whole game
3. We had our 'new' defence out


The simple fact is that the squad has been weakened since last May and we're basically slowly improving from the pretty dire form that we showed at the end of last season.

The only worry I would have about yesterday is that, if WBA can get 3 past us (although the pen looked soft to say the least) what are Man U, Chelsea or even Villa going to do?

Plus, I think that there may be more than one reason for us putting 4 past Blackburn; they don't seem to have started too well, really.