West Ham United FC v Middlesbrough FC

I've seen that face in the BM upper.

Sits about 5 feet away from me. Does get a bit upset as well.

Interesting to read the negative comments about replacing Cole with Carew. IMO in the short time he was on the pitch Carew did more than Cole had all night. Carew won everything in the air, bullied his marker and got a shot away. Admittedly he did give the ball away a couple of times but the rest of his play showed Cole what being a target man is all about. I hope he starts him at Burnley

I too saw no point in bringing Collison on. It cannot have been to shore things up as Collison cannot jump and certainly cannot tackle. Bringing Baldock on for Noble was not a planned substitution by any means but Boro equalised in the 84th minute so BFS brought another striker on straight away and took off a player who slows our attacking play every game and is unlikely to score in open play ie Noble. What else was he supposed to do?

If Taylor had managed to hit the target from 6 yards when the Boro defender had presented the ball to him "on a plate", the game would have been over at 2-0. BFS bemoans the great save by Luke Steele from Tomkins which prevented us scoring the winner. Fact it is was the ONLY save of note that he had to make all night - in the 90th minute. Just simply not good enough

We are too static and far too predictable. Middlesbrough had an easy night.

I would be very interested to know if any of the training includes ‘running into space’ or ‘making yourself available to receive the ball’, because at no stage on Tuesday night did either of those things happen.

We moan about the long-ball punt from Green but to be fare he has no other option, on several occasions during Tuesdays game ‘borough weren’t paying attention to the fact the ball had ended up with Green, the perfect opportunity for a quick throw out to a defender and some up-the-field passing whilst the opposition were napping. BUT ALL 10 OUTFIELD PLAYERS HAD THEIR BACKS TO HIM, only when ALL the BML were screaming at them did one of them turn around – too late, a golden opportunity missed.

I would also like to know what the point in buying Baldock and Maynard were. Both are nippy little strikers scoring for fun at their previous clubs because they were being played as nippy little strikers up front with a strike partner. They come to West Ham and they are put out on the wing or spend most of the game on the bench whilst CC piss-balls about up front, falling over and getting upset because he’s not getting free kick every time he has a lay down.

And whilst I’m on a roll I’d also like to know why just because a player is a midfielder and has clearly been given instructions to be in the middle of midfield and defend at all costs why he can’t occasionally make a run into the oppositions box? That way when CC does actually chest a long ball down there is someone on the end of it.

The philosophy adopted by FatSam did w**k away from home for a while, however it hasn’t worked at home for 5 games and now its stopped working away too. I struggle to understand why he cannot see it. In this league those that are winning games use wingers (proper ones) to get the ball in the box for strikers to score. Lambert hasn’t just turned into Messi he is however playing in a team set up to give him the ball so he can score. We could be set up like that; I don’t think it would be that hard, we have some good players and there is no need to fill midfield with defensive central midfielders and a finguck centre-back. FatSam needs to get down off his northern pie and make the changes necessary. He is supposed to be a good manager, good managers recognise when something needs to be changed and then have the courage to change it.

I don’t mind watching boring, dour football as long as we win. But watching this shite whilst slipping down the league is intolerable

Extremely well put Suzanne

And you too Tone I agree that Carew was better than the tree. I was suggesting a change to the inapt system we were playing, rather than putting on different personal doing more of the same shit, that Boro had under control.