EL: West Ham Utd 2-0 Rapid Wien (30/09/21)

[pablo jaye]

Dawson MOM for me … extremely dependable, a threat in the air and some nice passes at time.

I think Benny and Pablo are maturing well and show that you do really need patience with players who are new to English football. Vlašić, Kraal and Areola need this time to bed in too.

[hammers92]

I don't think we ever got out of second gear but we also dominated the game. I thought Bowen had one of his poorest games for us, awful miss.

But that was a professional job very well done. Great stuff.

[westham,eggyandchips]

Special underdog mention for Ben Johnson, thought he had an excellent game. Onwards and upwards

BJ and Dawson were my MOM last night. Love it when a youngster does the business.

Overall though, everyone played their part which seems to be the general theme of the season. We look good as a whole team.

I'm getting to understand how fans whose teams regularly play in Europe and hover around the top eight feel now. Its ****ing amazing!!!

[Centre Half]

Love Nobes, club legends undoubtedly but geez watching him this year is getting hard.

It’s a real throw back to when we were ****, persisting with short corners at every chance despite having Dawson and Diop looking likely to score at every chance

7 extra touches and a little dink of direction when two touches would have worked.

The slowest floated set pieces you’ve ever seen so even when we win the header there is no speed to put in the back of the neck.

Surely Kral can’t be worse than Noble is right now. If he is then it’s a poor signing. All I can think of is they are gifting Nobes a swan song for his amazing efforts

Agree with this. Also the fact he constantly passes back is so frustrating.

The short corners were completely baffling, cresswell from the other side was causing them loads of problems with his delivery. Noble as an experienced player should have realised this, not sure why he kept demanding the ball short when they were taken from the other side.

Most frustrating though is all the extra touches, he slows the game down so much.

Thought it was poor by Moyes to have him and Yarmolenko in the same team. We look so pedestrian having two blokes who can’t run in the same side, as well as both taking an age to do anything on the ball.

[Tenbury]

But that was a professional job very well done. Great stuff.

It's early days(but you can dream..!), but 'just doing enough' is the way experienced European teams (eg the bindippers) have been play the mid week early rounds for decades, it takes (IMO) a team spririt running through the entire squad and, we've got it.

[Otley Hammer]

I thought given it could have been a tricky game against experienced European opposition we did a pretty good job. We won’t always be able to hammer teams when also rotating players. Two wins out of two is a brilliant start.

On Yarmolenko, he wasn’t great but it’s only his second start of the season. I actually thought he did a couple of experienced things well. Won a few cheap free kicks to allow us to regroup and keep possession, played a lovely ball for Antonio for the goal. I feel that his know how and experience of European football could be quite useful for us this season.

[S-H]

We made hard work of that second half, but were never in any real danger of conceding.

A thoroughly professional display, with standout performances from within the squad, namely Dawson, Diop, Johnson and Yarmolenko, who worked his nuts off and played that peach of a pass to Antonio, in the build up to our first.

The usual suspects, Rice, Cresswell, Antonio and Benrahma, were all superb, as was Pablo when he came on, that Spanish stallion really is a special player!

Loving these European nights, which still don't feel real, somebody pinch me..

Shout out to the Carlton Cole Fire Exit!

Chuffin Massive!!

[smuts]

Dawson MOTM for me.

What a pair of goals that would have been from Rice and Dawson, brilliant headers.

[The Old Man of Storr]

Meanwhile Harry Kane and friends are playing with glue,glitter and safety scissors in the conference league but still make headlines on the BBC

I noticed that too

Mike Bushell was nice to us on BBC Breakfast this morning though .

[waynepin]

between rice and dawson for MOM for me , their right back was very good as well, seemed to win most challenges, i think they said he cost £750,000

[Aceface]

A good indication of how unconnected possession has become to the team's performances – we actually had less possession than Rapid last night, playing at home.

[szola]

Was it Yarmolenko who saw the pass to Antonio that pierced their defense, and effectively won the game for us?
The same player who in the last minutes of the first half, sprinted back to plug in the holes in our back line, not once but twice?

[bubbles1966]

Good result, and on another day with a bit more luck and better finishing, it could have been 4. That's made all the more remarkable by how stodgy our performance was.

I thought we were really lacklustre in possession, made a couple of really daft choices with short corners and looked pretty ponderous until late on. We never flowed, but seemed to have a huge height advantage at corners etc. They were awful and offered nothing apart from a lot of fouls and late challenges which the referee was strangely ambivalent about. The pitch didn't look great.

The fact that our best players over 90 were Dawson, Diop and Rice pretty much says it all.

[woodford]

It's astonishing how ever since the pandemic started, we have turned into near on world beaters.

Kept me going during this whole pandemic **** honestly ... christ knows how good our form is from the restart thing in June '20 up to now, absolutely brilliant.

Sullivans decision to ditch soft porn in favour of his new high tech laboratory in Theydon Bois has finally come good

[Aceface]

Yesterday offered a refresher, if any were needed, on how important Fornals has become to the side. Just in that little cameo he showed more drive and invention than most of the attacking players had all night.

Seems apparent now Vlasic is going to be a project player rather than a game changer in the short-term.

[Bubbles Fortuna]

Yesterday offered a refresher, if any were needed, on how important Fornals has become to the side. Just in that little cameo he showed more drive and invention than most of the attacking players had all night.

Seems apparent now Vlasic is going to be a project player rather than a game changer in the short-term.

I know what you mean but he was already vital in our winner against Leeds. Even as a project he'll be useful off the bench.

[tonka_tonka]

good result but i agree with earlier poster who said we never got out of second gear. Very pedestrian compared to our normal high energy performances. I see people are saying Ben johnson was good, was I watching a different game ? I know he had Yarmo in front of him but I thought his passing was either backwards or hoof into the channel, i didnt think he got tight, he seemed lacking in confidence and in general had an uncomfortable night. But I guess thats football.

[DenziMart]

good result but i agree with earlier poster who said we never got out of second gear. Very pedestrian compared to our normal high energy performances. I see people are saying Ben johnson was good, was I watching a different game ? I know he had Yarmo in front of him but I thought his passing was either backwards or hoof into the channel, i didnt think he got tight, he seemed lacking in confidence and in general had an uncomfortable night. But I guess thats football.

I think he did ok defensively, but barely got out of his own half to support the attack, especially in the 2nd half. I don't think I saw him overlap once which I thought was strange because he normally like to get forward, so must have been under orders from Moyes to sit back which I think isn't his natural game. Also wonder if it's because Yarmo can sometimes be questionable on the defensive side of things (although to his credit he did help out last night), so Johnson sat back knowing we'd be left short if he was too far forward.

[Beedub]

I thought given it could have been a tricky game against experienced European opposition we did a pretty good job. We won’t always be able to hammer teams when also rotating players. Two wins out of two is a brilliant start.

On Yarmolenko, he wasn’t great but it’s only his second start of the season. I actually thought he did a couple of experienced things well. Won a few cheap free kicks to allow us to regroup and keep possession, played a lovely ball for Antonio for the goal. I feel that his know how and experience of European football could be quite useful for us this season.

Agree about Yarmo, useful in a European comp and his magic left wand came to the fore on one occasion for the much needed opening goal.

My biggest frustration with him is there appears to be no consistency with his effort output. One minutes his in our defensive box making a tackle and then twenty minutes later he won’t sprint 10m to win a ball.

Loves a good sulk as well when his not given a ball he thinks he should have got

On the other hand look at Fornals reaction to Bennys goal which could have/should have been his. Ultimate team man

[fjthegrey]

Utter tedium I thought. First few minutes it started pretty well. High paced, we were probing, crowd seemed up for it.

Then the game just died and took the atmosphere with it. Even their fans seemed to give up.

Good win and all that but yawn.