Sunderland v West Ham United FC

Absolutely Ian....I think I'll get the ironing board out.

A shit performance made them look good toaday , no one turned up disgusted , end of

Piss, piss poor.The ManU game was clearly a false dawn. Outplayed by a second-rate outfit on the slide, and I couldn't see anything positive to take from that game at all. Nothing more to be said, apart from goodnight.

Still pissed awf , now I;m going to bed but I,m gonna kick the cat first , come here you wanker

Glad I didn't watch this

I really thought that with players coming back from injury we would start to pick up but yesterday results was worrying. SAM complaining about our defending but what about the rest of our play. We don't create a lot of chances, we back off in midfield to the point that the opposition can take shots at our goal or at least put telling crosses in. The backing off and deep defending is down to SAM tactics which is an area of our game which seriously worries me.

A few more game like yesterday and we will be fighting to keep out of the bottom three.

In the FA cup game against Man Poo I believe Sam should put out a weaken team telling certain player that they are playing for their places. This is a game we are going to lose but if we can keep the score line down then I would accept that. Most important game will be against QPR which we cannot afford to lose. In fact SAM must make sure we get all 3 points. Lose this and we are in real trouble.
Need to build up the squad now and not release anyone unless we have good reasons. I know I have mention Tomkins going but I don’t believe we are in any sort of position to release anyone.
I’ve said before we have a poor squad and I believe we will just avoid going down this year however it needs good decision and tactic from above and I do question these tactics.

Big Sam

"It was the time and the way that we conceded the second goal that was most frustrating. We had a free-kick and a chance to score a goal to get us back in the game at 1-1, we had set up nicely and the ball went in with us having two defenders sat midway inside Sunderland's half without a Sunderland player anywhere near them.
"The ball gets headed out and, in the space of a few seconds, Stephane Sessegnon is running down their right in behind Guy Demel and he passed it across the box and there is James McClean stood all on his own. God only knows where our defenders had gone.
"Jussi Jaaskelainen gets us out of the mire by making a great save and then we go and mess up the clearance and Johnson puts it in. It probably summed our day up from start to finish. I don't know why the players have shown what they showed today because it wasn't anywhere near our best, as we know.
"They can play but it's away from home that is becoming a bit of a concern for me because of the lack of performances and goals we're getting. It's becoming a big concern for me and I have got to make sure I put it right for Wednesday because otherwise we'll be looking at a real thrashing at Old Trafford and that won't be good for confidence going into the home game with QPR next weekend.
"Our home form and performances are outstanding but our away performances are the reverse of that - they are just not good enough."

At least he knows we have problems, none of this 'we were unlucky' 'it didn't go our way' bollicks that we have had in past managers
Rocket up the arse time Sam

On reflection, I can't avoid concluding that we are a lot easier to beat without Mark Noble on the pitch . I just hope he really was being rested, there are a lot of people outside West Ham that rate him highly.

Mark had a slight muscle strain

Charlie Ham wrote:I really thought that with players coming back from injury we would start to pick up but yesterday results was worrying. SAM complaining about our defending but what about the rest of our play. We don't create a lot of chances, we back off in midfield to the point that the opposition can take shots at our goal or at least put telling crosses in. The backing off and deep defending is down to SAM tactics which is an area of our game which seriously worries me.

A few more game like yesterday and we will be fighting to keep out of the bottom three.

In the FA cup game against Man Poo I believe Sam should put out a weaken team telling certain player that they are playing for their places. This is a game we are going to lose but if we can keep the score line down then I would accept that. Most important game will be against QPR which we cannot afford to lose. In fact SAM must make sure we get all 3 points. Lose this and we are in real trouble.
Need to build up the squad now and not release anyone unless we have good reasons. I know I have mention Tomkins going but I don’t believe we are in any sort of position to release anyone.
I’ve said before we have a poor squad and I believe we will just avoid going down this year however it needs good decision and tactic from above and I do question these tactics.

I'm with you all the way Charlie, Wednesday's game is a write-off, next weekend we need all three points against the twitcher.

I am too tired to say a lot about the Sunderland game as I had to play 90 minutes this morning for the first time since September

However, I am going to make a controversial observation now...

We do not look anywhere near as solid with Joe Cole in the side as we did with either Matt Taylor or one of our other players from last/this season playing wide. He has shown me that he is still a luxury player. Not sure that is going to help us - particularly away from home

For Cleverley's goal last Saturday it was his job to be where Cleverley ended up scoring from. In addition, he went missing from helping Dan Potts out during that game and yesterday's

For Sunderland's second goal he was supposed to be keeping an eye on McClean when we had our free kick. When the ball broke to Sesignon he just stood and watched McClean run in behind him. He eventually gave chase but it was too late. He looked better when Collison went off and he moved into his position more centrally. Not saying that RVT made us any more solid as he is a lazy/unfit (delete as appropriate) player anyway. He went AWOL for the shot that Colback had that came back off Jussi for Colback to hit the post with his follow-up. Guy Demel was screaming at RVT after that let-off. For their 3rd goal RVT was AWOL again. We cannot afford passengers

My point is that if JC is going to play - particularly away from home - then it cannot be out wide as he gives our full backs no protection whatsoever. RVT is a liability too

Good point, mate. I'm sure Big Sam has picked up on that aswell.. Onwards and upwards!

Long but a good read



Vinny's Sunderland Report

Sunderland 3 West Ham United 0

West Ham continue their search for back to back wins after they were comprehensively beaten by Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.


Without a doubt this was a dismal performance from a West Ham side who failed to display any of the fight and desire shown last weekend against Manchester United.

From the very first kick Sunderland were in control and this is the way the game played out as the Wearsiders had a spirit and determination to their game which West Ham could not match.

Excuses can always be made but the fact is the players who started this game should have been good enough to compete with a Sunderland side who have been struggling at the wrong end of the table all season.

I am not suggesting that West Ham had a divine right to go and beat Sunderland but when you look at certain fixtures (and I am sure Sunderland would have said the same for us) you identify the ones you think you can take something from and this I would have said was one of those.

With every defeat this season I have searched for positives and on every occasion have been able to them but with this one I find it difficult to find any. There are few excuses I can make and judging from the post-match comments from Sam Allardyce he is not offering any either.

I have seen some crap games this season with the previous away game at Reading being pretty dire but this one tops the lot as we were outplayed from beginning to end.

When we talk about what a team managed by Sam Allardyce is like, this display is certainly not what would expect and this was as typical a West Ham away display we have become accustomed to over the years as you are likely to get.

There is likely to be a few knee jerk comments after this result and usually I would argue back but given what we witnessed against Sunderland it is difficult to have too much argument.

That said, we must dust ourselves off and prepare for the next few games which all have importance to our progression this season.

The Team


Allardyce made two changes to the side who started in the FA Cup third round game against Manchester United.

In defence James Tomkins was dropped to the bench with Winston Reid returning to the starting line up.

In midfield Matt Jarvis came into the side in place of Ricardo Vaz Te. Alou Diarra was making his first league start for the club and Joe Cole was making his first league appearance since re-signing for the club.

On the substitutes bench was new loan signing Marouane Chamakh.

The referee was 47 year old Neil Swarbrick from Preston. This was the second game of this season that he had been in charge of one of our games as he was the man in the middle for the home game against Southampton.

First Half


I hate statement such as ‘that was the worst half I have seen’ but as 45 minutes go this really was abysmal.

The home side should have been in the lead after just three minutes as space opened up and the lively Sessegnon got past Demel and stood his cross to the far post for Adam Johnson but his volley was blocked. The ball spun out to the edge of the area for David Vaughan but he put his powerful shot wide.

Sunderland had settled and West Ham looked all at sea, so when the home side took the lead with 12 minutes gone it did not come as a much of a surprise.

The ball was played wide to Johnson who put a cross into the area which was cleared by the head of Diarra but only as far as Sebastian Larsson who hit a stunning 25 yard thunderbolt which flew past Jaaskelainen to make it 1-0 to the hosts.

It was a goal we could do little about in terms of the quality of strike but we had invited pressure from the off and there had only been one side in the game up to that point.

Our first sight of goal came on 20 minutes as Demel showed good skill to beat his man and put a cross into the area which found Collison but he couldn’t get the ball out of his feet and the chance was lost despite Jarvis trying his best to make something happen but his low shot was easily saved.

As the rain came down little was happening in the way of a West Ham comeback and when I am mentioning a good cross from Joe Cole that was cleared by the Sunderland defence you can understand how little goal scoring threat we were offering.

With just over ten minutes of the half remaining James Collins pulled up with what looked like a hamstring injury and we were forced into a substitution with James Tomkins replacing him.

Sunderland came to life again in the final stages of the first period as they looked to get a second goal which would more than likely kill us off.

The ball was worked into the area for James McClean to strike a low shot which was superbly held by Jaaskelainen.

The biggest plus of the half was that we had not fell further behind in those 45 minutes, but of course that would all mean nothing as the second half would get off to the worst possible start.

Second Half


Sam Allardyce made a change during the half time break with Ricardo Vaz Te replacing Jack Collison. This saw Jarvis go to the left wing, Vaz Te to the right and Joe Cole moved into a more central position.

Two minutes into the second half and it was effectively game over as we conceded a second goal.

And as goals go, this was an abomination.

It actually started with a West Ham free kick which just makes it all a little more bizarre but the ball was cleared and Sessegnon broke forward and did well to get it across to James McClean who had burst forward without being tracked and his low shot was saved well by Jaaskelainen.

With the save it looked as though we had done enough but the ball came to Danny Potts who failed to clear it as he demonstrated an embarrassing piece of defending and Fletcher nipped in to set up Adam Johnson who tucked the ball away.

We continued to struggle and getting to grips with Sunderland was something we just could not do. The unimpressive Diarra was caught in possession and committed a foul which saw him booked.

Allardyce made a final change as he replaced the ineffective Carlton Cole with Marouane Chamakh.

Personally I would have kept Carlton Cole on the pitch and gone to a 4-4-2 with Nolan coming off because whilst Carlton Cole was not playing well he was being given no service so bringing on Chamakh was unlikely to change this problem and as we saw, it didn’t.

Sunderland came very close to making it three as they broke forward unopposed yet again with left back Jack Colback bursting into the area and hitting a shot which was saved by Jaaskelainen and the follow up effort from the same player crashed off the post.

There was no about it, we were getting stuffed and the pressure Sunderland were putting on us was more than we can handle.

Not long after Sunderland did have the ball in the back of the net but an offside flag saved us after Steven Fletcher had got through and finished brilliantly.

There was the tiny bit of hope in my brain that as it was only 2-0 and they had failed to completely kill things off we might be able to nick a goal and get something out of the game. Clearly I remain a foolish optimist and we never looked remotely likely to do such a thing.

We began to see more of the ball in their half but there was very little going on in terms of chances and we kept knocking the ball sideward and then eventually back to the defenders who could not pick out a pass.

With just over fifteen minutes to play Sunderland killed the game off with a third goal.

The excellent Sessegnon made our defence look silly as he cut inside and got into the area before hitting a miscued shot which luckily was deflected out to James McClean who was unmarked and the Irishman coolly finished from a tight angle.

Sunderland sat back from then and we saw a lot of the ball and created two decent chances but by that time it was far too late.

The first chance came for Vaz Te as Jarvis put in a cross which found him unmarked but his shot was well saved by Mignolet in the Sunderland goal who was making his first meaningful save of the day.

Three minutes later on the 83 minute Mignolet was called into action again as a cross from Vaz Te found James Tomkins at the back post and he hit a low left foot shot which was held by the keeper.

The West Ham fans could only look on in despair at a truly horrible away day and despite the chant of ‘we’ll stand where we want’ after this one I want to crawl into a dark corner.

Player Reviews


Jussi Jaaskelainen
He has to be angry at what he was watching in front of him because the defence was woeful and left him exposed. He made a few excellent stops and having made one in the second half from McClean he would have been tearing his hair out with what followed. Criticism will be made of our players after this game but Jussi should not be one of them. 7

Guy Demel
After some good form recently he started this one well enough and was looking to push forward down the right hand side to support Joe Cole but after the first 20 minutes he went missing and they punished us down that side especially in the second half when Demel never seemed to be where we needed him. 4

Winston Reid
A solid enough first half and made a few strong challenges. In the second half as we were stretched he looked a little ragged. There was too much pressure put on our centre halves in the second half. 5

James Collins
Until his injury he was almost a one man wall as he was always in the way of the Sunderland players. His distribution of the ball though was very poor and one of the reasons the pressure kept coming back on us.

Daniel Potts
I thought he was our weak link against Manchester United although I seemed to be in the minority with this opinion. Again I thought he was targeted and whilst he was persisting his mistake for the second goal was very poor. For me he clearly isn’t ready for first team Premiership football. Matthew Taylor at left back is a better option for me. 3

Alou Diarra
Off the pace or just a carthorse? He was so slow he made Nolan look like Usain Bolt. He was predictable and easy to tackle. Dreadful. 3

Jack Collison
Looked scared to go forward with the ball which is not something I expect from Collison. I was happy to see him start but his display was so terribly weak. 3

Kevin Nolan
I usually defend Nolan when people criticise his performances. He has a certain style which does not conform with the modern day footballer but the goals he has score usually mask any deficiencies he may have to his game. But this display is surely one you cannot defend. He was a spectator for most of the game and he should have been taken off so we could change to a different system. 3

Joe Cole
His control and touch was his only positive during a game that he just did not get involved in. He was moved into the centre of midfield during the second half but he couldn’t get a hold on the game at all. 4

Matt Jarvis
Another player who just didn’t get involved. He was snuffed out far too easily and when he did get the ball he looked as though he wouldn’t be able to beat an egg never mind an opposition player. I think Jarvis is a good player and could be very good, but I don’t believe he has been utilised well enough, especially away from home where he should be the outlet when breaking forward. 3

Carlton Cole
Easy to criticise as usual, but Cole never even got a sniff of goal. There wasn’t one moment where a ball went into the area for him to actually have a chance to get on the end of. His finishing is erratic, that I will always agree, but I can’t slag him off if he isn’t even getting chances. The display of Chamakh when he came on should highlight the lack of supply for our strikers and how it matters little who is playing if we cannot create. 4

Subs Used

James Tomkins (on for Collins 34 mins)
He and Reid were put under immense pressure as Sunderland sliced through our midfield. He was dragged all over the place and with Collins out for a while we need Tomkins to really step up and produce the type of performances I know he can because at the moment he looks weak. 4

Ricardo Vaz Te (on for Collison 45 mins)
Looked to make an instant impact when he came on and looked quite confident on the ball. Was unlucky with an effort from a tight angle which was well saved and after an average display against Manchester United last week he put himself back in the frame for a recall. 6

Marouane Chamakh (on for Cole 57 mins)
Never got involved. I don’t really remember him touching the ball and would love to see the stat that showed how many times he did actually receive the ball. Carlton, Carroll, Chamakh – it doesn’t matter who you play because if we are not going to create chances for these strikers we will not score goals. 4

Subs Not Used: Spiegel, Taylor, Diame, O’Neil

Goals: SUN: Larsson (12), Johnson (47), McClean (74)

Bookings: Tomkins, Diarra, Reid

Sunderland: Mignolet, Gardner, O'Shea, Bramble, Colback, Larsson, Vaughan, McClean, Johnson, Sessegnon, Fletcher
Subs: Westwood, Bardsley, Kilgallon, N'Diaye, McFadden, Campbell, Wickham

Attendance: 39,918

Referee: Neil Swarbrick, 9

Overall


We were not at the races from the start of this game and I am as ‘baffled’ as Sam Allardyce to how bad we were. It was a disaster performance and has to be a contender for our worst display of the season.

Sunderland were so much better than us it was bordering on embarrassing and at any level this is going to be a difficult display to take.

Our away form is a concern and we are the lowest goal scorers away from home in the Premiership which tells a story in itself. We have to be able to amend our formation when we are struggling and the inclusion of Kevin Nolan seems to prevent this from happening as he cannot play as part of a 4-4-2.

Why take a striker off when we were losing 2-0? Why not go to 4-4-2 with Nolan coming off and leave Joe Cole and Alou Diarra in the centre? We could have at least gone long and forced Sunderland back and had a go.

Next Game – Manchester United, Wednesday 16th January, 8.05pm KO, FA Cup 3rd Round Replay

It seems like an almost impossible task to go to Old Trafford and beat this current Manchester United side given their home record, our away record and our recent form.

I cannot for the life of me see how we are going to hurt them and keep tight enough in defence but I will just have to hope that the ‘magic’ of the cup will see us turn in some type of wondrous display.

The transfer window seems to make a lot of football supporters go a little crazy. Many thought Mohamed Diame was on his way to QPR and I see people slagging off the board for things that hasn’t even happened.

Tomkins is another one people seem to have sold off to Newcastle but with the injury to Collins and the fact that we have no other centre halves I do not get why people think that we would entertain the departure of James Tomkins.

Players will only leave if we get an unbelievable offer for them or we have signed other players in their position.

Regarding Carlton Cole you can argue that we have Maiga, Carroll, Chamakh and new signing Wellington Paulista but with three of them being on loan and the other not exactly setting the Premiership alight I would be surprised to see Carlton Cole depart unless as I have mentioned we get a good offer for him.

Add the fact that if these three players did leave they would all be going to sides who are divisional rivals (in terms of league positions) and I am sure we would not want to do that.

I do not entertain the thought that West Ham will be relegated. Maybe this is a bit of a bold statement and perhaps a little naïve but I believe we will win 4-6 games before the end of the season which will be enough to keep us up.

The bottom sides I cannot see winning more games than that.

But this is not to say that I want us to just stand still and I do not think Allardyce is wanting this either as he looks to improve the squad. There are many winnable games like our next league game and that has got to be three points.

The View From Allardyce


"It was the time and the way that we conceded the second goal that was most frustrating. We had a free-kick and a chance to score a goal to get us back in the game at 1-1, we had set up nicely and the ball went in with us having two defenders sat midway inside Sunderland's half without a Sunderland player anywhere near them.

"The ball gets headed out and, in the space of a few seconds, Stephane Sessegnon is running down their right in behind Guy Demel and he passed it across the box and there is James McClean stood all on his own. God only knows where our defenders had gone.

"Jussi Jaaskelainen gets us out of the mire by making a great save and then we go and mess up the clearance and Johnson puts it in. It probably summed our day up from start to finish. I don't know why the players have shown what they showed today because it wasn't anywhere near our best, as we know.

"They can play but it's away from home that is becoming a bit of a concern for me because of the lack of performances and goals we're getting. It's becoming a big concern for me and I have got to make sure I put it right for Wednesday because otherwise we'll be looking at a real thrashing at Old Trafford and that won't be good for confidence going into the home game with QPR next weekend.

"Our home form and performances are outstanding but our away performances are the reverse of that - they are just not good enough."

"We didn't look like the same set of players this week who played last week, with no disrespect to Sunderland because they are not as good as Manchester United, and managed to close Manchester United down and nearly shut them out.

"We couldn't shut Sunderland out today - in fact we let them do what they wanted, attack when they wanted and play to their strengths when they wanted. Whenever they attacked and got around our box they looked like they were going to score.

"We showed no organisation or desire to stop them doing what they wanted to do, and we did all of that perfectly well against Manchester United, so it baffles me that the application to stop the opposition playing at home and to get the fans excited wasn't there.

"On the back of that, we're unlikely to go and win a game. We've got to win the right to play and stop the opposition when we're playing on their patch and then we can look to play from there on. We never did that today at all."

"We have a game in-hand but it's Arsenal away and we're not playing very well away from home at the moment."

"Losing James is a massive blow. With Joey not here and George out with a long-standing medial knee ligament injury, to lose Ginge to a tear in his calf leaves us threadbare defensively and I need to get somebody in as quickly as I can.

"We need either a centre-back or a left-back - at least one of them - by the time we play QPR. We have to look very carefully at who we play on Wednesday and then for the following Saturday.

"We have to take it on the chin and admit we were second-best today. We do lose games of football and we have to accept that we will lose, but I cannot accept how we played today when I saw how well we played seven days ago. "


Season 2011/12 Scorers

Kevin Nolan 5 (5 League)
Modibo Maiga 4 (2 League, 2 Cup)
Mark Noble 3 (3 League)
Carlton Cole 2 (2 League)
Mohamed Diame 2 (2 League)
Joey O'Brien 2 (2 League
James Collins 2 (2 Cup)
Matt Jarvis 1 (1 League)
Matt Taylor 1 (1 League)
Winston Reid 1 (1 League)
Ricardo Vaz Te 1 (1 League))
Andy Carroll 1 (1 League)
James Tomkins - 1 (1 League)
Own Goal 1 (1 League)
Nicky Maynard 1 (1 Cup)

Bit long winded for me but I’ve got to say here that it’s not only the players that need criticising, SAM got this well wrong.

Charlie Ham wrote:Bit long winded for me but I’ve got to say here that it’s not only the players that need criticising, SAM got this well wrong.

Given the injuries we have what more could he have done as far as team selection is concerned? Noble was out and we missed his bite and tenacity. Perhaps Taylor instead of Joe Cole? Other than that he was pretty hamstrung (no pun intended seeing as what happened to Ginge !)

Tony P wrote:

Charlie Ham wrote:Bit long winded for me but I’ve got to say here that it’s not only the players that need criticising, SAM got this well wrong.

Given the injuries we have what more could he have done as far as team selection is concerned? Noble was out and we missed his bite and tenacity. Perhaps Taylor instead of Joe Cole? Other than that he was pretty hamstrung (no pun intended seeing as what happened to Ginge !)

Don't like SAM’s tactic and I think he got his substitution wrong.
Should have taken Nolan off.

Charlie Ham wrote:

Tony P wrote:

Charlie Ham wrote:Bit long winded for me but I’ve got to say here that it’s not only the players that need criticising, SAM got this well wrong.

Given the injuries we have what more could he have done as far as team selection is concerned? Noble was out and we missed his bite and tenacity. Perhaps Taylor instead of Joe Cole? Other than that he was pretty hamstrung (no pun intended seeing as what happened to Ginge !)

Don't like SAM’s tactic and I think he got his substitution wrong.
Should have taken Nolan off.

He is our top scorer and captain. We needed goals and needed a leader out there. Without Nolan it may well have been worse. Admittedly he did not contribute much from a footballing point of view but he was more likely to score us a goal than the other shower that were out there. Our tactics were the same tactics we had at Newcastle where we won 1-0 and WBA where we got a creditable 0-0. What was lacking was the drive, desire and application from the players that we had for those two games

All about opinions though Charlie

We were fantastic against Newcastle, I feel lucky to have seen that game. Combined with the stag weekend I wa son that was just about by highlight of 2012. So there, in a nut shell is why its so great to be a West Ham fan. Against sunderland, like against spuds, we had an off day. onwards and upwards!