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.
Depressed Hammer wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 3:11 pm
I have played many games of football and watched thousands of games over the years and have never seen a player like Masuaku who is so bad without the ball. He does not fill his area space when defending. He lets players get round the back of him. He is careless around our box and is totally inept at defending. The worrying thing for me is that he has been here long enough under 3 managers to improve that side of his game so either he gets match nerves or is simply too relaxed to care.
He was summed up by the Arsenal game this season. Cresswell had Pepe in his pocket, constantly showed him on to his right foot and he did nothing. Within minutes of coming on, Masuaku let Pepe get on his left and they scored. Minutes later exactly the same. You’d imagine if nothing else the one thing drummed into anyone playing on our left would have been to not let Pepe get on his left foot!
Moyes gets it and I doubt will give him defensive duties this season. The thought of him being within 100 yards of Salah scares the hell out of me
Last edited by MB on Mon Jan 27, 2020 4:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
sirwilliambonds wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 4:02 pm
Completely agree, however, that is also the joy of Arthur. Nobody knows what he is going to do, including him. That is why he is such a threat going forward. I'd like to see him have a run at TAA. Personally, I think Robertson is, at best, an average full back and TAA isn't much better. Granted he is a world beater going forward and can certainly cross a ball but he never has to do any actual defending because they win every game too easily and have about 80% possession.
In my dreams we play Mick and Arthur as wingbacks who, in a stunning reversal of the form book, run absolute riot and rip both Liverpool fullbacks a new one.
"Such a threat going forward"
How many assists has he got in his West Ham career?
How many big chances has he created this season?
sanchoz wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 12:40 pm
If Liverpool are quite clearly 3 or 4 nil up and coasting, can see it turning pretty nasty in the stands towards our current owners. Would not be put down to "negativity from fans" affecting player performance.
Yeah, I can see popcorn being thrown and some serious tutting and head shaking in the family end. Maybe even a bit of a boo at full time.
The 10k Liverpool fans will be too busy celebrating.
Saves us getting a pasting for everyone to watch but then seen the return fixture at Anfield is on sky so the chance of a humiliating defeat in front of the nation is still on.
Hopefully they would have won the title by then.
In the meantime I will wait for Wembley fantastic links (thank you sir) but watch from behind a cushion.
Depressed Hammer wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 3:11 pm
I have played many games of football and watched thousands of games over the years and have never seen a player like Masuaku who is so bad without the ball. He does not fill his area space when defending. He lets players get round the back of him. He is careless around our box and is totally inept at defending. The worrying thing for me is that he has been here long enough under 3 managers to improve that side of his game so either he gets match nerves or is simply too relaxed to care.
I don’t think he’s great by any stretch of the imagination, but I do feel a bit sorry for him. He’s clearly not a left back - he knows it and he’s told us - but there have been times during his career where he’s played there and we’ve played really well as a team. At the end of last season he was excellent and at the start of this season he was excellent and was statistically the best left back in Europe or something mental like that!? As soon as he gets a good run of games, he’ll either pick up a knock or get a harsh red card (against Villa) or he’ll have an off-game, like most West Ham players do, but he’ll be hauled off at half time and dropped from the squad for weeks, which doesn’t do anything for his confidence or consistency. And regaining that confidence and consistency after being out of the squad for a while does take a while to get back, understandably. Over the last few seasons when we’ve had our best run of form, he’s been in the team, when we’ve had our best results, he’s been in the team and Anderson clearly prefers playing with him to Cresswell. His positioning isn’t amazing, but he has better defensive stats than Cresswell and what’s in his favour is that he can actually run. Cresswell is a busted flush and a low end a Championship player. But ultimately, they’re both not good enough (ALL our full backs aren’t good enough!!!) for the PL.
Rozzop wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 10:54 pm
That is a championship defence and midfield. I said it at the start of the season but was hoping the Pelligrini tactic was to outscore the opposition.
How much would it cost to sort out that mess properly?
120 - 150million?
Instead we have spent the vast sum of 0 on any right back in the last decade.
Never fear, there's still 4 days left & Sully is furiously ̶w̶a̶n̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ working his socks off..
Rozzop wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 10:54 pm
That is a championship defence and midfield. I said it at the start of the season but was hoping the Pelligrini tactic was to outscore the opposition.
How much would it cost to sort out that mess properly?
120 - 150million?
Instead we have spent the vast sum of 0 on any right back in the last decade.
To be honest with you, of those seven positions, I think we’d need upgrades in four or five of them to turn it into a solid PL base. Rice and Ogbonna are currently the only players who would get into another PL team. On his day Diop would but he’s been absolutely awful this season. So yeah, I’d imagine £120m would sound about right.
Well, we are back to the old days when these games were never a contest, some games lost in the first 10 minutes others lost in the tunnel before the game, this I fear was lost months ago. My head feels like it has been spinning around a million times a minute with the same thoughts I had at the beginning of the window, WHY WHY WHY. This should and would have been sorted by most average clubs by now, it’s an absolute disgrace that we have been left in this position and it looks as though this one could horrendous but hopefully with nothing to lose, a hell of a lot of luck, a couple of sending offs, we might just get something if not a frozen pitch would be nice