West Ham Utd 0-2 Manchester City (7/8/22)

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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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by Rio »

City.
A defeat.
Almost always expected,
Not by any means a vintage performance by us, but after seeing the line ups I half expected worse. Against them each and every player has to be on point and deliver at least an 8 out of 10 performance. Sadly in the areas where we needed exemplary output we lacked.

The way city pass, probe and stretch the play, making full use of the pitch was never going to be easy to deal with, particularly on a hot day and a cobbled together backline. Foden, gundogan & De Bruyne keep opponents occupied and ticking over trying to stop their incisions. And by and large to a man we did it. Pep was never going to allow the freedom of one side of the pitch to exploit as we say last season so any chances we did manage to eek out had to be clinically taken.

I can’t fault our defence who individually had solid games and given the calibre of the opposition stick to thei task diligently. Cresswell in particular I thought did very well given the clamour for to be replaced. He showed why he’s been a key player for us and a real bargain. Not to say we don’t need to invest and upgrade but he’ll be a vital squad player still.

In the middle. I don’t get the criticism Soucek has taken. Still clearly playing a team role which doesn’t suit him, but some vital interceptions and harried well. We know he’s not at his best trying to distribute a La De Bruyne which some expect but you can’t fault his work rate and desire. The adaptation of his game to afford Declan to be more expansive and a figurehead isn’t beneficial to him. But that’s not going to alter unless we splurge on a true defensive midfield option. And free Tom to play a more advanced role with freedom to attack the opposition box late on. Lanzini floundered. Fornals was too preoccupied to really influence. That’s where the game was lost. The gulf between the attacking options at each others disposal and the ability to incisively cut through lines shone through

Attacking wise Michail & Jarrod were lacking. With your 2 attacking fulcrums struggling it’s going to be a real struggle and where we clearly were deficient. The ball being given so cheaply and frequently to the best passing side in the league was always going to end in tears.

And yet we only were 1 down to a penalty at half time. When we did start to get a foothold and ask some serious questions, city did what they do best. Breaking our press and delivering a clinical, precision 3 pass move of genius and now with a true striker up front to finish it was a scene we’ll witness countless times this season. Say what you like but that move was incredibly good football.

Major plus point for me was Scamacca. Strong in the air, good on the deck and strong. We’ve got a real handful here.Benrahma on the other hand looked a fish out of water. Unaware of the basics and sluggish.

I’d love to Vlasic given time as the 10 but I fear this isn’t ever going to happen.

It was a disappointing yet expected opening day. There’s things to look on as positives though.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by the pink palermo »

Missing Nickel wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 6:29 am caught out by Haaland’s unbelievable acceleration.
Astonishing, absolutely astonishing.

His bursts in to our box were awesome, I reckon he will score 40 goals this season in the PL.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by HammerAl »

Rio, agree with most of your post other than Soucek’s position. Pushing him up would be such a mistake, as he’s very poor on the ball. He’s scored the majority of his goals from set pieces or from situations where being an attacking midfielder would have had no bearing on him scoring (ie arriving in the box late, making some space for himself with some skill and scoring from outside the box etc).

We need someone in no.10 who can break the lines, receive the ball in tight spaces, create opportunities for their teammates and provide the midfield with a bit more flair - Soucek simply isn’t that player.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by Cockneyboy311 »

Very fair summary that Rio.

I’m a Benrahma fan but he was awful when he came on yesterday. Had 2 or 3 opportunity’s to whip a decent ball in with Scamacca to aim for and crossed them at Ronnie Corbett height. So frustrating.

Anyway, we knew that would be tough. Onto Forest.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by Bubbles Fortuna »

I don't think Areola will be the first goalkeeper caught out like that by Haaland.

That burst of pace was shocking, Areola was confident he'd get there first then out of nowhere Haaland gets there.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by HammerAl »

Said if a fair few times, Haaland is an absolute monster. He’s so big, strong and quick. He’s going to rip up the league and will smash better defenders than we have, in the process.

With his pace and power, he’s pretty unplayable, unless teams set their defences up on the edge of the 18 yard box.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by The_Dead_Ball »

Considering we not where we want to be in squad size, injuries etc yesterday result wasn't too bad. There going to be teams at full strength who are going to be smash 3 or 4 by this lot.

At the end of the day Man City isn't the team we competing with this season Teams like Man Utd, Leicester and Newcastle where only one of them won this weekend are the teams we need to take points from.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by Puff Daddy »

They didn't like it up 'em when we knocked them out of the League Cup, lar season
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by Jonah »

Thank god that w**kfest is over - we can get on with the rest of the season now.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by Bend it like Repka »

Simply put, City are so strong they let Sterling and Jesus go to their rivals.

Any team outside of the top few that get's a result against them will be a massive achievement
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by S-H »

Jonah wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 8:39 am Thank god that w**kfest is over - we can get on with the rest of the season now.
Over?

It's not even started yet.

Sky had a ****ing camera dedicated to watching Alfie Haaland arrive and leave, yesterday..
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by Clacton-ammer »

That was a very difficult start, add the heat in and us chasing shadows we looked done by the 20th minute which was a slight concern. Man C were far too good for us. On a plus point for us yesterday, I watched Haaland off the ball and the Man C players are not use to him yet and the runs he makes, thank fook for that as he could have had more chances - He looks a monster of a player.

Next week we can put it right as we will have more of the ball and hopefully do more with it.

Plus, 2 or 3 additions to freshen it all up is a must on yesterdays performance.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by hammerman11 »

they are good and will win the league but are boring to watch.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by steps »

You just knew this was going to be the game Haaland opened his account.

Oh well.

Positives: Scamacca looked promising. Took that header really well even though he strayed slightly offside.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by Kermit »

We just got back from a family holiday on Sunday so only saw the last 35 minutes live but it was fairly apparent we were utterly outchassed.

Positives ? We only have to play them once more and Scamacca looked a player who will definitely improve us, but he can't do it all on his own and needs support. Vlasic would be my choice tbh.

Hopefully we learned something about game management as well. I know some people have said City are boring to watch but I disagree. When they were 2 goals up they took the almighty piss with their ball retention and it's a far better way of killing off and demoralising the opposition than just wellying the ball upfield for it to come straight back which of course gives the other team momentum. And it doesn't take massive skillsets to do it, just intelligent movement off the ball to get yourself in a position to receive a simple pass. .

Didn't expect anything from the game so I'm not disappointed tbh.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by WebmasterFF »

Bubbles Fortuna wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 8:17 am I don't think Areola will be the first goalkeeper caught out like that by Haaland.

That burst of pace was shocking, Areola was confident he'd get there first then out of nowhere Haaland gets there.
Of note the total time from Areola coming on to the penalty being scored was 7 minutes. I wonder if trying to 'settle into the game' was a factor there too
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by kitthehammer »

when the whole team doesn't seem to turn up i think its generally down to the manager getting it wrong and he has admitted as such, although that is a bit of a worry in itself with slight feelings that other managers may have sussed us out last season.
However, its no surprise that there is news we will get rid of benrahma and vlasic, the former was pretty shocking yet again and is more of a danger to ourselves than a positive. And cornet will most likely show us what a waste of space these two have turned out to be sadly.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by Billy Hunt »

Bubbles Fortuna wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 8:17 am I don't think Areola will be the first goalkeeper caught out like that by Haaland.

That burst of pace was shocking, Areola was confident he'd get there first then out of nowhere Haaland gets there.
For the penalty ?

We were right in line with that and it looked like it was always going to be Areola's ball - then it wasn't.

Haalands pace over those short distances is something else.

Of the positives yesterday, I've seen far worse centre defence performances at West Ham than what Johnson put in, the full backs both did OK but were too often isolated and doubled up on by the way Man City set up, Scamacca looked up for it when he came on, Soucek as always worked his nuts off - outside of those I'm struggling a bit for positives. But we were beaten comfortably by a far superior side.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by brownout »

Why do we nearly always throw the ball backwards?

Twice we had throw ins in the City half, threw the ball backwards and it eventually made its way back to the keeper who kicked it forward.
So instead of the opportunity of directing the ball to one of our players well into the opposition half, we ended up with a 50:50 chance (or less) of winning possession just forward of the centre circle.

It's the same when defenders don't want to risk a long ball so give it to the keeper who hoofs it forward.
I know we want to keep possession but it seems that players aren't prepared to risk a forward pass in case they lose it but it's quite Ok to give it to the keeper as they aren't expected to pick out a player with their hoof forwards.

Not just yesterday. We did it loads of times last season. Frustrating.
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Re: ⚽ West Ham United vs Manchester City: match thread

Post by Rio »

HammerAl wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 8:15 am Rio, agree with most of your post other than Soucek’s position. Pushing him up would be such a mistake, as he’s very poor on the ball. He’s scored the majority of his goals from set pieces or from situations where being an attacking midfielder would have had no bearing on him scoring (ie arriving in the box late, making some space for himself with some skill and scoring from outside the box etc).

We need someone in no.10 who can break the lines, receive the ball in tight spaces, create opportunities for their teammates and provide the midfield with a bit more flair - Soucek simply isn’t that player.
Sorry it did t come across well. What I meant is him playing the solely deep lying role negates a lot of his attributes. You’re right Soucek doesn’t have that incisive nature. He simply is a give and go arrive late in the box monster. But him sitting back full time and Dec foraging forward has reduced the ability. He needs to be the more advanced of the 2 to get the best out of him.we desperately need a line breaking passer. Would love to see Vlasic there
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