Relive every moment of every first team game since the beginning of the 2005/06 season. Our archive of matchday threads originally posted in the General Discussion Forum.
the pink palermo wrote:
Who's moaning about him ? I'm merely pointing out the difference between a striker that gets you further up the table than our likely 8th place finish .
Or, putting it another way , assuming we finish 8th this season do you think we have enough firepower in Sakho to finish 6th the following season ?
I do yes...
A sudden patch of bad form when injuries mounted up and a couple of last minute goals conceded that cost us 4 points...has cost us from doing that this year. Sakho was injured for some of this.
He has more goals in less games than Pelle...
Southampton are in 6th for more reasons than fire power alone. Don't think Sakho would cause us any problems getting into the top 6 tbh...
We scored yesterday on one of the very few occasions we tried to play through the middle. Why do we not do this more often? Why do we send probably 90% of our attacks wide and then cross it. I just don't get this at all. We must try and mix things up a bit more
What was all that scrap outside the ground 15min before KO all about?? Few blokes wearing hard hats with West Ham crests on them. I thought it was amongst Sunderland supporters on first thought, then realised it was our own. It later continued after the game by the front gates as hundreds of us couldn't get through the gates due to the continuing rushing and people stopping to watch.
What's all that about?? People around me looked petrified and couldn't wait to get out. Sad.
Crouchend_Hammer wrote:We scored yesterday on one of the very few occasions we tried to play through the middle. Why do we not do this more often? Why do we send probably 90% of our attacks wide and then cross it. I just don't get this at all. We must try and mix things up a bit more
I suppose that "statistically" we dont have forwards comfortable in receiving the ball with their backs to the goal and turning, nor sufficiently advanced midfielders who would benefit from a laid back pass from said limited forwards so it is "statistically" more rewarding to go wide
It is noticable how little interpassing in the oppts half there is between our midfielders and forwards.and an inability/reluctance for a C/M to get forward to receive a return pass, or even to run with the ball a little bit further to draw a defender,before making a pass..
Crouchend_Hammer wrote:We scored yesterday on one of the very few occasions we tried to play through the middle. Why do we not do this more often? Why do we send probably 90% of our attacks wide and then cross it. I just don't get this at all. We must try and mix things up a bit more
I suppose that "statistically" we dont have forwards comfortable in receiving the ball with their backs to the goal and turning, nor sufficiently advanced midfielders who would benefit from a laid back pass from said limited forwards so it is "statistically" more rewarding to go wide
It is noticable how little interpassing in the oppts half there is between our midfielders and forwards.and an inability/reluctance for a C/M to get forward to receive a return pass, or even to run with the ball a little bit further to draw a defender,before making a pass..
Safety First, I suppose...
Good points and totally in agreement. The opposition knew what we were going to do and defended over 40+ crosses (bar 2 that Sakho could have done better with) successfully. The one little chip by Noble was an unexpected piece of quality near their goal area that outdid them. Also , I don't remember too many shots at goal apart from Song in the first half and a feeble ground one from Downing in the 2nd. Why doesn't Noble have more punts at goal? Seems a long time since he scored a goal that wasn't a penalty.
To finish 7th/8th would be a brilliant achievement..well worth aiming at.
It means that barring the big spenders, who I'm afraid are untouchable,, we are first or second best in the country.
However yesterday was proof that you cant isolate results from performance. I had a rare feeling that I'd have preferred to have heard the result on the news rather, than have had to sit through such an unentertaining couple of very cold hours.
Sakho's the best striker we've had in eons imo, and out and out goal sniffer.
Ok, he went off the boil for a couple of games, it happens to the best of players.
But the return we've had for £3.5million has been nothing short of amazing.
Didn't we spend roughly that on Maiga?
Plus, the bloke broke down in tears when we didn't initally sign him and he does the crossed irons hand gesture every time he scores. WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE?
DaveWHU1964 wrote:
Absolutely. And this is something we'll need to bear in mind regarding other players as well, sometimes quite 'sacred' ones. Whisper it gently and much as I like him as a player and that he's proper West Ham we still might one day fairly soon be discussing the likes of Mark Noble in the same way that you're mentioning Sakho, another player I like.
IMO we should be discussing it this season. He should be one of the players being replaced this summer. Whether that is by Song or by another will be up to the club, but he's no longer fast enough either in movement or brain to be first choice.
irving boleyn wrote:To finish 7th/8th would be a brilliant achievement..well worth aiming at.
It means that barring the big spenders, who I'm afraid are untouchable,, we are first or second best in the country.
However yesterday was proof that you cant isolate results from performance. I had a rare feeling that I'd have preferred to have heard the result on the news rather, than have had to sit through such an unentertaining couple of very cold hours.
7th would be an astonishingly good achievement from this point. 8th is the best we can realistically aim for, and would represent a successful season overall.
Final comment from me is with regards to Sakho , he isn't the real deal , he really isn't .He's had a good season in terms of goals scored but let's not let that hide the facts concerning the number of very very good chances he fails to net
I think that's nonsense. Firstly, it's a good thing that he gets himself into these positions. Secondly, he's been putting them away consistently. 11 goals in 22 appearances is fantastic. There are probably only a handful of players that take their chances 9 times out of 10. I don't know what constitutes "real deal", but if it's a class above Sakho then it's not really someone we have a realistic chance of attracting right now.
He has just got a new 5 year deal so i hope he has not early onset footballers Alzeimers, he does sometimes look painfully slow but the brain is OK , he knows what to do but is slow in doing it.
11 goals in his first season (so far), in a foreign country, the first WHU player to do that in the top flight for donkeys, the main reason we have a positive goal difference, the main firepower to our early season form, the reason we got 3 points instead of 1 yesterday
& some of you are discussing selling him in the summer
We really do not want to be selling anyone least of all Sahko and Valencia , first season in argueably the toughest league in the world and they have aquited themselves very well.
Likewise Cresswell .
Selling any of those and it is back to the bad old days when we sold off the family jewels.
Absolutely incredibly bizarre