Continue reading “WHUFC vs Aston Villa 02/02/2016 EPL 2015- 2016”
Dimitri Payet was Man of The Match vs Manchester City… Here’s a few reasons why 🔥 pic.twitter.com/HbGIpnZ2lu
— WHUFC_Daily (@WHUFC_Daily) January 24, 2016
It’s that time of year again, when thoughts turn to cup glory and the romance and fantastic stories that the FA Cup normally delivers.
None of these were apparent at Upton Park yesterday where an uninventive WHU beat a Wolves team looking for a draw.
The main problem from a hammers perspective was there was no one in the midfield who wanted to go forward until Payet came on. Noble, Song, Zarate, and Obiang were happy to pass it sideways all day long. Zarate tried a couple of shots from distance, and as usual refused to pass to players in better positions. Song and Noble seemed to be trying to make the perfect pass through defence with little success. All in all, this left Jelavic isolated and he lost interest pretty early on.
What also didn’t help was that Wolves played with 8 players back most of the time, which as Sheffield United demonstrated to Man U yesterday, is a little frustrating. This surprised me ,as they had some good breaks, and made the space, but then ran out of people to pass to due to them all being in their own penalty box.
It will not surprise anyone to know the first shot on target for either team was in the 16th minute.
Finally , Payet and Carroll were introduced and the game changed, for the better. It’s amazing how Payet lifts the whole team to play better. With 5 minutes to go, Carroll laid off the ball for Jelavic to smash in a great half volley.
So , we are in the hat for the next round, but will have to up our game to progress in this competition.
MOTM (after my slagging of the midfield) was Pedro Obiang. He kept breaking up play through tackling and sharp reading of the opposition passes.
The first Saturday of the year was a little busy as I had just flown in from Vegas / via Dallas. BA had lost a bag and I needed to get to the early kick off between the Hammers and Liverpool.
I took my seat just after Liverpool had gone close with a cross goal shot, and seemed to have come out of the gate pretty quickly. WHU, however seems to be shutting them down quickly and efficiently. About 30 seconds later Enner Valencia popped in a cross which was met by Michail Antonio to take lead for West Ham. Nice work Sir. The lad who couldn’t get in the team now has 2 in 2.
Liverpool as you would expect had the lions share of the possession, but no end product. Benteke had a one on one after Collins had misread a ball, but Tomkins came across from his right back birth to shepherd the ball out of danger. As mentioned earlier, WHU were harrying and closing down in numbers , so threats were kept to a minimum . Emre Can hit the bar just before half time, but apart from that , WHU were good for the half time lead.
In the second half West Ham played more forward, with Kouyate winning a lot of ball and bring it forward and the midfield were more fluid and interchangeable. In fact , it Was Mark Noble who popped up on the right flank to cross the ball which was met by Andy Carroll to double the lead, and promote some rather enthusiastic celebrations from the number 9, who was let go by Liverpool having been (and still is) their record signing. Liverpool were left to stream forward looking for something, and Klopp didn’t shirk by replacing defenders with midfielders, probably noting that even though we were 2 up, some lucky deflections and defending was contributing to the score. Not to mention the woeful shooting by Liverpool. I cannot remember the last time a team shot so many balls over the bar.
WHU managed to close out the game to win the first game in 2016 with the same scorers as the last game of 2015, and jumped to 5th being the early game.
Once again WHU win a game which will be reported as poor play by the opposition.
However, WHU played well and were all over the pitch. I think Slaven has realised that letting the opposition have the ball all day is not profitable and quicker teams (such as Liverpool) will cut through us (like Leicester did).
The reintroduction of Payet, was very much welcomed by the home faithful, and I get the feeling he only came on after we were 2 nil up, and his name started to ring around the ground. He played a bit of a cameo, but still managed to set up Carroll, and turn Lucas inside out. Hopefully we hold onto him throughout the transfer window. Other players who deserve a mention are James’ Collins and Tomkins. Both were strong in the tackle, and Tomkins seems to be relishing his right back spot (although some of his bombing down the wing needs some finesse !) . One player who really needs to be looked at and I have mentioned it before is Enner Valencia. We paid over 13m for this guy and he is knocked off the ball at the drop of a hat. Personally I don’t think he is EPL standard and would happily bin him this window.
MOTM today was the much maligned Andy Carroll, who battered Liverpool’s defence today, never gave up and got his desserts with a great goal to seal the game.
Not a lot to write home about for this game if I’m honest, hence why it’s been filed a few days late.
Ogbonna came in for Tomkins and Noble and Payet were replaced by Obiang and Zaurate.
West Ham started lively enough, but seemed to struggle breaking down a typical Pulis team. However that all changed when we got a free kick just after the quarter hour mark. Up stepped Zaurate who proceeded to bend the ball into a postage stamp space in the top corner. Mark Noble could have been out there forever and not scored a set play like that.
The Hammers proceeded to be on top for the rest of the half but had no clear cut chances to extend their lead.
At half time Pulis popped on the Liverpool failure, Ricky Lambert, who you always knew was going to be busy. Within 5 minutes he lashed a shot goalward, which hit Reid on the back, and deflected in for an own goal.
We then brought on our own Liverpool failure, Mr Carroll, as Obiang was struggling trying to cover the midfield. To be honest AC never looks comfortable with Sakho, which is a little bit of a worry. Not for Andy though, as Sakho was carted off with what could be a serious injury after a very promising attack from the Hammers ended up with his shot hitting the side netting. Antonio came on for a cameo appearance near the end, but we didn’t really get to see anything.
The game drew to its inevitable drawing conclusion, and West Brom went away happier I think. But after getting tonked by Spurs last week, we should take some comfort as well.
Points or order: Carl Jenkinson is going backward at a rate. Literally. He refuses to take on those runs he used to, and keeps passing backwards for no reason. Zaurate on the other hand, takes on too many runs and loses the ball too often, and holds on too long. Very selfish. No one else disgraced themselves, or played a blinder. MOTM to Adrian for his save late on, that kept the game at 1-1, and won us a point to go back up to 7th (for while).
Highlight of the game was the bags that invaded the pitch in the second half due to crazy wind. It made the game look more like a Sunday League game more than it already did.
Man U away this week, which I don’t expect much from, but the form book for both teams currently suggests a 0-0. After that we should be picking up points again heading into the new year, but we will have to do it with a skeleton front line. Did Carlton Cole go on loan to Celtic……….?
Yesterday we welcomed one of the new teams to the Premiership. I for one, was not sure of victory as we had had a tough game at Leicester during the week, which was lost in extra time. This was born out by the WHU start which was leggy to say the best. Noble and Kouyate especially were out of sorts and just looked knackered. Just as well we are not still in Europe !
Noble summed this up just before the 10 minute mark, by directing a lazy pass across our goal looking for Tomkins. This was intercepted by Brady who coolly opened the scoring for the canaries.
West Ham huffed and puffed throughout the half. Just after the half hour mark we managed an equalizer when Payet and Sakho combined well to finish with a tap in to make it 1 – 1 at half time.
No subs at half time for WHU , which surprised me, as I wouldn’t have been amazed to see neither Noble, Koutaye, or Jenkinson come out for the second half.
The second half was very much more of the same in what was becoming a easy to forget game. Nathan Redmond came on near the end and I imagine thought he had scored the winner when once again Noble fell short to allow Redmond’s shot to find Adrian’s bottom corner.
Then WHU woke up, and we threw everything at them including Andy Carroll who got himself into a couple of good positions, which were well covered by Ruddy, who also made a great save from Payet. Ruddy’s luck ran out when he tried to punch out a Free kick with Carroll bearing down on him and got it as far as Kouyate, who finished well to secure a draw with seconds to go
So, a point at home keeps us in 3rd and 1 point closer to Man City, but Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham, are 2 points closer to us. Fairplay to Slaven, who had no problem taking off our Captain, as he was having a shocker, maybe a little earlier next time. He also finished with 2 up top, which is encouraging, but with Moses and Payet, you will always have some sort of forward presence.
The Norwich fans seem to be turning into some sort of Palace style “Ultra” support model, which is funny if nothing else.
MOTM was both goalkeepers who kept the goals with some great saves, especially Adrian with his face, which must of stung a bit. With all these saves you would think the game was a classic, it really wasn’t. It was a bit of an attritional game and the score was about right, although Norwich may feel they shaded it, but they did sacrifice the lead twice.
West Ham’s journey into Europe continues unabated as the Hammers faced Birkirkara FC of Malta last Thursday. I was late in getting my ticket application, so for the first time in my life I was sat in the East Stand, the famous “Chicken Run”.
This meant watching football side on, as I was near the half way line, and once I got used to it, I actually enjoyed it. You do miss some of the in box action, but you do get a good idea of the ebb and flow.
This weeks opponents were a big step up from our last round match up, and seemed to be organised and have a modicum of talent. The game itself reminded me of a 3rd round FA cup tie. The plucky lower ranked club were all over the pitch closing down WHU, and kept all their men behind the ball.
That said, a stronger WHU team than played in the previous round could not breach the defences. We even had Maiga on the pitch. Like Zarate (who also played) I thought he was gone, but there he was, in the claret and blue. He had a good first half, eliciting a world class save from their keeper, and hitting the post. The were some long shots from Noble and Amalfitano, and that was that for the first 45 minutes. FCB has no shots on target at all, and were limited to 2 or 3 half hearted attacks.
The second half was more of the same, but it was becoming apparent where the issues were. Maiga was subbed for Lee, but we still were not getting the ball forward. The reason being Kevin Nolan was shocking. He was slower than usual, took an age to turn around, and even seem to struggle with passing the ball into peoples path. Everything was straight at them, making them stop and in turn getting closed down.
Consequently we had to wait until time added on, until Tomkins got this second European goal of the season, after the keeper failed to deal with a corner.
Overall a professional performance from the Hammers and I expect next week’s away leg to be an easier proposition, as the adrenaline will have left our opponents, and the need to open up if they are to stand any chance. The next round, we could be up against Inverness which for personal reasons will be interesting.
New job has meant I’m a bit behind on the blog. I still have 2 to do on our last trip to vegas (here) and one for this game. The first of the season, on the second day of July, in the boiling heat of old London town.
Despite the litany of dour behaviour that was Sam Allardyce, his poor tactics had one silver lining. You see, if you don’t tackle anyone, ever, and shake the 4th officials hand after the game, you get chucked into the 2nd tier of European competition, along with the Dog and Duck of Armenia, and Ebbsfleet under 17’s, right at the beginning. And so our European tour begins…..
Continue reading “WHUFC vs FC Lusitans (Andorra) UEFA Cup Qualifier 02 July 2015”
I have been back a few hours since the end of game wondering what to write, and to be fair I’m still struggling. Anyone with knowledge of these two teams current form could have written this at 10am this morning.
Before the start of the game, a mention was made offering condolences to Ex- Hammer Rio Ferdinand and his family following the tragic loss of his wife that morning. Nice touch and the chants of Rio, Rio, echoing around the Bobby Moore bought a bit of a lump to my throat. Continue reading “WHUFC vs Burnley EPL 2014 -2015 02/05/2015”
Last Weekend, thieves performed an old school heist on a safety deposit box vault in the centre of London. It is thought to be one of the biggest robberies ever in the UK. It would have been beaten into clear second place if WHU had secured all 3 points today. Continue reading “WHUFC vs Stoke City 11/04/2015 – EPL”
Mrben09 