WHUFC vs Watford -- August 24th, 2019

Stone the offing crows... it's hard enough getting my are out of bed at this hour on a saturday...

so, new season, same old problems...

despite mega-corps tbeing able to take money seemingly at will... seems realizing you have a valid account is beyond them...

took me almost ten minutes to get the appleTV app to recognize that I had an account... by the time I'd managed to get everything up and running... 7 minutes have gone and we're apparemtnyl 1-0 to the good...

I mean... to be honest.. if we can't beat Watford then we might as well relegate ourselves today...

third Watford corner in succession....

I've seen Anderson get into a great position in the box but his cut back to Lanzini was not great and Manuel cut it wide...

apparently a very open game... as it does appear

Watford 0-1 West Ham (Noble, 3)

With his first touch of the season, fit-again Mark Noble strokes home the penalty and what a start for West Ham.



so everyone is gonna hail the return of the king...

Here's today's team...

and as I type that... Watford cut us apart and the slam the ball into the bottom corner of the net...

no clean sheet...

Noble screaming st the players to fall back after another Lanzini/Anderson move breaks down...

anyway... as I was saying...

West Ham
1 Fabianski
24 Fredericks
23 Diop
21 Ogbonna
26 Masuaku
41 Rice
16 Noble
7 Yarmolenko
10 Lanzini
8 Felipe Anderson
22 Haller

Substitutes
4 Balbuena
5 Zabaleta
13 Roberto
15 Sanchez
18 Fornals
27 Ajeti
30 Antonio

have to say... interesting / worrying team selection.

Obviously Noble was going to stroll back into the team as soon as he was fit.

Yarmolenko needs to play or leave

Haller and Anderson need to step up to make amends for their pitiful displays thus far.

But Antonio who has been our most energetic and attacking player for several seasons is benched...

and Chicharito who has been the only WH player to score before today... doesn't even make it to the subs bench...

I'd say we're on the 'worrying' end of the spectrum... nothing wrong with the team on paper... it's probably our strongest line-up (despite being given the run around by lowly Watford) but not the team you'd pic given the performances on the pitch of the actual players.

Haller trie an acrobatic bicycle back heel from 5 yards out from a Yarmalenko header... but it is easily saved and Watford attack again and have another corner...

oh good grief... a "hydration break"????????

I mean... I'm not saying we don't need to stop and get our act together... but seriously...

Yarmalenko easily dispossessed and Watford somehow miss with a side foot.... - so the hydration break really paid off.

Lanzini down getting treatment to his ankle...

comms saying how important he is to us...

but is anyone really that important these days (outside Noble and Fabianski)

no one is playing well... results are shitty

the forwards aren't scoring and the defense is ridiculously bad...

so no... sorry Manuel., neither you nor anyone else in a West ham shirt is really that important of a player at the moment...

anyway... he's back up and running around... but Watford are all over us again...

taking me own hydration break to make a cup of coffee...

we join Watford in having hit the woodwork...

Anderson flicks a header that hits the post and manages to bounce away from the waiting Yarmalenko who will no doubt be subbed pretty sharply after the upcoming break...

other than that it's all Watford as we seem to have no idea how to play the game.

4 minutes of added time does nothing except give Watford more opportunities to take over this game completely.

I know some people will call me unduly pessimistic in saying we have 45 minutes to save our season

but to those people I will simply make them watch us play so far in these three games.

still no sign of a second half... perhaps we've given up the game and gone home already....

oh no we haven't... some white shirts are wandering onto the pitch.

Subs?

this really is a bottom of the table clash... relegation three-pointer... call it what you like

no subs...

ooh... Yarmalenko gets a shot off and in a weird way almost beats Foster in the Watford goal... but as with everything we do, almost is not good enough and Foster scrambles to gather the ball and the danger as minimal as it was, passes.

6 minutes of this half gone and apart from Yarmo's one effort, it's been and continues as I type this to be all Watford.

At this point, a draw would be a good result for us.

oooh... we try an attack but Yarmo was about an hour and 6 miles offside... don't need VAR to call that one...

holy shit... Fabianski is left for dead... the ball is played across the open goal, less than a foot off the line and the onrushing Watford player somehow manages to miss...

Yarmalenko is off and Antonio is on...

We really are hanging on by the skin of our teeth...

antonio runs onto t a ball for his first touch but Foster gets to it first and then manages to dispossess Anderson outside the box to clear the ball.

It's not even a question of whether we finish bottom any longer... just how far adrift of the rest of the table we'll be...

nothing is working.

another cooling break...

might as well just blow the whistle... we've got nothing, offer nothing... the whole enterprise is pointless at this stage...

holy shit...

we score

Yes... West Ham....

Anderson slots back to Haller who knocks it in from 4 yards out.

we'd pissed away a free-kick... the ball never got out of the Watford half... then Anderson picks it up outside the box, runs to the line and cuts back for Haller to score what was a simple but desperately needed goal.

antonio's diving header (actually his shoulder) forces and acrobatic save...

the resulting corner and antonio does another diving header... better contact this time and he hits the bar... the rebound brings another bicycle kick from Haller and this one goes into the net.

Antonio has made all the difference...

highlighting (if it are needed how much of a mis-step it was to keep him out of the team at the start)

Haller is now off the mark and we might have saved our season.

Fornals replaces Anderson...

6 minutes to go...

we still look well vulnerable at the back.

no disrespect to Watford but against a decent team, we'd be destroyed... oh yeah... we played a decent team and got slaughtered on the first day of the season.

Sanchez replaces Lanzini

three minutes to go to hold onto three points...

4 added minutes in this half as well...

and so it ends... a lot better than it looked like it might.

I guess it all comes down to your personal perspective...

some people will be happy with three points and a Haller double... and it's difficult not to be content with the figures on paper...

but looking at the bigger picture... it wasn't a good perfjoamcne... the deficiencies in the side are on clear display and as pluck and determined as Watford were... they've lost their last 6 competitive matches... and they had the better of us for large portions of the game.

we've only played one really decent side in the three games so far and came off 0-5...

a win is a win, an august win is even better... but there's still big problems... performance, team selection...

I'd certainly rather be where we are than where Watford are... but we're not that far apart.