Chelski vs West Ham - Aug 15th, 2016

Here we go... new season... new(ish) team... we don't have a good record against the Blues... Payed won't play the full game... Lanzini is still injured, as is Cresswell... etc...

On paper we now have a proper replacement for Cresswell at LB, we have a decent (on paper) group of forwards in Carroll, Ayew and the Jonathan Chelli? Shame we wont be playing on paper! 

My team

                            Adrian

Byram.    Reid.         Ogbonna.          New french bloke cant remember his name! 

              Noble.                        Koyute? 

Antonio.                Payet.                           Chelli/Valencia

                                  Carroll

But I have a fear that Sooper Slav will persist with Antonio at RB, which is a real waste of his talent as a forward and he is NOT a FB, Ayew I think will start on the bench as may the new Argie (I think he's an Argie, but stand to be corrected) 

I dont think Sakho will even make the bench,  which is a shame, but the usual suspects will Randolph, Ginge Burke, Oxford, Obiang, Aywe, Valencia/Chelli

I'd  be happy with any sort of draw tonight,  I can't see the Cheats being as poor as they were last season and Conte will want a good start in his first home match

I predicted a win .... not so sure now the match is 75 minutes away .......... 

Up yer arse, Up yer arse,
Stick the blue flag up yer arse, 
from Stamford bridge to Olympic Park,
stick yer blue flag up yer arse!

C O Y I 

NOt quite sure what I predict. Having watched the first half anything could happen. We've not looked that good but neither have Chelsea. COYI !

We were awful.
Not impressed with our new signing and why Valencia is in the team I do not know.

Tore is slow, Antonio is 1000 times better than him. On your cape this one, Bilic. Oh and why did we decide to clone Roger Johnson?

Charlie Ham wrote:We were awful.
Not impressed with our new signing and why Valencia is in the team I do not know.

Which one? Nordveit? Ayew? Tore? Masuaku?

So i was right Antonio is not a RB but it took 52 mins a penalty and booking for Slaven to twig! Long season coming up and we still need 40 points 

Tony P wrote:

Charlie Ham wrote:We were awful.
Not impressed with our new signing and why Valencia is in the team I do not know.

Which one? Nordveit? Ayew? Tore? Masuaku?

Looking back Tony I think Masuaku had a fair game for a new player. Ayes did'nt have a chance to shine and I now wonder how long he will be out for. Nordveit and Tore on this showing are just not up to it.

Tony P wrote:

Charlie Ham wrote:We were awful.
Not impressed with our new signing and why Valencia is in the team I do not know.

Which one? Nordveit? Ayew? Tore? Masuaku?

Nordveit

You were probably screaming similar to me when he let one go through his legs in the middle of the pitch when he was near enough the last man and had to stretch for a tackle.....seconds later kicked the ball straight off the pitch attempting a simple pass....didn't get much better.

Surely Slav has to realise that Antonio right back has failed big time after hauling him off twice now in recent games.

Another problem I have is playing an alleged 3 up top and then getting our centre halves to hoof the ball at Andy Carroll with neither of the wide men anywhere near him. Especially Winston Reid, the amount of times he hoofs the ball long when he has a team mate in a free position closer by does my head in.

Kray JR wrote:


Another problem I have is playing an alleged 3 up top and then getting our centre halves to hoof the ball at Andy Carroll with neither of the wide men anywhere near him. Especially Winston Reid, the amount of times he hoofs the ball long when he has a team mate in a free position closer by does my head in.

Other than the last 20 minutes I didn't see any evidence of this. We barely got out of our half all game. I really wish they would hoof it up to Carroll and use the follow up players; we CANNOT build from the back and through a midfield, we do not have that quality. If Slav is trying to build a Guardiola team then he is barking up the wrong tree with the players he has.

We defend so deep and in numbers but still can't get a grip on the game (this was true often last season too). We allow the opposition to play within their own half and that gives them a better shape to pass round our very static and tightly packed half. The Chelsea game, how many Chelsea passes were over 5-10 yards?? Too many. How is there room with 10 men camped in defence? Too slow to push up, to slow to close down - these are basic fundaments, especially if any talent and skill you have is actually up front or in attacking areas. It's simple logic, give it to the players who can, as quickly as possible, not shilly shally passing (ha! - did we manage 3 passes all game?) and losing possession (really wantonly too).

Don't even get me started on poor Antonio; I have said this for months but been shot down (not here) for "not loving Slav and everything he does" (you know the sort). I've been fupping amazed at no talk of defence strengthening all summer (until we had to panic buy a LB). EVERY single position can always be improved and should be looked at to be, the worry was the lack of, not only full back cover, but an upgrade to players in defence. Tony's favourite stat is correct and showed where our transfer policy should have been aimed this summer-conceding 2 goals nearly every game towards the end says the defence needed work and improvement. What did the board and management spout "we need a world class marquee striker". The fact we often drew or won when conceding 2 goals shows maybe we didn't. We certainly don't if we can't even get hold of the ball, get it playing and getting it to the skilled attackers we have got (and the other 65 we bought in the summer)

Not on Monday but the times I saw Duncan Nordtveldtdtltdt he looked like what we needed. Byram looked soooooooooooo more comfortable at right back and technically seems to have a lot going for him. Reid looks like he left his ability at the solicitors when he signed his last contract. There looked to be a lack of confidence and smiling faces, even before the kick off. Even Dimi's ever present smile wasn't there

JulianDicksLeftKnee wrote:

Kray JR wrote:


Another problem I have is playing an alleged 3 up top and then getting our centre halves to hoof the ball at Andy Carroll with neither of the wide men anywhere near him. Especially Winston Reid, the amount of times he hoofs the ball long when he has a team mate in a free position closer by does my head in.

Other than the last 20 minutes I didn't see any evidence of this. We barely got out of our half all game. I really wish they would hoof it up to Carroll and use the follow up players; we CANNOT build from the back and through a midfield, we do not have that quality. If Slav is trying to build a Guardiola team then he is barking up the wrong tree with the players he has.

We defend so deep and in numbers but still can't get a grip on the game (this was true often last season too). We allow the opposition to play within their own half and that gives them a better shape to pass round our very static and tightly packed half. The Chelsea game, how many Chelsea passes were over 5-10 yards?? Too many. How is there room with 10 men camped in defence? Too slow to push up, to slow to close down - these are basic fundaments, especially if any talent and skill you have is actually up front or in attacking areas. It's simple logic, give it to the players who can, as quickly as possible, not shilly shally passing (ha! - did we manage 3 passes all game?) and losing possession (really wantonly too).

Don't even get me started on poor Antonio; I have said this for months but been shot down (not here) for "not loving Slav and everything he does" (you know the sort). I've been fupping amazed at no talk of defence strengthening all summer (until we had to panic buy a LB). EVERY single position can always be improved and should be looked at to be, the worry was the lack of, not only full back cover, but an upgrade to players in defence. Tony's favourite stat is correct and showed where our transfer policy should have been aimed this summer-conceding 2 goals nearly every game towards the end says the defence needed work and improvement. What did the board and management spout "we need a world class marquee striker". The fact we often drew or won when conceding 2 goals shows maybe we didn't. We certainly don't if we can't even get hold of the ball, get it playing and getting it to the skilled attackers we have got (and the other 65 we bought in the summer)

Not on Monday but the times I saw Duncan Nordtveldtdtltdt he looked like what we needed. Byram looked soooooooooooo more comfortable at right back and technically seems to have a lot going for him. Reid looks like he left his ability at the solicitors when he signed his last contract. There looked to be a lack of confidence and smiling faces, even before the kick off. Even Dimi's ever present smile wasn't there

Well said JDLK. I beginning to think there's a question mark about Bilic.

It's not solely a Bilic problem, it is inherent in the type of football being promoted as "real football" of today. If playing a fluid 433/451 formation with a possession bias you need the right players, players that form a team unit and move in a formation fluidly. If you haven't got those, find another tactic.

And it's a mix of all other things, not least of all that even the most battle scarred West Ham sufferer (40 plus year veteran sah!) gets whipped by the constant media and commentary of football life. Everyones expectations are just sky high. Football exposure was a back page of a daily newspaper and a match on the Saturday. Now it is a constant bombardment of views, opinions and bull - it creates a monster!

I wouldn't be surprised if this season was a struggle, not on the evidence of one game but of years of supporting us! Coupled with a new ground (we have 2 seasons of away matches), the aforementioned speculative expectations. For all "this is the strongest squad ever" talk, so is everyone elses and "smaller" clubs have spent more and bought better in my opinion often.

To me, it's another West Ham season, I just wish I wasn't such a grumpy old barsteward now and moan far too much about i!

You not grumpy....You put a very good point across - and without mentioning that Bilic should know better with Antonio, him being a defender himself....

Well, I've got bored pointing that one out!