West Ham Utd 1-2 Crystal Palace (05/10/19)

[Iron Mark]

Remember people saying the club won't care after the Oxford embarrassment as the league is priority?

One point from two winnable games since...

[waynepin]

another game where Anderson gets fouled the defender gets booked and he does not try to run at him after, when the fullback gets a yellow you would think a player with Andersons control and speed would want the ball all the time and keep going at him, He seems to get a few kicks and decides he has had enough and stops running at them,

[BillUp]

Bill you’re talking bowlocks bud

He cannot play every game this season. He won't be able to play every game next season. If that is talking bowlocks then we'll see... If I'm wrong then I'll hold my hands up. But I can assure you, if there is one position we need steel and pace, its midfield.

[S-H]

Nobes ain't the issue for me.
For all the natural gift of Anderson, Lanzini etc, we seem a little predictable.

Barring Noble, we just aren't brave enough, Anderson, Lanzini and Yarmolenko all have so much talent, but they just dont try to beat their man often enough, choosing a simple backwards or sideways pass instead. We have the players just not the balls.

It's why Antonio is a huge loss, and why getting Diangana back in January should definitely be considered, we aren't direct enough.

[OFT]

Declan made a mistake for the pen but I thought his all round game was great today(again) and seemingly got back to it straight after.

[3hammers]

Incredibly annoyed and frustrated after that. We will never move up to that "next level" because we don't have the mentality for it. I love pellers but we are so slow going forward, whenever we attack it means we pretty much have to break through 10 men every time. Everything is sideways and backwards. Anderson is always capable of making something happen but he's seemed off the last few weeks, he only really came alive today after we were 1-2 down. Where was that drive earlier on in the match? Why was lanzini dropping back between the centre backs to pick the ball up? As for the decisions, I'm sorry but that was a stone wall pen and a stupid one for Rice to give away. Yes he was right next to him but you cannot have your arms above your head in the box like that. The Ayew goal I agree the line wasn't in line with his knee, but even if it was he still would have been level at worst.

Only positives I can take from that are Yarmo having another good game, and I think Noble had his best game for us in a long long time. Got about well and played some wonderful passes. Oh well, same old West Ham, always leave you disappointed

[chappo59]

Thought Zaha never got a sniff (flat track bully).......Rice was superb (apart from raising his hands) Noble put in a shift and Oggbona was excellent.

We got exactly what we deserved from that game.......we sat back from the first whistle looked hesitant and lacked guile......we cannot defend with Yarmalenko, Lanzini and Anderson in the team they haven't got a decent tackle in them......we should've been braver from the off.....lesson learned.

[Exiledin cardiff]

The Fornals substitution left me perplexed, we seemingly went down to 10 men voluntarily, I would have expected to see something from Fornals by now but there doesn't seem to be any improvement in his performances

Haller and Yarmolenko seem to be building an understanding along with Fredericks, it must be worth persevering with for the 90 minutes.

We can moan and groan as much as we like about VAR but we should have been out of sight by half time, simply putting it we need a modern day Bonzo some to galvanise the team and lead by example.

[smuts]

Nobes ain't the issue for me.
For all the natural gift of Anderson, Lanzini etc, we seem a little predictable.

Noble tried to make things happen tonight. Not his best game for us by a mile but he grafted.

It's the flair players I want more from who don't really move at any real pace for me.

[Ding]

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Seems to be te West Ham way. Can’t even say that’s a bad performance as much as it was a mix of out-of-sorts and unlucky. Took too long to get out of first gear, then just as we did, Rice conceded a stupid penalty. It’s like a dull, numb, lethargic day at the office. Slow motion frustration.

Where was Arthur? We missed him today.

[ironfireman]

No excuses! We looked lazy, slow and lack of ideas! However still should of won, but last game before the break, and a chance to cement ourselves in the top 4, you'd expect the players to be bang up for it!

Other than being on a yellow, thought bringing off yammy was a poor decision, was one of the only promising outlets on the pitch today!

Haller needs to work harder, although with no support can feel his frustration! Declan quality and Fredericks really coming on now!!

Gutted, but just maybe the reality check the players needed!!

[funky chicken]

2 things cost us that game IMO:

1) our abysmal finishing;

2) Pellers' substitutions.

Some of the chances we missed were unacceptable. Anderson should've done better with his chance in the first half and how did Lanzini and Ogbonna not at worse get their efforts on target!? Especially Lanzini. Unacceptable. And for me has been one of our biggest weaknesses this season. Even when we have won games we been nowhere near ruthless enough and have missed far too man chances. Should've thrashed Norwich, missed too man chances against Watford which could've come back to haunt if Hughes put his sitter away, kept messing around with the ball too much against Villa when they were there for the taking, and could easily of beat Bournemouth too if once again we were more ruthless.

I still stick by what I said before the start of the season IMO we are no better than we were last season and didn't change my mind even after our wins this season. We are doing exactly what we did last season - relying on 1-3 players to get the goals while the others shirk away from doing anything themselves. Last season we were relying on Arnie & Anderson. So far this season it's only Haller & Yarmo. If they are not scoring who are!? Are our midfielders scoring enough goals? Anderson has scored something like 1 goal in the last 22 games. Not good enough. Lanzini, Noble, Rice need to start chipping in with more goals. I'm not saying they need to score 20 goals each, but they don't score anywhere near enough. Our centre halves too are completely underachieving and also need to start chipping in with goals from corners and freekicks. Our deliveries aren't actually too bad with someone of our corners and freekicks. Our centre halves just simply don't have the bottle in my eyes.

And onto my 2nd point - what the hell was those substitutions all about from Pellers today!? :shock: Lanzini wasn't great, but is still a player that could do something out of nothing and has a good record against Palace. Zabaleta against Zaha to replace Cresswell!? Genius Pellers Genius! That's why Masuaku should be in the bench! But arguably should be in the team full stop over Cresswell, which he hopefully will be for the next game. But the worst one by far was Yarmo off for Wilshere! Yarmo who is on a good scoring run and the one player that can make something happen with a but of quality, not to mention give us some width. And he games him off for Wilshere! A player that hardly creates or scores any goals and leaves us with less options up top. I bet Hodgson couldn't believe his luck!

A draw wouldn't of been much better, but a defeat is simply a terrible result. And sadly this season looks on course to be exactly like last season. Looks like 9th at best for us.

[Puff Daddy]

Noble tried to make things happen tonight. Not his best game for us by a mile but he grafted.

It's the flair players I want more from who don't really move at any real pace for me.

Apart from the move which led to our goal, which cut Palace apart and had them chasing shadows

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

We seem to play across the opposition back line(s) from side to side, presumably trying to draw someone out of position and go through the gap or when that doesn't happen, because of a well drilled defence, to go round the outside. We seem to lack the players to go directly at them, to have enough belief that they will break the line. Wilshere did late on and almost set up Haller.

Pellegrini needs to come up with some ideas for going through rather than round defences.

[EastEndIRON]

On the plus side...

We finally took the opportunity to go 7th

[smuts]

another game where Anderson gets fouled the defender gets booked and he does not try to run at him after, when the fullback gets a yellow you would think a player with Andersons control and speed would want the ball all the time and keep going at him, He seems to get a few kicks and decides he has had enough and stops running at them,

Yep...he just point blank refuses to run at the defender for about 75% of his games yet the others he will drive at them and it usually gets results.

We were told about this when he joined. That's why he plays for us and only has one cap.

[Hammer in Hornchurch]

Thought lanzini was poor.
Noble was our best player today.
Palace got the rubof the green, but also got there tactics spot on. Yarmolenko was not allowed to cut in on his left foot, they had 4 or 5 players near him when he received the ball on the edge of the box.
Fornals needs to get up to speed with the prem league as he still looks way off.

[smuts]

Apart from the move which led to our goal, which cut Palace apart and had them chasing shadows

It was a great goal. Hopefully we will realise that's what happens when you up the tempo a bit.

[Ozza]

Bill you said his legs have gone, they haven’t that’s not his game never has been. His passing was outstanding at times tonight

He certainly isn’t the reason we lost tonight.

Of course he’ll need replacing at some point, like Hammerman who’s said exactly that for the last 3 years you’ll eventually be right.

No way he should be singled out for that tonight, hes certainly not the issue that needs fixing

[HammerAl]

Anyone else think the VAR software looks completely tinpot? Basically just a bloke sat in an office drawing some lines on the screen with a mouse. There’s absolutely no way it’s accurate, or at least accurate enough to overturn a decision like that (“clear and obvious”).

Linesmen are pretty much redundant these days.