Pre-Season: WHUFC vs Man City 8/4/2017

Well the good news is:

Reid is suspended thanks to his pointless Red card in Germany

Lanzini
Kayoute
Cresswell
Feghouli
Antonio
Carroll
Sahko

are all unavailable thanks to varying levels of injury - which is nice since we're only a week away from the start of the season.

the new black away strip does look lovely.

Hart starts in goal but because he's a loaner won't be available to face this bunch in the season.

after playing a fairly impenetrable back ten, we concede after 7 minutes thanks to a ridiculous pass out from Hart that put our defense on the back foot from no danger what so ever...

apparently it's meant to be a 'back 5' but there was no excuse for Hart's recklessness.

possession must be about 90-10 in favor of Citeh.

Hart - standing in front of his goal - palms the ball over the crossbar then questions why Citeh would get a corner.

I guess it's that innate understanding of the game is why we signed him.

Sullivan must be proud.

"Hold the Line" seems to be a popular refrain from whoever is constantly yelling through out the game - I think it might be Hart.

Nice addition of 'bunch of wallies' to mix things up a little...

our first and so far only attack thus far ends in a soft cross from Zabaleta and a weak looping header way over the bar from Martinez...

and so, another Citeh corner

our match philosophy seems to be play it out through the keeper at all times... so the opposition just has to drop deep, mark us man for man and then we have at best a 50/50 shot of winning the resulting header - which we never do.

Citeh are playing a 3-5-2 formation.

we're playing a 5-anyone else want to join in type of style.

passing is not goo, frequently ending up with the opposition.

still only that one attempt on goal

Obiang has been pretty solid at the back as he's had the most to do of anyone

we were heading forward but managed to go from the Citeh penalty area all the way back to Hart without the opposition even needing to touch the ball.

2 mins to the break

End of one half of football.

nothing much to write home about.

Citeh clearly on top but didn't have much luck in front of goal except for Hart's gift of a goal - and that's what separates us as we await the changes in the second half.

Byram is now on

Chicacharito on for Martinez

Rice on for Noble

think that's 8-0 in terms of corners - yes, we're the 0

no change in tactics or formation from what's going on so far..

just relentless Citeh pressure

not sure of the point of playing 5 at the back if Citeh can just nip round the outside get past them all.

fair disclosure - we just had a shot that the Citeh goalkeeper actually had to save.

well done Fernandes

there ya go.... 5 at the back... play it down the wing, cross to a completely unmarked Aguerro in the centre of the penalty area and he slots it simply past Hart for a 2-0 lead

66 goals in 38 games... that's how many Hart conceded in Torino last season... that makes for sobering reading.

now Citeh make 7 changes - hopefully that'll confuse them enough for us to maybe manage a second shot towards the goal?

we shall see.

Arnotauvic is injured and hobbles off the pitch... about right for West Ham and the money we spend - can't really expect to spend 20mill and have the payer available for the actual season

Snodgrass on as a replacement - that's like for like, right?

3-0

another Citeh player totally unmarked in the 6 yard box... maybe the ten at the back philosophy needs looking at.

"Runner... fupping runner!" if Hart was as good at keeping as he is at shouting we'd be in no trouble at all...

Holy shit... 78 minutes... we got a corner!!!!

And there you have it...

Obiang played the hardest - because he had to

Chicharito is the best player by miles - but there's just nothing else there... no one.

1 shot on goal in 90 minutes and 40 seconds

Gonna be a long old season if this keeps up.

You seem to have a massive downer on Joe  Hart for some reason. He is an excellent keeper who is a leader and an organiser

How about the idiots in front of him who seem incapable of marking, tracking or challenging? Hart was continually barking out instructions (unlike Adrian and Randolph who are mute) but the clowns in our defence ignored him or simply didn't understand

He told Masuaku and Ogbonna that Aguero was unmarked for their second. He told Fonte and Byram that Sterling was unmarked for their third

I would look beyond Joe Hart if you really want to find the root cause of our inability to defend. Try Bilic, his coaching staff and the players themselves

Tony P wrote:You seem to have a massive downer on Joe  Hart for some reason. He is an excellent keeper who is a leader and an organiser

How about the idiots in front of him who seem incapable of marking, tracking or challenging? Hart was continually barking out instructions (unlike Adrian and Randolph who are mute) but the clowns in our defence ignored him or simply didn't understand

He told Masuaku and Ogbonna that Aguero was unmarked for their second. He told Fonte and Byram that Sterling was unmarked for their third

I would look beyond Joe Hart if you really want to find the root cause of our inability to defend. Try Bilic, his coaching staff and the players themselves

At any point in anything I said did I say Hart was responsible for our inability to defend?

Hart was solely responsible for the opening goal. We wee in no danger whatsoever, he played a shitty short pass out to a defender and got him in trouble, from that, Citeh crossed and scored.
He can shout and cajole as much as he likes but crap like that is going to cost us games - whether we lose 0-1 or 0-3 we still lose.

We have enough problems as a team in that we can't attack, can't defend and have no strength in midfield - a liability of a goalkeeper simply exacerbates all the other problems we have, as everyone who was down on Randolf and Adrian were so vocal about all last season.

But that's the trouble with some people, the confuse making a noise with actually being good at something.

Anyway, great to see you back Tone - I hope Hart repays your faith in him - but he didn't yesterday