Sheffield Utd 1-0 West Ham Utd (10/01/20)

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.

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pablo jaye
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by pablo jaye »

Interesting read of opinions on here, as I was really disappointed with our performance and thought that we were rubbish last night.

Very little threat going forward, none of the urgency or desire from the Bournemouth game, we gave them too much space and had little structure. It’s almost like Pellers was still in charge and the team just upped the ante for the Bournemouth game and have reverted to type. VAR is what it is, it is wrong and is killing the game - however, if we’d played better we may not have had to rely on that incident to get the draw. Rice was the only brighter point of the game.

.....opinions, eh?!
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by Puff Daddy »

Couldn't get on last night, site crashed, but all I can say is, f***, bollox, ****
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by Rio »

Borderline criminal not to start Fornals ahead of Lanzini.
The Creswell decision is understandable but would rather have started Diop. His absence leads me to believe the rumours he’s off.
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by Crouchend_Hammer »

And if Anderson is injured then we are in trouble as thought he was our stand out player

We had a deep bank of six for far too long after we went one nil down
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by Chicken Run Supreme »

Declan was understandably gutted in the post match interview.
He had battled past the Sheffield United player despite his shoulder barge, if Declan had gone down it would have been a free kick but he didn't, and the ball ricoched on to his arm. It could have gone anywhere but clearly it hit his arm, did he gain an advantage, no, he still had work to do and kept his composure with a great pass to Snodgrass who cleverly beat Henderson inside his near post.
A world where all that graft and guile counts for nothing because of an accidental handball with no intent or advantage gained has just gone crazy. The fact that it hit Declan's arm purely because of an intentional shoulder charge just rubs salt in the wound.
VAR is killing the enjoyment. I know it's the new ruling on handball that scratched the goal off, but it wouldn't have happened without VAR. The ruling needs to be changed and VAR needs ****ing off.
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by ashbanki »

Why the Haller hate?
He had two defenders on him all night and quite often three with no one near to help out or feed off his knock downs.Lanzini should have been on the bench with Fornals starting,imo.Meanwhile we are nearly halfway through the window and we are ****ing about with an injured GK and a "one for the future" CM - We need a terrier in midfield who knows the league and the only one linked is Allen- Get him in and get a bit of fight and mobility in there!
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by Absolutely Hammered! »

I usually like neville but what was he banging on about last light post match?
It was like he was implying that because our fans celebrated a last minute equaliser that we are unaware of the issues that we have as a club.

I thought we gave it a good go last night and if you look at the chances both sides created, to say we deserved nothing from the game (from he who spits at kids) is just idiotic. A travesty I think he said.

And then to label us a long ball side :lol:
I must have missed the bit where sheff utd were playing like Barcelona.
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by vietnammer »

Brown Sauce wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2020 7:44 am Awful performance from start to finish. Only chances created were two mistakes from them.
Midfield was constantly out run and out fought.
Apart from 10-15 minutes after the break, when they closed us down consistently and scored (from a ricket), I don't agree. We had a lot of very good play from midfield and full marks to Zab for getting upfield. Just cross into the box as soon as you can ffs.
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by PF. »

Yeah I thought Rice did ok, he was effectively carrying a very poor Noble yesterday against one of the most physical centre midfields in the league.

I don’t think we played that badly as we set out to limit their wing play, which we did well. Typical West Ham for the goal.

Haller a knee offside for his one was unlucky, his header was atrocious and Lanzini should have done much better after their fella had slipped. The less said about the new handball rule the better.

Far too apparent the paper thin squad that we have. Moyes said something similar in his pre-match conference about needing first team players now, a promising midfielder with no experience of the league (or living abroad) isn’t the answer.

In the comparable 2006-2007 transfer window we signed Boa Morte, Lucas Neil, Quashie, Davenport and Upson (who was injured immediately). Obviously not all of these signings worked, but all had premier league experience and could hit the ground running.

We are now 2 league games completed in January with another in 7 days. Including Brighton on the 1st February, there are 4 league games in front of us, 3 of these at home. The signings need to happen between now and the middle of next week so a system can be formulated for a Everton. We’ll pay over the odds, but that’s what you get when you’ve failed in previous windows.

Waiting until the end of January to save a couple of million will relegate us.
Last edited by PF. on Sat Jan 11, 2020 8:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by hadleighhammer »

Chicken Run Supreme wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2020 7:55 am It could have gone anywhere but clearly it hit his arm, did he gain an advantage, no, he still had work to do and kept his composure with a great pass to Snodgrass who cleverly beat Henderson inside his near post.
He might have still had work to do and it looked accidental, but he clearly gained an advantage by the ball hitting his hand and ending up in front of him.

I agree with the new handball rule regarding advantage. If there is an advantage from handball - whether deliberate or accidental - then it is a free kick. It just needs to be applied consistently at both ends of the pitch. VAR is becoming ridiculous though.
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by szola »

pablo jaye wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2020 7:46 am Interesting read of opinions on here, as I was really disappointed with our performance and thought that we were rubbish last night.

Very little threat going forward, none of the urgency or desire from the Bournemouth game, we gave them too much space and had little structure.
Classic West Ham this game, coming off a good four goal demolition.

I thought we were horrible, and my guess is that we'll continue be the agricultural, defending with eleven men, go long fast, team that Moyes needs to save his job for another season. Anderson's passing was absolute class. If we have any chance to keep him next season, we'll need to build around him. And if we do, we'll need runners on each side - wingbacks of we continue with the 3CBs - and someone else beside Rice.

No-one let us more down than our captain. I can't remember him playing so bad in a league game...

Still think that we'll finish 17-14th, depeding on injuries. Fabianski, Anderson, Haller, Rice. We need these players in the team, week in week out.
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by prophet:marginal »

I still can't quite understand how SUFC are so high up the table. We gifted them a goal yesterday, of which more in a minute, and they had two other shots on target (the save with his feet, by Martin, was a solid stop). Sure, it's the system that they play, which perhaps doesn't require (m)any star performers, but they look like a team cresting a wave at the moment. A more natural position, perhaps, without meaning to come across as bitter, is bottom half, but safe?

One thing that I did however cotton on to was that they appeared to be under instruction to foul Anderson to stop him running at them. I found that really frustrating yesterday, especially as I was watching it happen, but hearing that grating scouse accent Carragher has at the same time. My word that bloke hates us, doesn't he? I know that all things Liverpool are to be fawned over incessantly in the run in to their title, but he just went on and on an on last evening, constantly praising the basics in SUFC and doing the opposite in relation to us. Sure, it can't have affected the game, but the enjoyment of the WHU fan and neutral alike, having to listen to that berk? I wanted to boot my mate's tv over.

The goal they actually scored was a head in hands moment, especially as it followed on from Fabianski's withdrawal. The best thing is to try to draw a line under it, realistically. Neither player covered himself (in glory), obviously, but, if you're going to pass out to an exposed defender, it's got to be as accurate as possible. We got that all wrong. The cherry on top was that the strike that scored was so poor that he almost redeemed himself.

It all went flat after that, for a good 20 minutes. Before it, we were fair set for a share of the points, at worst. Anderson genuinely played well, I thought, but others alongside him, even Rice, seemed cloaked in obscurity or even invisibility.

The two goals we scored were both painfully chalked off. The first is one of those split second judgements that we just have to suffer, I suppose. It's no use now complaining about it. He would have scored if he had just - for a quarter of a second - delayed his run, but there you have it. Rice's forward momentum, his desire to finally make his mark against a midfield that he frankly needs to be showing more against for whole games, was what he was in the event punished for. I have tried to rationalise it by looking at it as if I was not emotionally involved in wanting him to score and I still cannot see how in those particular circumstances it makes sense to disallow the goal. The defender nodded the ball across his body. He was looking in that direction, therefore, when the ball hit Rice's arm. All players - especially those following instructions to repeatedly foul another player - are trained to call for decisions, even those that they know they oughtn't to get (see their player claim a corner earlier that half, when it hit his back and went out). He did nothing of the sort.

The very worst thing about it? That was Spit The Dog suddenly getting on a passing bandwagon and slagging off the rule from the commentary room. We've had a goal disallowed in the worst possible circ's and now we've got to listen to this amoeba go on about it! That was the time when I didn't just want to boot over the tv, I wanted to spray it in Blades' colours and jump up and down on it.

So, what do we learn from yesterday? Our squad is paper thin, with a few tears already in it. Was Diop injured, or does Cresswell somehow perform a CB role better than him in training?

Is Ben Johnson made of glass, or does Zaba outperform him, too, in training? Are we set to run the latter into the ground, or are we going to actually buy someone this window?

Has Fornals already made some kind of faux pas around Moyes' missus? What on earth was he doing rooted to the bench, when the team had run out of steam in the centre of the park by the 60th minute?

Has Moyes somehow persuaded the board that he can achieve survival with only Haller as the likely point or focus of our attacks between early Jan and mid-May? This, for me, is the most pressing question. Antonio - deservedly a fans favourite - seems to be available for only 50% of our matches, but we seem to miss, in our eagerness (or realistically anxiety) to see him back that he has in fact only scored once all season.

I wondered, after Gillingham, whether two straight wins masked the actual reality of the sparse 'depth' of our squad. I wonder no more, after last night. As I say, SUFC are cresting a wave, with a clearly clever and resourceful coach instructing an entire squad of personal choices, who have battled their way to the position now in. But they are in truth similar to Wigan in their first season in the big time. They will survive for a few seasons, but slowly gravitate to a more realistic position. They are not the team against whom we should judge our survival hopes.

We have so many harder challenges to come. I genuinely worry that, with Martin, Cresswell, an aging Noble and even Haller in the team, week after week, we are actually incapable of rising to them.

Fingers crossed I am wrong.

:crest:
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by Westbourne Bill »

So, the Carlos Tevez match became the VARloss Tevez match.

Defensively pretty solid, bar Martins cock-up, I thought. There is shape and intensity but the lack of a cutting edge going forward was plain to see. Moyes has inherited these players and theres a reason they are in a relegation scrap. Lanzini clearly doesn't have the influence he had, nor Haller the influence we hoped for.

As for the equaliser...the new handball rule has clearly been introduced to absolve officials from having to make any judgement, presumably because they can't be trusted. That is more the issue here, not VAR imo.
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by Brown Sauce »

vietnammer wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2020 8:02 am Apart from 10-15 minutes after the break, when they closed us down consistently and scored (from a ricket), I don't agree. We had a lot of very good play from midfield and full marks to Zab for getting upfield. Just cross into the box as soon as you can ffs.
I don’t remember any play through midfield at all. Pinball passes and then ping it at Haller & hope it sticks. We didn’t play through them or ‘penetrate’ once.
Full marks for running but not being able to pass or cross? Is this football or athletics?

They are organised and work hard but they aren’t a good team. Neville was right, we’re hiding behind the VAR stuff.
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by BondsoBob »

Ironing Board wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2020 1:43 am If anything this game could have a galvanizing effect. The players will have fire in their bellies after getting robbed of a precious point in that fashion.
When have our lot ever played with fire in their bellies?
I haven't seen much evidence of that for many years.
It's part of the malaise that surrounds West Ham.
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by HammerPaul »

according to the premier league rules, that goal should of stood.


Deflections

Premier League players will be allowed extra leeway when it comes to ricocheted handballs.

It is often impossible to avoid contact with the ball if it has deflected off the body of an opponent, team-mate, or even another part of the own player.

So a handball will not be awarded if the ball touches a player’s hand/arm directly from their own head/body/foot or the head/body/foot of another player who is close/nearby.
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by steps »

ashbanki wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2020 7:58 am Why the Haller hate?
He had two defenders on him all night and quite often three with no one near to help out or feed off his knock downs.Lanzini should have been on the bench with Fornals starting,imo.Meanwhile we are nearly halfway through the window and we are ****ing about with an injured GK and a "one for the future" CM - We need a terrier in midfield who knows the league and the only one linked is Allen- Get him in and get a bit of fight and mobility in there!
I think he should of done better when him and Lanzini were in on goal, Haller was offside and all he needed to do was drop back onside for a cut back and an easy tap-in. Lanzini ended up shooting straight into the keeper from an angle.

From Snodgrass’s free-kick too he also headed one into the deck which took the pace off the header. He did have the disallowed goal though, which was the correct decision for being offside.

You’re right though about having two defenders on him for most of the game. I thought he played some nice one touch stuff at times and was grafting a lot, much more than we saw under Pell.

Also agree about Fornals. Moyes’s pre-match comments about him running his arse off during games and getting technically better led to being benched for most of last night. Bizarre.
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by smuts »

Having watched the highlights again

- Balbuena is a hoof merchant. He called for the ball putting doubt in Martin's mind and would only have smacked it up the field anyway.

- Zabaleta as a wing back. No wonder we created nothing from that side as he's just about got the energy to swing the cross in.

- Anderson was very good. They kept fouling him and he came back for more.

- Fornals should have been either starting or on for Noble/Lanzini 20 minutes earlier.

- Noble was wretched all night.

- Snoddy was a real threat when he came on. Every delivery found his target.

A Premier League club with not one striking option to call from the bench as our converted winger is injured and we spent 8million on a bloke who's nowhere near good enough for this level (see also Hugill who we are still paying for probably).

Some truly awful transfer dealing in the last few seasons. When you think how many signings have been good deals since we moved into the bowl and many have been massive flops it's frightening.
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by Crouchend_Hammer »

prophet:marginal wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2020 8:14 am I still can't quite understand how SUFC are so high up the table.
The simple answer is that outside of Liverpool and Man city the Premier League is ridiculously inconsistent

A bit of energy and full on commitment associated with a newly promoted team coupled with a very rigid and mostly defensive structure can get you a long way up the table

I wouldn't want to watch them every week though. Although I suppose at least they are effective at it!
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Re: Sheffield United v West Ham United: Match Thread

Post by brownout »

We were too slow and too negative but a draw would have been a fair result.
VAR has to go - football is an instant game not suited to decisions made after the goal.
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