Lingard
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I like to know what all this bull shite about him not celebrating his goal comes from ,he didnt seem exacly apologetic to me ,i didnt see a cattle prod trying to fend off his over the moon comrades .
Little bollox
Forum | Non-Football Related
Will It Be Men v Boys In The Moose Cup?
Hammers matched their more wealthy and illustrious visitors for pace and determination, before losing out narrowly through 'THAT PEN' miss on Sunday. Bruised and battered, no one with one obvious exception, had anything left in the tank at the end of the game, so to go again against the same opponents, so soon after the match is going to require a team reset.
The issue for David Moyes is that his B team does not boast the power of the Mancs in any way shape or form, so how does he approach the game? Obviously he doesn't want to see his team embarrassed by selecting only youth players, like a certain Sam Allardyce once did to 'teach fans a lesson' who had the temerity to suggest he wasn't using the youngsters enough!
On that occasion Allardyce threw the youth players under the bus, on the 5th of January 2014 West Ham faced a tricky FA Cup tie at Championship side Nottingham Forest. Allardyce gave debuts to youngsters Danny Whitehead, Callum Driver and Sebastian Lletget, as well as handing George Moncur his first start. As a statement of intent, the team sheet may as well have come in the form of a hand delivered white flag. Allardyce was completely unrepentant about sacrificing both the club’s chances of Cup success and the well being of his academy players.
After all, there was no bunce or fiscal gain for the manager in using youth players for the Premier League, far better for Big Sam to use his 'associate' Mark Curtis' clients, Andy Carroll, Matt Jarvis etc, etc. Although the 'Moose Cup' is essentially a 'dead rubber' there is still an element of pride involved, and those peripheral players who are selected will five it their all, unfortunately the opposition 'peripheral' players will be wanting to do exactly the same but are far more expensively assembled.
At the end of the day it is 11 v 11 and although ex-loanee Lingard will start and probably score a hat trick against the club that gave him salvation and redemption, there is no reason why whichever line up Moyes starts with cannot give it a go, after all the players ARE ALL professionals and should jump at the chance of showing their capabilities.
We don't expect Hammers to get anything from the game, but we do except the players selected to show enough grit and determination that the home side will know they have been in a proper scrap by the full time whistle! - Ed
Which Hammer Looked The Most Knackered?
Normally most post match articles contain a player rating of some sort, however the post match analysis of West Ham players who featured in the game against Manchester United might concentrate on how knackered they were. By the end of the game even Pablo Fornals, who usually makes a Duracell bunny look lethargic, was on his knees and breathing through his proverbial.
Said Benrahma fared even worse and was hardly able to jog off the pitch when he was replaced by Manuel Lanzini, Aaron Cresswell made more misplaced passes than he had made in all the previous games of this season put together! However the biggest concern, as alluded to by other Hammers sites including Claret&Hugh, is the collateral effect so many games are having on Tomas Soucek.
He still performed admirably, but his spark, particularly going forward, hasn't been there for the last few games, and no wonder. Essentially he hasn't had a break since project restart and is definitely showing the signs. He is too good a player to let ruin himself through his devotion to duty, he MUST NOT play on Wednesday for the thoroughly pointless 'moose cup' fixture against Ronaldo United, he deserves a break.
Král was signed for the exact purpose of relieving the pressure on Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek, so Wednesday definitely represents the ideal time to give him his debut, possibly alongside Mark Noble who will of course have fire in his belly in order to atone for Sunday's penalty miss against the same opponents that the team faced on that fateful day.
Wholesale changes have to be made to give players a much deserved rest, don't forget that after the Leeds game on Sunday, the vast majority of the 1st team will be flying off for yet more International commitments! Obviously Moyes doesn't want to send out a team that will get slaughtered, but he will also be mindful of what a handful Leeds will be at the weekend.
Starting with Areola in goal will also give Moyes the chance to run the rule over the keeper with a view to giving Lukasz Fabianski some 'reflective' time as the games come thick and fast, Kurt Zouma looks as if he can easily play three games in a week, but we are not sure of the wisdom in taking that risk, especially as he has a ready made replacement in the form of Craig Dawson.
Given the need to give players a break, here is a line up that won't break the bank! : Areola, Fredericks, Johnson, Dawson, Diop, Král, Noble, Lanzini, Vlasic, Bowen, and our surprise card Armstrong Okoflex instead of Michail Antonio. Conventional wisdom suggests a slightly more conservative: Areola, Fredericks, Zouma, Oggy, Cresswell; Rice, Kral, Lanzini, Bowen, Vlasic, Antonio line up, but that risks injury to Antonio when it isn't really worthwhile, IF there was a European qualification slot available as a result of winning the 'Moose' Cup then of course David Moyes should field a strong team, but currently there are bigger fish to fry!
Our message to David Moyes? Give the lads a rest now while you can, instead of waiting until you have to.- Ed
McTomminay?
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With the impending departure of Declan Rice to one of either United, City or Chelsea who do you think could do the job Rice does? (not as good).
Been watching McTomminay of Utd and he always does well against us. Perhaps he could be used in any future deal? Obviously we have Kral to come in but I thought we would have seen a bit of him by now.Yarmo Too Slow & Too Lazy-Moyes Thinks So!
Just five minutes before Jesse Lingard scored what proved to be the winning goal at the London Bowl, Hammers manager David Moyes was seen to be going apoplectic in his assessment of how Andriy Yarmolenko had been performing having come on to replace Nikola Vlasic in the 62nd minute, the Iron's manager could be seen screaming at the front man.
Talented he may be and a prolific scorer at International level for the Ukraine, but Yarmolenko's work rate is nowhere near the required level for the Barclays Premier League, you could see the veins in Moyes' temples from a hundred yards, thank goodness Stuart 'Psycho' Pearce was up top doing his aerial observations of the game, a ploy first deployed when David Moyes was self isolating having caught Covid, it worked so well it has become part of Hammers match day practise, both home and away.
Psycho would have blown a gasket watching Yarmo lumber up and down the pitch, how can a professional on £115,000 per week not run or try to harry an opponent on the pitch, especially when they only have to do it for half an hour? Michail Antonio runs more in 3 minutes than Yarmo does in 30! No one expects the player to emulate Antonio, but he could at least try, on numerous occasions he just watched as the ball passed him by, barely moving a muscle to try and intervene.
This is simply NOT good enough, Moyes would be better off bringing on a youngster like Okoflex for the closing period of a game, what he lacks in experience he would more than make up for with effort. This is exactly what the team DOES need as they attempt to either close out a game or retrieve it from a losing position.
There is NO point in playing Yarmolenko just because he is being paid a king's ransom every week, that was a past error that Moyes had nothing to do with, he can however stop perpetuating the mistake by simply not selecting a player who is far more interested in playing for their country than for their club, Real Madrid fans will tell you all about Gareth Bail's attitude!
Next season such talk will be academic, as Yarmo's ludicrous contract will have finally come to an end, one thing that is certain, there won't be ANY club on the planet willing to pay even HALF of his current wages! Hopefully the lesson will be learned with regards to signing expensive injury prone players and giving them massive contracts on insane wages.
You may quite reasonably ask why on earth the club sanctioned such a deal, along with all the other 'tragic' signings of the Pellegrini era, with the exception of Diop, Fornals and Fabianski. The answer using a motoring trade analogy is, players like Yarmolenko are similar to expensive luxury cars that come on the market towards the end of their official shelf life. They have usually not received the manufacturers servicing that was specified and as such will become increasingly expensive to maintain to the point that eventually they become financially inviable, leaving the owner with an expensive Turkey that no one else wants!
Moyes is well known for encouraging youth players, surely now really is the time for him to bring one or two through? They would be raw, but they couldn't have done any worse than Yarmolenko who's lack of discernable effort sends a clear signal to the opposition that become endemic, especially for fans looking on, indeed there are some who even left the Stadium on seeing him enter the fray!
It's not Yarmo's fault he was handed such a crazily generous contract, and it isn't as if the club doesn't have a history of handing out such contracts, Carroll, Reid and Wilshere were all handed insane deals that came back to bite the club hard, if it doesn't learn from the past then there is no way forward until the lessons are learned.
Some might think we have an 'agenda' regarding Yarmolenko and they would be correct, however we also had an agenda with Carroll, Wilshere and more latterly have one with Winston Reid. To try and put things in perspective, Willian realised he wasn't cutting the mustard at Arsenal following his lucrative move from Chelsea, his resolution? To take a massive cut in wages to go and play football and NOT steal a living, just a thought!- Ed
Dreams Won't Fade Away-Despite Defeat
It was very difficult to write an unemotional and balanced review of yesterday's game against while on the way back from the match, it was even harder having got back and having to read and see the 'dissection' of what had been a thoroughly entertaining game, for the NEUTRAL and for Manchester United fans from all over the land who never have and never will visit the cess pit that is urban Manchester.
It should have been easier to write up the fixture in the cold light of day, but there's the rub, it isn't. Perhaps it is an indication as to just how far the club has progressed under David Moyes that fans were so disappointed as to the outcome of yesterday's game.
The fact that a Hammers team devoid of their main striker was able to hold a full strength Manchester United team to a draw up until the 87th minute shows just how far the team have come from the Pellegrini era, the Chilean would have become greyer as he watched on helplessly as his team received another 4 or 5 nil gubbing!Of course David Moyes' decision to bring Mark Noble on specifically to take the last minute of injury time penalty backfired badly, but it would be churlish to concentrate on that error when the team itself, bar one or two exceptions, was error prone to a previously unseen low.
Two elements to store into fans' memory banks from the game are possibly, (a) European competition exposes the paucity of 'thin squads and (b) Hammers HAVE to get an additional striker in, maybe someone like Paul Oneachu who has been on Moyes's radar for some time.
Hammers are in danger of putting an unnecessary burden on new signing Nikola Vlasic by expecting him to be an Antonio 2:0, that he is most definitely NOT! He is however a talented player with a good work rate who just needs a bit more time to get up to speed in what is the fastest paced and most demanding league in World football,that's why people queue up around the World to watch it!
Sunday's result was a setback whichever way you look at it, but it is not the end of the World, merely a learning experience on the journey to the next level. - LN
Don't Kick The Dog!
If you were one of the near 60,000 West Ham supporters in attendance at the home defeat by Manchester United, or indeed one of the huge amount of Hammers fans watching on TV, you might well be feeling extremely hard done by, but don't kick the dog or the cat.
If you did so you would only feel guilty, in addition to being a cruel person, we wonder if Mark Noble's pet hound has headed for the hills before his master returns, although we are in no way insinuating Mark Noble is cruel to pets, he's only cruel to fans!
The sign of a BIG club is how the players are able to lift themselves after an obvious disappointment, which is exactly what the game against Manchester United was. The paucity in quality of Hammers bench compared to that of the visitors was testimony as to how vast the difference in the clubs relative financial firepower.
The wages paid for Ronaldo and De gea are more than those paid for Hammers entire first team despite including Yartmolenko's ridiculous £115,000 per week. The wisdom of not having a back up striker was again called into question, but who wants to arrive and play as a back up to Michail Antonio?
Nikola Vlasic is NOT the answer and will need some considerable time in order to get on the same wavelength as the rest of the 1st team, mind you that wave length had a lot of static today! It was the first time that Hammers collectively made mistakes throughout most of the team in recent memory, there were more missed passes during the fixture than at any of the previous dozen games.
Fans wanted European football, and a couple of good nights under the lights, starting against Rapid Vienna will go a long way to offset the misery of what was a really annoying result. -Ed
Noble's Human-Moyes Has 'Southgate' Moment
This game at the London 'Bowl' had everything, played out in front of an enthusiastic crowd the visitors emerged as 2-1 victors. Realistically most home fans feared the worst from a Manchester United team featuring their talisman Cristiano Ronaldo, Hammers obviously were without theirs, Michail Antonio.
David Moyes set his team up to block United's forward line and after a very nervy first 15 minutes began to make a go of the game, West Ham's pace began causing the visitors defence a lot of consternation ultimately ending up with a goal for Said Benrahma, albeit via a massive deflection.
Unfortunately, as if it had been written as a script up stepped the 'preening one' and managed to squeeze the ball past a previously superb Fabianski at the 2nd attempt, IF only the ball hadn't fallen to the £500,000 per week forward things might have had a different outcome, Aaron Cresswell was slightly culpable for assuming there was going to be an offside decision that never came.
In what was an enthralling game, several West Ham players clearly showed signs of their midweek exersions in the Europa Cup win in Zagreb. Tomas Soucek looked a yard off his usual impressive pace and Said Benrahma looked dead on his feet before being replaced by Manuel Lanzini towards the end.
The game looked to be heading for a creditable draw when the 2nd part of the script unfolded, Jesse Lingard who had come on to a 'heroes' reception from the home fans, jinked and jived himself past Kurt Zouma and curled in a blinder past the despairing Fabianski, it was the ONLY mistake Zouma made in the entire game!
IF only Hammers had been able to sign Lingard in the window, it might have been the home fans leaving the Stadium joyously. Hammers pushed and ran themselves ragged to try and salvage at least the point that was deserved, Dcelan Rice played like a man possessed in his bid to get HIS team back on track.
The third and most painful part of the script came when Hammers were awarded a penalty for a Luke Shaw handball in injury time, at this moment in time 60,000 people and millions watching held their breath as David Moyes inexplicably had his 'Gareth Southgate' moment by electing to brng on unwarmed up 'Mr West Ham' Mark Noble to take the pen, the outcome was SO West Ham!
PS: A vast majoriy of fans at the game seemed to want Noble brought on to take the penalty. Ed
Noble's impeccable penalty stats meant nought as David De Gea suddenly remembered that he was a goalkeeper earning over £300,000 per week and made what was a fine save, which sent the gloating Mancs into cloud nine! IF only Moyes had been less cautious, it is his achilles heel, why oh why would he N)T have learned from Engand's experience in the Euro Cup final?
The only answer there can possibly be is that he is Scottish, either that or he was hit on the head by one of the numerous water bottles that appeared to fly by. What was the manager thinking of? IF Mark Noble 'chirped' so much that he got sent on by Moyes then they are BOTH at fault, Noble for wanting to come on and Moyes for caving in, paradoxically IF it was Moyes's decision, then Noble should have refused the go on, citing the fact that he wasn't in anyway prepared.
At the end of the day the visitors did create more chances, hit the post and WERE denied one penalty, that was the only justice the gods decided to hand down today courtesy of Ronaldo 'diving' on THREE previous occasions. With hindsight would Moyes had made the same decision? We doubt it, unfortunately the game turned out to be a very IF'Fy, IF only Antonio had been available he would have ripped Man Utd to shreds, IF the club hadn't played on Thursday as opposed to Utd's Tuesday the players would have looked less leggy and finally IF Mark Noble hadn't had such a great previous record of scoring ten out of ten David Moyes would have let Declan Rice take the kick, he would have WILLED the ball over the line!
In one way, being severely disappointed that a tired team missing their main striker went down by a goal to a team that has spent wildly and will more than likely be challenging for top spot in the Barclays Premier League, isn't a bad thing, it is just the nature of the defeat, IF you play with the big boys you have to accept a punch on the nose sometimes, and this one hurt! - Ed
Live West Ham v Manchester Line Ups
West Ham: Fabiański, Coufal, Zouma, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice (c), Souček, Bowen, Fornals, Benrahma, Vlašić Subs: Areola (GK), Fredericks, Dawson, Diop, Král, Noble, Lanzini, Masuaku, Yarmolenko,
Manchester: De Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Maguire (c), Varane, Shaw, McTominay, Fred, Fernandes, Pogba, Greenwood, Ronaldo Subs: Heaton (GK), Bailly, Dalot, Matic, van de Beek, Mata, Lingard, Sancho, Martial
Jimmy Greaves RIP
Today one of the greatest goal scorers of all time passed away, he might have been Tottingham's finest but he also played for AC Milan and of course the mighty Hammers, he can now join up with his old mucker Ian St John for their ethereal Saint & Greavsie show.
Jimmy Greaves 1940-2021 RIP
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