⚽ West Ham Utd 1-2 Liverpool (26/4/23)

[Mr_incredible]

thats the frustrating thing, thats possibly the most average Liverpool side Ive seen in the flesh for a few years...more importantly they were also low on confidence, but as per usual when a big team rock up we do the complete opposite to the Bournemouth game and let them have it all their own way. We literally game them 70 percent of the ball the play themselves back into form, despite everytime we harried them they made mistakes and gave us chances. In terms of being the perfect advertisement for Moyse out, this game was NOT it. The players are working hard and we're reaching a point where they are clearly knackered. There WAS a plan the players bought into and on another day it could have come off. This was a long way from some of the rubbish Ive seen this year. The Paquetta goal was a thing of beauty, some of the partnerships are working better than they have all year. Onto the next one..

[Diogenes]

Is anyone really happy with watching 27% possession, it's bollox!

Unfortunately, in the 'modern era' this keep ball philosophy, imported by the ant Christ of football (PEP GUARDIOLA) this is often the case. If we adopted the same boring football philosophy I would not go to games any more. Its not entertaining its anti football. We did more with our 30% than Liverpool and were far more entertaining with it. IMHO of course.

[Puff Daddy]

They had lots of possession (partly by our design and partly due to the fact that we look knackered) but I don't recall them creating so many chances to warrant calling them the much better team. Fact is we came close a few times end of first half, had a goal disallowed by a fine margin and a clear penalty not given. Also, if our final ball had been better we may have created more - see Bowen shooting when through on goal for the second time in the second half instead of laying it off

Antonio did the same thing in the first half, when he could've and should've played Benrahma through

[Mr_incredible]

Funny how having less possession against Bournemouth was lauded but last night against a far superior opposition it’s suddenly no good….

funny enough you dont care so much about possession when your 2 or 3 goals up...you certainly dont need to chase it. if you cant see any difference in our approach to both these games then im lost

[JohnnyLyall]

Funny how having less possession against Bournemouth was lauded but last night against a far superior opposition it’s suddenly no good….

But that's because it worked and our shot tally didn't suffer 18 shots against Bournemouth 10 on target so we deserved to win 7 & 2 against Liverpool so we'd have to be deadly in front of goal just to get a draw..

Not every tactic works against every team, so yes Liverpool are far superior to Bournemouth (who beat them a few weeks ago BTW) but last night it didn't work cause they were better than us.. The stats don't lie in either match

[JohnnyLyall]

Unfortunately, in the 'modern era' this keep ball philosophy, imported by the ant Christ of football (PEP GUARDIOLA) this is often the case. If we adopted the same boring football philosophy I would not go to games any more. Its not entertaining its anti football. We did more with our 30% than Liverpool and were far more entertaining with it. IMHO of course.

We did more than Liverpool so one goal is more than two, seven shots more than twenty, laughable comment.

Oh and you prefer our football to Peps anti football..

[MaylandHammer]

Its not a very popular thing to admit, or even say, but sometimes you just get beaten by the better side on the night & you just have to take it on the chin & move on.

Yes, we could have/should have had a penalty, yes Bowen should have cut his toenails, but overall we were simply beaten by the better side & there's no shame in that.

Liverpool had our number last night, pretty much all over the pitch including a game plan to completely nullify Rice.

Ive said in another thread that sometimes the better team doesnt always win, or even score a goal, but you can just "feel" they were the better side & in my opinion Liverpool were just better last night, much as I hate to admit it.

[snooperpooper]

Unfortunately, in the 'modern era' this keep ball philosophy, imported by the ant Christ of football (PEP GUARDIOLA) this is often the case. If we adopted the same boring football philosophy I would not go to games any more. Its not entertaining its anti football. We did more with our 30% than Liverpool and were far more entertaining with it. IMHO of course.

I know what I'd rather watch....

https://www.fotmob.com/leagues/47/stats ... ague-teams

[hawkins_hammer]

Its not a very popular thing to admit, or even say, but sometimes you just get beaten by the better side on the night & you just have to take it on the chin & move on.

Yes, we could have/should have had a penalty, yes Bowen should have cut his toenails, but overall we were simply beaten by the better side & there's no shame in that.

Liverpool had our number last night, pretty much all over the pitch including a game plan to completely nullify Rice.

Ive said in another thread that sometimes the better team doesnt always win, or even score a goal, but you can just "feel" they were the better side & in my opinion Liverpool were just better last night, much as I hate to admit it.

Maybe. The half time scoreline felt fair and we started more brightly in the second half, there wasn't much in Bowen's offisde. That moment, along with the Diaz substitution changed the game. We lost because we didn't learn our lesson from the previous corner, but the game felt pretty even to me and if we had got the penalty and converted for a draw I don't think there would have been that much of an argument from the opposition?

We were a bit unlucky but I didn't leave feeling like we lost to a better side. Both sides had chances to win and if we weren't playing our 9th game in April we maybe could have found the energy to win it.

Either way, because of our performance, in the context of the month we had. I took it on the chin and moved on. It was worth going to see Paqueta's goal

[S-H]

Either way, because of our performance, in the context of the month we had. I took it on the chin and moved on. It was worth going to see Paqueta's goal

[MaylandHammer]

It was worth going to see Paqueta's goal

On that we can most certainly agree

[Puff Daddy]

Further to my post above, we continue to do this. It is irritating.

[Sloop John B]

Great first half performance, good second half. Felt we ran out of steam - we needed Bowen's goal to count.

Annoying to have that chalked off for inches, conceded a soft set piece goal and not get an obvious penalty - when Carragher immediately talks about how he "understands the frustration..." you know it's a no brainer.

Our subs were weak - they were what I'd have picked - but when Liverpool bring on over £100m and we bring on Cornet and Ings it shows the gulf.

Overall very happy with that performance, did ourselves justice and some absolutely delightful football played. Next game absolutely crucial now....

[hawkins_hammer]

Further to my post above, we continue to do this. It is irritating.

Yeah, but we spent the past two seasons before this one winning a lot of close games on fine margins. We're underperforming this year but we should regress to the mean and safety.

I would say it's still a good time to be a Hammer, but then I'm being asked to pay £980 for next season when we've won six at home in the league all season and have to pay more for cup games!

[El brooko79]

All those passes, all those chances, those missed sitters.. you claim, yet they only scored two.

Given we should have had at least one penalty, that would made the score 2-2 , then It's a fair assumption to say we didn't deserve to lose.

I thought Jota had 2 really good chances in the first half.
VVD had a very good chance first half.
We were also fairly lucky with the save on the line.

Thought we played well but rode our luck a bit. But earned that luck and didn't deserve to loose. That was 100% a pen.

[MaylandHammer]

I thought Jota had 2 really good chances in the first half.
VVD had a very good chance first half.
We were also fairly lucky with the save on the line.

Thought we played well but rode our luck a bit. But earned that luck and didn't deserve to loose. That was 100% a pen.

Like I mentioned above, I do think we were beaten by the better side, but this most certainly was not a Man City (4-0, 4-0, 5-0.... take your pick) hammering (shudders !!),but was very tight & very competitive with Liverpool just having that extra couple of per cent in certain players or areas.

Certainly no disgrace & on another day could have come away with something

[WestHamLyallStyle]

We switched off at crucial moments but we gave it a go so I'm happy.

[zinger549]

Disappointing result but I though we played well. Had a really good first half but just seemed to loose momentum in the second half.

[Danny's Dyer Acting]

I could not give a rats arse about dominating possession. All I care about from last night is that we played well and were a few moments of quality/luck away from winning the game.

Bowen's awful attempted cross to an unmarked Antonio in the first ten minutes.
Benrahma turning down an obvious chance to shoot from Robertson's skewed clearance.
Antonio not diving in on that ball to the back post.
Bowen's torso going offside as Paqueta got his balance to hit the pass.
Benrahma skinning 2/3 defenders and choosing the wrong cross.
A very contentious handball decision.

That's plenty of moments to win any game.

[JohnnyLyall]

But if we let the opposition dominate possession and it results in them having more shots, more goals and winning the game it's a bit of a problem because we'll get 0 points.