Tony P Sat 26 Jul 2014, 1:22 pm
A disaster of a tour to a country that ranks football WAY down its list of popular sports. To top it all we get beaten by a side who finished BOTTOM of the league last season and another thrashed 4-0 by Newcastle Utd on the same tour. If this tour was arranged to pander to Winston Reid and he still won't sign a new contract then - along with the ridiculous amount of travelling and the time adjustment at both ends of the trip - it has been a complete and utter waste of time from a footballing perspective. Add to that injuries to Carroll, Tomkins, Kouyate and now Demel too. FFS
Fat Sam - NO SHIT SHERLOCK
'We've played poorly' - West Ham boss Sam Allardyce looks for improvement after disappointing tour
Disappointed: West Ham lost to Wellington Phoenix on Tuesday
Published: 26 July 2014
Updated: 12:28, 26 July 2014
Sam Allardyce admitted West Ham's football was not up to standard after they were beaten 3-1 in a pre-season friendly by Sydney FC on Saturday.
The Hammers were trailing 2-0 at the break but were right back in it moments after re-emerging from the tunnel.
Their A-League opponenets added a third midway through the second period to kill the game and ensure Allardyce's men suffered a second successive defeat.
"We've played two games [on tour] and we've played poorly in them," the West Ham boss conceded.
"The football was not good enough to get results but we're experimenting and working on more open attacking play and it hasn't worked well from a defensive point of view."
Sydney were humbled 4-0 by Premier league side Newcastle earlier this week and some of the travelling West Ham contingent were expecting a similar outcome.
But defender Winston Reid said after the game he was not surprised by the threat Graham Arnold's side posed.
"I knew what to expect from the players who play in the New Zealand national team. A lot of them play in the A-League. They are not bad players at all.
"We came down here and we expected to do well and we didn't do so well.
"We'll go back home and work on some things."
From our offishul.............does this sound like the same old rhetoric from BFS to you?
"When everyone is back and fit we'll be fine. We've still got Ravel Morrison to come back, we've signed Enner Valencia, who is going for a work permit. Cheikhou Kouyate and James Tomkins are both out and Guy Demel came off so if we get them back we can become a bigger force again.Good managers find the balance between attack and defence. You don't seem to know how to do that Sam? Can see you gone before Xmas