Just read if we are drawn at home in the cup we are going to have to play away as the stadium STILL won't be ready to play in. And here's the cruncher WE will have to pay our opponents Compensation! We are so Mickey Mouse!
reading Bilic's remarks after the city loss, he says basically that to have any sort of chance against big teams you have to have all your players fit, and you have to make no mistakes at the back. whilst i agree with him on the latter, I'm not so sure this is the right approach. we are a premier league side, we are in the league to compete. I'm just not a believer in all this defeatism when we are up against big sides. basically he's saying unless we have a fully fit squad and some luck we won't beat anyone 'better than us'. correct me if I'm wrong but is his job not to ensure that when we play bigger clubs that he finds a way to gain advantages elsewhere? what i mean is and you can take a leaf from allardyce on this, there is more to the game than trying to play 'good football'. it worries me that we have just become a nothing sort of club now. we converted from the drab direct stuff of allardyce but now we have become a southampton or a watford perhaps…a team that plays the same way as the big clubs but has nothing near the same in quality of players. the result - its going to be a tonking 9 times out of 10. Bilic made an impact in his first season, he transformed us from the direct style into a counter attack side that even the big sides struggled against..why? because there was a game plan that played on their weaknesses. many times last year i watched in horror as we took to the field against city and co trying to play basically the same way they set out to play. i had hoped bilic would take the summer to reflect and to decide on his tactics and plans etc. pre season tells me he's learnt nothing in this area. someone like benitez will adapt his line ups, his style to look for ways to win matches, bilic seems to have become a poor mans guardiola, sending the same line up out match after match to play the same way regardless. once in a while you will get lucky, things will go your way…but overall you will be a nothing side, getting thrashed here and there and having mourinho and conte saying 'we played good football' after they take us to the cleaners and looking forward to the 3 points in the return. i may be old school, but managers of the past, especially those english ones of old were tacticians as well as coaches. putting an extra midfielder in there to do a particular job, i.e. close out a play maker, playing two up front to press a weak defender etc. i know i play too much FM these days and maybe get carried away but i hated it when Zola would give a press conference before a big match and say we've got no chance, mind games maybe but he did it so many times it just sent a message of why are we bothering. lets not forget this is a sport, a game of competitors . the balance of power favours those with the most money but there are points to be taken from tactical approaches. it doesnt have to be pretty, but it does need to be effective. i don't mean throwing andy carroll on with 10 mins to go and hoofing it up to him desperately after going 4-0 down at home to city…i mean some real thinking and planning. maybe it was simply luck in his first season but he had a plan that worked on several big clubs, the pace and power troubled them at the back…..so why did we abandon this in search of a more 'total football' approach? Slaven please wake up man, we don't want anymore 5-0 home defeats to city and co this season…we want to compete against them all. get it done.
just seen the gooners beat chelski(shame eh!) by the new pen shootout rules have to say i liked the format of course you prefer to win the game in normal time but if not this was refreshing.
I was going to post this under "One egg, or two?" as that seemed appropriate, but then I looked at the posts and people are actually talking about eggs -- I thought it was a metaphor! So, I think we need one more egg, preferably a golden one, before we kick off against Manure. And looking at the finances I think we should be able to afford it. We've spent £40M or less on two players (Marco and Chico) and brought in two others for wages (Zab on free; Hart on loan). We cleared a lot of people off the wage bill, sold a few players, sent kids out on loan, and there's still the Payet excess after last season. I feel we still need more depth and more attack and it would be nice to see one or even two players still come in. It hurt to see Iheanacho off to Leicester -- we could have brought him in as well and then we'd be looking pretty good. What do you think?
Or two?
Observers clearly lacking in knowledge about what pre-season football is supposed to be for, ie bringing a team to full fitness and full preparation ahead of the new season, as opposed to the friendlies being a cash cow, have been quick to condemn West Ham United's performance against a Man City team that had recently trounced Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur. Players were accused of showing ineptitude, with the exception of Robert Snodgrass who clearly has a confidence issue which was clearly illustrated when put through on goal by wonderful combination play by Chico Hernandez and Andre Ayew only to play backwards and lose the moment, his time is surely done!
On the subject of levels of ineptitude by organisations that should know better, ITV 4 proudly announced the showing of Daniel Craig in his first outing as Bond in Casino Royale, the EPG confirmed this, however they broadcast the original Casino Royale featuring David Niven*. At what point did someone on the production team realise they had cocked it up 'royally'? Stick or twist? Pull the broadcast and admit their mistake or just go with the flow? Well they chose the latter. https://www.itv.com/hub/itv4 Something can be learned from this with regards to Premier League football, If you play only just over a half of your best players and potential starting line up against a team that have ten times the financial value of yours you are guaranteed to be on the losing side, but what conclusions can be drawn from the friendly against Manchester City in Reykovic?
Obviously City, with their far greater resources, were able to field two world class teams during the match, it was a different case for Slaven Billic as he juggled team selection along with injury management at the same time as trying to 'give youth a chance'. Big Arnie pulled up in the second half which looked a bit dodgy but Super Slav confirmed it was just cramp, whew, or wishful thinking? Some say that the non inclusion of Manuel Lanzini was as much about tactical preparation for the Premier League opening match against Manchester United at Old Trafford as it was about an actual 'injury' to Lanzini himself although he had admittedly turned an ankle previously on tour. Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is a well known stat man and studies the potential opposition intensely as part of his match day preparations, the opportunity to see how the little jewel performed in tandem with the little pea would have been one that he would like to have availed himself of but it was not to be, was it a cunning plan? After all we know all the about the cunning plan that 'kinda lingers' at West Ham, we had Tevezgate!
Joe Hart likes a shout! The mics picked up a non stop training ground rant from Joe Hart, concentrate more on the shot stopping than the verbals Joe! Sam Byram, obviously with a point to prove, showed while Pablo Zabaleto is a refined 'old dog' that he is a young buck full of running who may yet learn from the old dog. Rice needs to play as a centre back, his natural position, and given Hammers awful injury record he will be needed to fill in following the inevitable injury to one or all of James Collins, Jose Fonte or Winston Reid, Rice CANNOT be sent out on loan again, so crucial is he to ensure there is adequate cover.
The plus points?
Authur Mauaku, as previously mentioned Declan Rice, Edmilson Fernandez and Tony Martinez, along with stalwarts Pedro Obiang and Angelo Ogbona, Zabaleto and Fonte looked worryingly 'leggy', Rice and Byram may well come in to their own as the season and it's demands progress. The negatives were plain to see, dear old 'Captain Marky' looked so off the pace it was embarrassing, however his blushes were hidden by 'Snoddy' who was so unbelievably bad that he laid a smoke screen down for his captain.
The wisdom of playing another Premier League club one week ahead of the start of the season, especially a club who will on paper and have in the recent past given your club a good tonking is a matter of some debate, but it was a decent run out, what more do you expect when only half your team are playing? Despite the massive take up of season ticket renewals tickets for the next West Ham games can be found here Ed
NB: ITV 4 merely changed the original EPG and acted as if nothing had happened, however the advertisers who paid to be associated with the modern version of the movie might have other ideas!
Talking to my dad about this and he loved subbuteo and would play with friends for hours and another game he still has but is now defunct was called logatta...very indepth football dice game...you had a league of 18 teams playing home and away the first 5 games home team had blue numbered dice and away team had red dice with a couple more 0's on it like a handicap..after those 5 games completed you wrote up league table and when teams start playing each other the points difference decided on which other coloured dice you would use...so a handicap system came into play...you did that with league/cup/euros etc and it gets addictive....i'll take his word on that one:-)...so come on guys what games did you play or maybe still do.
West Ham V Man City is on Eurosport 1 Live on Friday at 15.00
One thing most observers would say is that the once famed but recently under performing West Ham United Academy has finally come through with a new bunch of youngsters who are genuinely contenders for a first team place. To some sending Reece Burke and Josh Cullen out on loan to Bolton Wanderers might seem a negative step with regards to the player's development, but they are going to work with a manager they already know, and more importantly are guaranteed playing time. It took Ed Jnr to fully focus this dinosaur of a writer to realise just how good Declan Rice is, his performances in the friendlies so far surely indicate he can step in to the void that has been provided by the recent injury to Cheik Kouyate. Make no mistake, Masuaku and Rice have been the main winners in the pre season run outs, Snodgrass on the other hand has been woeful, perhaps he should shave his beard off, at least it would make him look younger!- Ed
seems so long ago now that we overlook the fact that he as our big summer signing last year. most people think he's not up to it, the 20 mill paid was too much. perhaps it was. although looking at how the market is nowadays, you can argue thats the price of a prem league player these days. for me i believe in Ayew. I think he is a quality player. i think he was a good signing. I'm open to debate of course and everyone's opinion is welcome. my view is that last season he moved to a new club but then got injured immediately on his debut. it wasnt just a knock either, he was out a good while. then he went off to ANC and looked half injured there. he still managed a good few goals though during the second half of the season. its my view that he has the energy and eye for goal that will prove useful for us this season. i see him playing behind hernandez in the three (lanzini, arnautovic and him) while antonio is out. when antonio is back then its a case of playing him when we need to rest others or replace them i guess. either way, i can see him being an asset even if coming off the bench.
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