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where's the excitement gone? with Payet?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 25/04/2017 - 16:32

this season has been …well boring to watch. i know we've struggled and not reached the heights of last season. but why the change in style? oddly we seem to be so slow and ponderous with the ball compared to the slick fast moving counter attack of last year. the only differences i can see is that payet is gone and sakho has been out. I'm not convinced its all to do with carroll but i do think we've lost our way in terms of game plan and strategy. not sure about everyone else but we look like we're a bit all over the place in terms of setup. hindered by injuries yes, but did bilic cock it up by changing our approach? should he have stuck to what we did last year and found way to replace payet with some pace?

Dartford Bhoy's picture

Its a very good observation, the quality and speed of passing is nothing like last season but I think its symptomatic of when a team is not winning or lacks confidence, no one is available for the ball, takes leadership or makes the necessary runs, better to make a short pass (often backwards) than a telling forward move.

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152 users have voted.

Look at Saturday's starting lineup and apart from Adrian, Reid and Lanzini, none of the rest were regulars last year. It's a massive part of it. Spurs' team for instance hasn't changed much and Chelsea have only really added Kante and Luiz, both of which have had great seasons. It's all about personnel mate. I know I'm a bit boring and keep banging the drum. But you can only play to how good the players are. I think our style has changed so much this season due to injuries and Payet going. However as a kaveat you can have amazing players and the best manager and yet still fail, look at City. Guardiola is so obsessed with playing one way, he loses games because of it.

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80 users have voted.
mcbikeman's picture

I reckon because of the poor recruitment last summer bilic's inability to decide how he wants the team to play and also playing players out of position..when needs must players supporters understand but when done for no apparent reason players get disgruntled and unhappy which leads to low morale in the work place and then to performances way below what you expect....

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77 users have voted.
Cathammer's picture

The missing link really is a Payet type player. Lanzini is that type of player but not yet up to the same standard.I thought we played a lot faster last Saturday. I think when Carroll was playing we were trying to play two types of game and end up with nothing. Carroll, pacey wingers and crosses that's what suits him WHEN he is fit and then we get the goals. We all know the type of players we need for next season (fingers crossed) in the Premiership, let's hope the owners are thinking the same.

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76 users have voted.
harrythehammers's picture

Bilic has made some stupid decisions with team selection and lineups, substitutions but haven't all our past few managers. Let's face it players aren't goood enough really for top level premiership football as we always try to do things on the cheap. Board don't know when too keep quiet. All the things we have been saying since start of season. That's what being a hammers fan is like unfortunately.COYI

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107 users have voted.

With all the new players bilic added to the squad I think in his mind he had too much choice so felt he had to try and fit some players anywhere into the squad. Then some didn't perform so he felt he had to change it, then a few injuries meant he was forced to change it, then bad form as a team forced him to change structure. Result is a mess that's looks nothing like last season. Bilic lost touch with the way we played last season. Rather than try to keep the structure and way we played as close as he could. his plan A No longer exists, and planB never did exist. Basically bilic lost the plot.

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93 users have voted.

Watching the scum v palace tonight good first half bbut all scum in the 2nd ,you've got to say they are.perfectly balence team and they never seem to suffer to much from injury s even their key man Kane was only out for 4 weeks with that in growing toe nail so palace have left it to us to spoil their party Friday night week thats if the goonners dont give them a spanking on sunday.if they win the premiership tittle im going onto the forest with.a length of rope sorry shoudn. Joke about things like that.Im going to say three hail marys and six our fathersevery night till im sure they've bottled it

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159 users have voted.

Burkie 1

darrenharry's picture

Klopp has a bigger budget, a more stable squad and no ground move but has, £ for £ done the same job, and with less critical injuries. I think Bilic went safe when it was evident things were different. It has shaken him, but I admire his quality and professionalism. I await the difficult third album with interest.

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151 users have voted.

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