FAC4: Kidderminster Harriers 1-2 AET West Ham Utd (5/2/22)

[Aceface]

The silver lining in terms of future squad composition is that a lot of the issues from the squad players yesterday cease to be our problem in the summer with Fredericks, Yarmolenko, Noble, Kral and Areola all ending their contracts. So no concerns about selling-to-buy this summer, there should be an awful lot of headroom on wages if nothing else.

I still hope we retain Areola, but the other 4 will be departing at a good time.

[Diogenes]

moyes would have had confirmed that kral diop yarmolenko noble fredericks are not good enough.and cant be trusted even against lower league teams. we got away with one yesterday for sure.
three poor performances in a row against leeds norwich and kidderminster . makes watford a must win game now to restore confidence and get back on track.

why didnt he buy a defender and striker who are better than diop and yarmolenko in the last window. shame we cant buy preston who was superb !

I think it confirms your player bias H11, but Bowen, Benrahma, Zouma and Areola were equally as bad and culpable. Indeed I would go as far as to say that Kral wasn't one of the worst offenders. I agree our recent form is worrying, however during a season these things happen. The transfer window has gone as far as I am concerned so no point in worrying about if, buts and maybe's. We are still in two cups, 5th in the League and most would have bitten your arm off at the start of the season for that (plus QF of League Cup). My glass is definitely half full.

[Up the Junction]

Point of order re those claiming our second string are not of sufficient quality: this was the team that knocked Man City out of the Carabao Cup three months ago.

[Puff Daddy]

Palace faced the same problem as us last summer, with around 8 players departing at the end of their conracts and I thought, that would give them.nightmares, but they recruited soundly and wisely and now have a much more balanced squad as a result

[Albie Beck]

Point of order re those claiming our second string are not of sufficient quality: this was the team that knocked Man City out of the Carabao Cup three months ago.

Exactly - it wasn't the selection it was the psychology.

[bubbles1966]

The silver lining in terms of future squad composition is that a lot of the issues from the squad players yesterday cease to be our problem in the summer with Fredericks, Yarmolenko, Noble, Kral and Areola all ending their contracts. So no concerns about selling-to-buy this summer, there should be an awful lot of headroom on wages if nothing else.

I still hope we retain Areola, but the other 4 will be departing at a good time.

Yep.

Areola's only weakness is being a bit flappy on crosses - he could just stay on the line like Fabianski - and he has a tendency to want to catch the ball quite low in the flight - at stomach, chest level. His actual shot stopping and distribution has been very good.

Johnson and Ashby become the reserve RBs, and Johnson stops being used on the wrong side; it does no one any favours.

We will certainly need another midfielder. Kral's been an attempt to find one and he may be able to offer a fairly passable impression of Soucek at times. The problem is that he , and Noble, do not offer anything like a reasonable impression of Rice. We have to be looking at a Phillips , McGinn or Ward-Prowse type - I've never seen that Kamara bloke at Marseille than I can recall.

[Burnley Hammer]

You can't blame the pitch at all. I notice that Rice and Cresswell didn't seem to be having any problems with their passing when they came on. Krals first touch is on a par with a league one player. It's rubbish. His one touch passing is crap too... he needs to stop trying it and start taking his time on the ball a little like Soucek does. There's no point in trying to be something you're not.

[Burnley Hammer]

Interesting fact.... this is the longest match thread since the FA Cup Quarter Final defeat against Man Utd in 2016.

[Up the Junction]

You can't blame the pitch at all.

Indeed BH... Both teams were playing on it!

[S-H]

Interesting fact.... this is the longest match thread since the FA Cup Quarter Final defeat against Man Utd in 2016.

I love this place.

[Hugh Jargon]

Personally I was so impressed with the attitude, behaviour and spirit of their players.

I am now officially launching the Harriers as my 2nd team forever more. Although our connections to Lazio ( for the facists out there) and Man City is well known. I think it's time for a supporters union to respect the team we have narrowly beaten twice in the cup.

I'm supporter no 1. Anyone care to join me? I know I'm not popular on here but my therapist says once you get to know me you can get to love me (in a way) she said. Pardon? Obviously.

Need a name. Harrier Hammers? Bit of a mouthful, happy for suggestions,

[Albie Beck]

Need a name. Harrier Hammers? Bit of a mouthful, happy for suggestions,

Kiddy Hammers?

I'm in

[Bubbles Fortuna]

Honestly our biggest issue was that they sat back.

Areola and Diop contrived to give them a goal, and then they sat back and let us have the ball and that's when we just can't do anything.

Fredericks, for example, excels on the counter attack, lots of space in front of him to use his pace and get forward, like the Man Utd goal in the League Cup.

Kral can chase the ball around and press. When we're the team with the ball he doesn't know what to do.

Even Bowen is better when he has space and isn't surrounded by all 11 Kidderminster players at all times.

They defended really well but let's not pretend they battered us from start to finish. They took a chance when it presented itself and then defended brilliantly. But it wasn't enough.

[Hugh Jargon]

I'm loving Kiddy Hammers. I might make it a separate thread. Mods can do what they like with it then.

[YorksHammer]

I think that's it, Bubbles - ultimately the problem was we didn't get creative enough in the final third for long periods of that game, and when chances opened up we either didn't take them or Kidderminster held firm.

Fair play to them, I thought they did excellently. Players put their everything into that, and they should deservedly feel a bit gutted they didn't get to penalties.

We dodged a bullet.

[alf git]

I cut and pasted something someone else said, which you have repeated. Maybe my comment didn't appear. If you look above my post you'll see it. So get it right, and just for the record I thought the cheat dived how much plainer can I ****ing say it.

You posted, i quoted.
If it's gibberish, that's on you.

[DrPepper]

As bad as that was from a West Ham perspective, we got through to the next round. It wasn’t pretty, it was actually very, very ugly. It was lucky and we got away with it. If it wasn’t for Declan Rice leading the charge, once he come off the bench, I think we’d have had an unwanted club record to our name.

That said, David Moyes has to use Kidderminster Harriers as ammunition in the summer. We didn’t strengthen the squad in January and are going into the last three or so months with a small squad that’s performed admirably but has a worrying look about it. We’re relying on Michail Antonio to, again, stay fit, and we’re relying on this squad to continue to perform miracles. Frankly, we can’t keep doing that. We need reinforcements if we’re to push on from being a kid-table side who have over performed and one with a genuine chance of qualifying for Europe each year.

It was very clear for all to see that some members of this small squad aren’t up to the standard required. Andriy Yarmolenko, Issa Diop, Ryan Fredericks and even, dare I say it, Mark Noble were way off the pace and Kidderminster Harriers wasn’t an isolated incident, either. I’ve been kind to Alex Kral here, too. I could, and some will say, I should have included him in that list but he only joined the club under a year ago and I will give him the benefit of the doubt for now but there’s certainly question marks over him and right now, I don’t think there would be many signing him permanently. Not only do we need reinforcements for a small squad, we need to move on a handful of players and bring in replacements for them, let alone adding to a small squad.

At the start of the 2022/23 season, providing all of these names are still here, Fabianski will be 37, Cresswell will be just short of turning 33, Antonio will be 32, Dawson will be 32, Ogbonna will be 34 and Yarmolenko will be nearly 34. Some will be able to compete, that I’m sure of, but you cannot continue relying on the same players, who are ageing in footballing terms and will certainly need replacing in the next couple of years.

I don’t want to sound dramatic over one game but we have fifteen league games left, at least two European games and at least one more FA Cup game and we could have another successful season on the cards depending on how that pans out but looking forward to next season, it’s games like yesterday’s that Moyes can and must point to, to push the board for investment in the playing squad.

[Albie Beck]

I'm loving Kiddy Hammers. I might make it a separate thread. Mods can do what they like with it then.

You're welcome Hugh

I think a few will be interested in following their progress, not least because of the very classy way their manager handled the biggest game of his, and his club's life.

[lib2007]

it’s games like yesterday’s that Moyes can and must point to, to push the board for investment in the playing squad.

Not too sure Gsb want the cup in the first place, but regardless they would probably spin yesterday as a masterclass in efficient team investment

[bonzosbeard]

We had a great first ten minutes but no sooner had I said we had it all under control we went to pot.

Just looked so nervy. Rice was magnificent to get that game back.