West Ham Utd 2-1 West Bromwich Albion (19/01/21)

[Absolutely Hammered!]

This is going to be just like the Burnley game. Another dour 1-0 affair.

Give me another 20 of those please

[sutts07]

Not really sure we created all that much. Ogbonna hit the post and Bowen should have done better with his 1 on 1.

Well that is 3-0 for a start... Yarmolenko and Lanzini both had good chances wasted too.
You can't waste chances at this level as you don't get that many in most games.

[Burnley Hammer]

This is going to be just like the Burnley game. Another dour 1-0 affair.

I honestly don't think it will be.

[Estuary]

Don’t wanna get too deep into this here, but Big Sam was a poor day of Blackpool finishing away from being one of our shortest serving managers. He did a decent job for two years, but the last two years, barring one briefly good start to the season, were dreadful. And looking back there was a lot of crap to endure even in the first two ‘good’ years.

Hope we stuff them on Tuesday. Don’t see it though, we rarely stuff anyone. Will settle for a comfy 2-0 West Ham instead.

If's, and's but's and maybes mate, we won, we didn't play well in the play off final, Blackpool were better for parts of the game but couldn't capitalize on that, when we had the chances we did because we had better players who, on the day made the difference. Taylors pass, Carlton's touch and control, for the first were to good for them. Nolan chasing the ball down into the corner, his flat cross, Carltons rushed, poor first touch, he then stretched every sinew to recover the ball, which luckily Vaz Te was lurking for, the rest is history. which belongs to the victor, which we and Sam were that day. That's football. I was there and even though we couldnt get going I never felt we would loose, even though what I saw was a team riding its luck a lot.
We maybe should have gone up automatically, but we had a flat spell of form so had to settle for the play offs, we then murdered Cardiff over two legs in a s one sided semi as I have ever seen.
My take on Sam is he is he inspires players more than he does supporters and has lived with Wengers damning words around his neck regardless of how his team play.

[sutts07]

I honestly don't think it will be.

I honestly don't think the Burnley game was dour.

[Estuary]

Well that is 3-0 for a start... Yarmolenko and Lanzini both had good chances wasted too.
You can't waste chances at this level as you don't get that many in most games.

Absolutely, Bowen missed two, Oggy two, Yamo and Lanzini, who with more clinical finishing see's us win that 4 or 5-0, and these were not half chances we missed either.

[MilHammer]

Don't really buy the notion that we play boring football under Moyes. Defensively minded, sure.

But last week, as Moyes insinuated, really came down to some poor decision-making from our attacking players. It's frustrating because all of our guys - Fornals, Benrahma, Bowen - have enough within them to be great, but have yet to unlock that final piece of their game.

Ultimately, it can't be avoided because we're not buying 100m players. Confidence and understanding will be the key to our attack. Still think Benrahma, Bowen, and Antonio with all the zip and directness they possess, can turn into a dangerous partnership. Getting a striker this window or next who compliments our attacking mid players is also critical.

[SA_Hammer]

I watched the WBA/Wolves game on the weekend and one thing that stood out is that they CANNOT defend set pieces into the box. So if we get any freekicks or corners in around the box, then Dawson, Oggy and Tommy should have a field day

3-0

[prophet:marginal]

Their line up from Saturday:

David Button
Dara O'Shea
Semi Ajayi
Kyle Bartley
Kieran Gibbs
Jake Livermore
Romaine Sawyers
Robert Snodgrass
Fellipe Matheus Pereira
Kamil Grosicki
Callum Robinson

Substitutes
Darnell Furlong
(s 82')
Hal Robson-Kanu
(s 69')
Filip Krovinovic
Branislav Ivanovic
Kyle Edwards
Lee Peltier
Cedric Kipre
Sam Field
Andy Lonergan

[Billydinho]

I honestly don't think the Burnley game was dour.

It wasn't.

On another day Ogbonna's header goes in and both Bowen & Yarmolenko score their one-on-ones and we win 4-0. Would anyone call a 4-0 'dour'?

I've been one of the bigger critics of Moyes's brand of football on this site but I will defend him for the Burnley game as it wasn't bad at all.

[hammers92]

I've seen it mentioned on here a couple of times but I'm also worried about Antonio. Is his body ready for another 90 minutes?

[sutts07]

Their line up from Saturday:

Screams Championship to me. Again, very arrogant to say as much, but they have the kind of team we have moved on from.

[sutts07]

I've seen it mentioned on here a couple of times but I'm also worried about Antonio. Is his body ready for another 90 minutes?

Get 3-0 up by half time and he won't need to be.

[Billydinho]

Antonio needs to start and we need to see if we can get a decent enough lead to either bring the young kid on or, dare I say, try Yarmolenko through the middle for 30-45 minutes.

Then the youngster needs to start up top against Doncaster. if he can't lead the line against a League One side then he absolutely isn't ready for Premier League football in any form.

[Diogenes]

WBA are a very poor side with a very poor defence. Big Sam will have them well drilled, but if we turn up and play 'reasonably' well we should win this. To not score at least 2 goals and/or to let in 2 goals will be very disappointing.

[stu1]

Not really sure we created all that much. Ogbonna hit the post and Bowen should have done better with his 1 on 1. Beyond that we didn't have any real teeth.

I think this is a bit revisionary to be honest we had lots of chances:

1. Antonio's goal.
2. Ogbonna hits post.
3. Antonio header off the line.
4. Fornals shot blocked a yard or two off the line which was going in.
5. Yarmolenko inexcusably refusing to pass to Antonio who could have passed in to the net.
6. Bowen missed 1 on 1 after a great first touch.
7. Bowen takes far too long in the box when clean through and decides to get inside but gets tackled.
8. Lanzini right at the death is 18 yards out centre of goal with lots of time and blasts over.
9. Rice's free kick was quite close.

Now don't get me wrong we weren't exactly free flowing, but the only reason Pope didn't have to make lots of saves was because of the wastefulness/indecision of Bowen, Yarmolenko and Lanzini, whilst twice his defenders did the job for him.

We really should have won that game 3-0 (Bowen scoring 1 and Yarmolenko not being a selfish twat), still hit the post, had two certain goals cleared off the line and completely missed the target twice when effectively clean through (Bowen & Lanzini).

As for the West Brom game, they looked uncharacteristically awful at defending set plays for an Allardyce team against Wolves. We should be targetting this area of the game (as we usually do) and ensuring we retain the pace in our team selection from an attacking perspective. West Brom are a poor team and we really should be beating them.

[prophet:marginal]

Screams Championship to me. Again, very arrogant to say as much, but they have the kind of team we have moved on from.

Agreed - I frankly find the prospect of them winning two on the bounce a shade unlikely, too.

[sendô]

I watched the WBA/Wolves game on the weekend and one thing that stood out is that they CANNOT defend set pieces into the box. So if we get any freekicks or corners in around the box, then Dawson, Oggy and Tommy should have a field day

3-0

I'll be lumping some money on our big lads getting in amongst the goals then, cheers.

[sendô]

Just realised that this is a 6pm kick off, when I will be travelling home from work.

Why why why?

[Billydinho]

Just realised that this is a 6pm kick off, when I will be travelling home from work.

Why why why?

Feels like a "Covid symptoms" type of day for you tomorrow.