West Ham Utd 0-1 Stoke City (31/08/13)

[Billydinho]

Call it knee-jerk but for what these people earn they should be able to perform better than that each week.

Worst. performance. Ever.

[leytonhammer]

Game was lost in midfield today.

Nolan, Noble and Diame should be giving their wages back this week.

I cant blame Maiga too much. No service whatsoever.

Beg to differ, Maiga may well not be a target man but the touch he exhibited when we did get the ball into his feet was atrocious, he didn't look like he'd be able to hold the ball up if he were allowed to use his hands.

[Stepney]

Could that appalling performance today have been choreographed by Sam in a ploy to the watching G&S to do something ? I wouldn't put that past him

Not a bad point actually. Strange things tend to happen around the opening/closing of the transfer window.

[Cardiff here we come.....]

Started Ravel and benched Nolan, but he will never do it.

But don't you generally bench someone if they had a few bad games? Vs Cardiff, Nolan scored & probably one of the best players on the pitch. Played well at Newcastle,how can you dump him on the bench, how could you justify that to the player?

As plenty of other posts have pointed out our midfield was very awful going forward today and the reason why is because we didn't have a playmaker in the starting eleven.

I don't think we have a playmaker at the club at the moment. I don't think Joe Cole or Morrison are playmakers. Last playmaker we had at West ham was Yossi Benayoun & before then was Eyal Berkovic.

Two out and out wingers who got little service and never the chance to run in behind and a striker that looks out of his depth. Nolan is not a playmaker, hes a poacher who pops up and scores in the box.

Agreed

When he isn't doing that (like today and at Newcastle) he's a luxury we can't afford. Ravel has been in exceptional form in pre-season and has shown what he can do but doesn't get a look in.

Others would say that Ravel is more of a luxury & goes missing in games.RM played vs Chelthenham & got 30 minutes under his belt today ,so he does get a look in & is in the managers plans.

I want Sam to grow and pair and change it. If he absolutely has to start Nolan every single game (pretty sure he didn't at Bolton...) then stick him up front - he can f'ing score goals!!!!!

Yes he scores goals but he's no striker. He's got the pace of a tortoise

And while he's at it, bite St Etienne's hand off for Maiga and kiss and make up with Vaz...our only fit striker who has a proven goalscoring record in England

Agree with you 100%

[the celestial insect]

Frankly, I would have put Tomkins on as a holding/defensive midfielder in place of Noble. The whole problem seemed to stem from them dominating our central midfield. Tomkins isn't great there, but he would have added height and more chance to nullify Nzonzi, which would free up Nolan, Jarvis and Downing a bit more.

[Irrons]

But don't you generally bench someone if they had a few bad games? Vs Cardiff, Nolan scored & probably one of the best players on the pitch. Played well at Newcastle,how can you dump him on the bench, how could you justify that to the player?

I don't think we have a playmaker at the club at the moment. I don't think Joe Cole or Morrison are playmakers. Last playmaker we had at West ham was Yossi Benayoun & before then was Eyal Berkovic.

Not even a playmaker in the definitive sense, just someone has has a bit of skill and can take it past a man one on one...both Cole, Morrison and Vaz Te are these types of players. Diame at a push but he sits too deep.

Ok maybe not bench Nolan but I would certainly have substituted him and Maiga, they deserved to come off. From what I saw Nolan was fairly anonymous at Newcastle and when he did pop up he missed a sitter, so I'd say two bad games but thats just me, hence my gripe. I missed the Cardiff game so the season so far for me has been poor

[Georgee Paris]

Call it knee-jerk but for what these people earn they should be able to perform better than that each week.

Worst. performance. Ever.

That's beyond knee-Jerk.

[Welling]

[James P]

As bad as that was, it wasn't the worst performance I've seen from us at home to Stoke.

That's pretty staggering.

[MrHammer73]

Not a fantastic end of week to pit it mildly...Diarra out for the season, Vaz Te's transfer request, Joe Cole out injured for a month when he was looking bright and a dismal home defeat against a team who we should be beating.

Hopefully we will get a couple more decent players by the end of Monday night.

I am more confident of this happening with Big Sam in charge instead of Avram or Zola. Big Sam is more of a demanding manager and hopefully the owners will listen.

[Irrons]

As bad as that was, it wasn't the worst performance I've seen from us at home to Stoke.

That's pretty staggering.

The Ricardo Fuller winner with Mido playing up front for us yet winning all the defensive headers? I was there and it was pretty bad

[il_martello_di_genovesi]

The 1-0 home defeat on a night game where Akinbiyi scored is probably one of the worst.

[Ticket 2 Ryde]

Noble caught very sort today! .....

[James P]

I was actually talking about the first year in the Championship in 03-04. Worst game of football I have ever seen.

[MD_HM]

We were solid again at the back but just had a very poor day from central midfielders and the feather upfront

[Cardiff here we come.....]

Frankly, I would have put Tomkins on as a holding/defensive midfielder in place of Noble. .

Allardyce played Tomkins in that role before & he's was absolutely sh*t. He was totally out of his depth. But say we did do that in the second half took Noble off & stuck Tomkins on...the reaction on here would have been WTF. 'Negative Allardyce' ,'Doesn't he know we're the Home side' ,'Settling for the draw at 0-0 the f*t c**t' etc....He cannot win.

I see Tomkins as a very good centre-back, average right-back & an awful midfielder

[Lee_WHU]

Really unlucky result today well played boys.

Thought the manager got the tactics spot on today and the players really battled for him. Tremendous performance from Nolan who only just missed that pass that led to their goal.

We had Begovic worried all game and Maiga was tremendous and we did a good job getting the ball to his feet early and often. We had them on the ropes and when we brought Morrison on in his favoured position I thought we would go on to win.

Glad Vaz Te and Carlton Cole weren't around as they are clearly superfluous to what we need this season.

We won't have many tougher games this season than Hughes' Stoke at home so I'm confident this was just a blip from a well coached well prepared side.

Allardyce is a good manager and will learn this harsh lesson. Onwards and upwards.

:lol: quality forumming.

[Fuertehammer]

No drama, Sam lost on purpose today to illustrate the need for some extra spending money. Daves now need to stop hiding behind FFP and start doing the necessary to increase the pot - Anne Summers to sponsor the Training Ground

[prophet:marginal]

Noble caught very sort today! .....

Dropping his aitches??

[the celestial insect]

Allardyce played Tomkins in that role before & he's was absolutely sh*t. He was totally out of his depth. But say we did do that in the second half took Noble off & stuck Tomkins on...the reaction on here would have been WTF. 'Negative Allardyce' ,'Doesn't he know we're the Home side' ,'Settling for the draw at 0-0 the f*t c**t' etc....He cannot win.

I see Tomkins as a very good centre-back, average right-back & an awful midfielder

I don't necessarily disagree, but from the sounds of things today Noble was not at the races v Nzonzi. While Tomkins is not a good DM, if given the instruction to mark Nzonzi and do nothing but break up play, I think it might have been more effective than having a midfield that couldn't compete anyway. Our problem for quite a while has been lack strength/physical presence in midfield. For a short time, Papa BD gave us that in the champs and it worked, and perhaps that was what BFS hoped to get when he signed Diarra.