West Ham Utd 0-5 Manchester City (10/08/19)

[Billy Hunt]

City have improved and we have improved.

Difficulty is, City start from a much, much higher level than we are at. However, a game like this can’t be let define our start to the season. Put up a good performance, and perhaps nick something when the season is still cold. However, City will be strong and professional.

Defensively we haven't though, and last year we got stuffed 4-0 in the corresponding fixture.

Our defence that day was Zabaletta, Diop, Balbuena and Masuaku who was subbed for Cresswell midway through the match, with Rice sitting in front of them.

Sure, going forward we have improved from then, but replace Fabianski with Roberto and we have weakened defensively.

It may help that this is the first game of the season and Man City wont be fully in their stride, but I cant see much other than a hefty defeat

[Colours never run]

I can see them being complacent for this one, knowing they usually do well against us and very early doors in the season. I'd be surprised if we were just brushed aside as easily as we have been in the past too. Going forward, we should be able to test them.

....having said all that, I'm assuming Fabianski will be back for the season opener? Otherwise uh oh.

[thejackhammer]

You can improve defensively without changing the defenders.

Wilshere, Fornals and Lanzini improve ball retention, the ball will stick to Haller who will give their defenders something to think about. Plus Fredericks' pace will help st the back.

No doubt we'll lose but to say we haven't improved because we havent bought defenders is nonsense, its not as black and white as that.

Also in the away fixture, we only lost 1-0 to a penalty, so that's a clear improvement over the course of a season let alone a transfer window.

[Billy Hunt]

You can improve defensively without changing the defenders.

Wilshere, Fornals and Lanzini improve ball retention, the ball will stick to Haller who will give their defenders something to think about. Plus Fredericks' pace will help st the back.

No doubt we'll lose but to say we haven't improved because we havent bought defenders is nonsense, its not as black and white as that.

Also in the away fixture, we only lost 1-0 to a penalty, so that's a clear improvement over the course of a season let alone a transfer window.

Of course you can, and I agree re Fredericks. But our defending, as a team, was our Achilles heel last season, and has looked the same in pre-season. Replace Fabianski with Roberto and defensively we are weaker - nothing nonsensical about that

[Cuenca 'ammer]

billy

you're spot on....

I agree with jackhammer to an extent but we still (although it's early doors) haven't seemed to have gotten over conceding early goals or starting slowly..

I would hope we could have at least seen an improvement overall in that department but we haven't

Reid isn't even back in training until this week, I would be very careful about even giving him a 25 man squad spot to be honest.

long time out of course, but a couple of half games and he isn't even back in full training according to * & *

Winston Reid will resume full training this week according to a club insider.

[Claret&Blue,Thru&]

I can see them being complacent for this one

Which is why City's Stars will probably not get to double figures.

[Knighter10WHU]

Really surprised that we appear to be going into this season with no improvement whatsoever in our defensive frailties that cost us so many times last season. Straight away it looks like we are without Noble making us even lighter than usual in centre midfield. After last seasons opening day disaster at Anfield I certainly would not be using this game to "trial" Wilshere and Rice as our only deeper midfielders again. I would setup like this:

Fabianski (please)
Fredericks Balbuena Diop Masuaku
Rice Sanchez
Antonio Lanzini Anderson
Haller

Subs: Roberto, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Wilshere, Fornals, Yarmolenko, Hernandez

West Ham 1 - 4 Man City

Lanzini. Sterling x2, KDB x2.

[S-H]

Mike Dean...

Great..

[The Old Man of Storr]

Manchester City are such a good team , I was watching them yesterday and even under immense pressure from Liverpool they were still able to play those little triangles in very tight spaces and get themselves out of trouble .

I think we'll score but I know they will .

Ah well , I was going to put us down for a loss but the Voices are strong on this one ....


West Ham United 3 Manchester City 1

[S-H]

Oh ****

Mike Dean and VAR..

GREAT!

[Samba]

Some tickets on sale now - and it'll cost you £75 to sit in the very back row.
https://twitter.com/WestHamUtd/status/1 ... 5732530176
#excessive

They missed a trick there. Could have sold opera glasses as an expensive, optional extra..

[Samba]

Mike Dean...
Great..

You are f*cking joking..any slim chance we might have had, forget it...

As an aside & I'm not volunteering!, it might be worth someone, every game, keeping a tab on var usage & results thereof.
I suppose it could be argued that the 'top 6' are more LIKELY to have more incidents involving var, than 'lesser' teams.

[kentishiron]

Have City improved though? From what I've seen Rodri isn't fit to tie fernandinho's boots, Laporte not fit, Aguero another year older, defence is shaky and so on.

I still think well lose 4-0 but gotta give it a go :lol:

[Tristan Shout]

Slightly off topic but I would bet that Liverpool and Tottenham will get more var decisions go their way than the bottom 10 teams put together

[Cuenca 'ammer]

they looked very solid (most of the time) against the Bin Dippers especially in the 1st half.

Otamendi and Stones looked okay, Rodri looked as good as anyone in the Red midfield and I think it could only have been a couple of games for him.

way more experienced than Rice in that position

we can hope Sane isn't fit........they should have scored more than 1 yesterday before the Scousers got the equalizer...

[jastons]

Man City are obviously a very good side but I'm excited to see how much pressure we can put them under. As someone posted above, improving ball retention against the top sides is massively important. We might still lose but keeping the ball better could be the difference between a thumping and a narrow defeat.

I had forgotten about VAR. Hopefully all major decisions will be correct from now on.

Two all draw.

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Think we will get a bit of a tonking, but it won't have a bearing on our season which will be a good one overall

[ohsnap]

cant see anything other than an opening 4-0 loss unfortunately.

[Georgee Paris]

I’m going to go for a drab 0-0

[keithrobsonsbookie]

West Ham 1 Man City 0

Haller 34 mins