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Slav has got to realise now what as fans we already new that Antonio is not a right back never was and never can be....but being picked there for the game it was a case of when not if disaster would strike.....now before that happened slav had the chance when ayew came off to push Antonio forward and bring byram in...chelski while having a lot of the ball were not really causing to many problems and if we had made this move I feel we would of been a lot more secure at the back..he didn't and of course only Antonio knows why he didn't clear the ball insteadof trying to play out of the box getting caught and giving the penalty....but I felt sorry for him when he was hauled off just after by slav the look on his face you could see the guilt he felt about giving the pen away and his confidence will be very low and needs to be managed properly.... I only hope now slav understands byram has to start and stop trying to put square pegs into round holes.....the game itself was typical west ham started brightly if not really threatening anything our mosy expensive signing injured(sound familiar)nordveidt well he has to improve very very quickly because he was beyond poor musuaku grew into the game and did not look to bad but he has from here on in been christened B.A! kouyate and noble not at the races and poor carroll well he clearly needs help up there with him..as for losing well we all know that prick should not of been on the pitch to score and kante should of been off as well but we are all used to refs making mistakes especially in our matches.....one last thing Adrian just clear the bloody ball and stop trying to be cruyff.......still got a lot of players to come in but we need to improve clearly but have faith we will COYI
Agree
well said
easy to criticise?
Yes! As there was so mush to criticise and most of it aimed at the coach as tactically he got it so wrong. We looked like Allardyce was back at the helm with nothing but hopeful long balls. Face it folks, we are one trick pony without Payet.
Poor display
I was shocked how bad we were at times. We couldn't keep or hold on to the ball and Chelsea looked sharper than us. Antonio's face when he came off was a picture of unhappiness. Bilic must utilize him properly. Our midfield were poor with Noble very deep and Nordveit too slow. Carroll isolated but got through a good bit of work but nobody to play with or off him. Valencia was a passenger. Ayew wasn't in the game and then he got injured. Byram looks ok to me and Collins played pretty well apart from his backing off of Costa for the goal and Masuaku came into the game. Costa and Kante should have both been sent off. Having said that we weren't at the races. Biiic needs to evaluate how he wants this team to play. To me if was very much long ball Sam type of game. We cannot just rely on Payet (or Lanzini when he is fit) to get us out of trouble. This was a step backwards. Maybe when all of the squad are fit things will improve but a few question marks are hanging over Bilic.
Very good post MC, difficult
Very good post MC, difficult to find anything to disagree with there.
We are all concentrating on Antonio's defensive frailties here but I was shocked by how cheaply we gave the ball away last night as a team.....Most nearly everyone was guilty.
I lost count of how many times Noble got caught in possession and Nordveit's inability to trap a simple pass (he let the ball slip through his feet twice during the 90) as just two examples.
We failed to do the basics correctly which is unacceptable - I've a feeling our manager will put things right for Astra on Thursday though.
Well
He bloody well WANTS to get things right tonight. Bilic is starting to well piss me off with some of his selections and his persistant use of Antonio at RB. Last season I thought he rode his luck and some wierd results helped him enormously in his maiden season. This season is where he will be judged and With Astra and Bournemouth both coming so early, two matches he ballsed up last season, he can't afford to get it wrong. I personally think that Bilic will be stubborn about Antonio and wont play him against Astra in his normal position, probably play that Feghoulie geezer or whatever his name is just to prove a point if he is fit. Wouldn't be a bad idea if he got behind the table and sorted out his grieviances with Sakho either after making his suggestions that Sullivan blew the chances of getting in a decent striker.
I really do think we're
I really do think we're guilty of over expectations, i know we've bought in a lot of players but pound for pound compared to them we're stil )in the halfpenny place ,everyone ,including the commentators thought they'd attack down their left ,they new Ants was our weak link and if they new it i dont see how Slav didnt ,they put us under constant pressure with a predictable outcome ,we we're dislodged off the ball far to easily and when we did get a bit of possession our passing was panic stricken ,a case of must do better