WHUFC vs Brighton -- February 1st, 2020

Yes, you can check back through the threads to see how this fixture played out a little over a year ago... January 2nd was it?'

omg...

hate to blow my own trumpet but you really should hop on over to that thread... it's hilarious...

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It makes dismal reading... Arnautovic playing... Carroll playing... Antonio on the bench, Fabianski getting injured... Anderson playing poorly but not getting subbed... easy goals conceded from corners...

apart from the departure of Arnie and Sicknote, it could literally be a commentary on any (or every) game we've played in the past two years.

Perhaps the players and management should take a break and read this shit or maybe watch those games because even a quick skim of my ramblings reveals that NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

this was my final post regarding the game:

"and there you have it...

a nothing game

sure there are four goals... but it all ends square which it would have done with no goals...

we were nothing in the first half... barely anything in the 2nd...

we'll get murdered by decent opposition"

The biggest difference from that game last year is that this time Antonio is definitely out.

Yes we have different forwards... but trust me... Haller is no Arnautovic...

And we have a bizarrely piss poor record against Brighton.

And to make it potentially worse... Brighton are actually loaning out their players to european teams... yeah... they're that confident that they don't even try to hold onto their squad ahead of playing us.

and we're trying to pick up players from Hull... yes... Hull... didn't we do that with who was it? Hughgill or something... you know... a player who no longer plays with us...


Here's how the stats line up to make us look like world beaters:

MATCH FACTS

West Ham have never beaten Brighton in the Premier League, drawing twice and losing three times.

The last two league meetings have ended in a draw, including 1-1 in the reverse fixture in August.

The Hammers have won just one of their past four home games against Brighton in the league - but that was a 6-0 victory in the Championship in April 2012.

West Ham have only taken one point from four league matches.

No team has collected fewer points in the last seven Premier League games than West Ham's four.

They have lost six of their past nine Premier League games at London Stadium (W1, D2).

Their tally of seven Premier League home defeats is already more than in either of the previous two seasons.

West Ham have lost 17 points from a winning position this season, three more than any other side.

The Hammers' Premier League win rate in February is 42%, higher than in any other month of the year.

so... two new signings... never heard of either but the consensus on twitter is that they're both pretty decent...

time will tell.

other fixture-wise... the worrying one is Villa vs Bournemouth. One team above us... one below... the kind of game where we need both teams to lose and that can't happen.

If Villa win, we can't go above them even if we do.

If Bournemouth win, they will go above us if we draw, lose or win by two goals less than they do.

If they draw, we need to win by two goals to overtake Villa.

but hopefully none of this will matter as our new players step seamlessly into the side and we win, win, win...

westhamonkey wrote:

but hopefully none of this will matter as our new players step seamlessly into the side and we win, win, win...

Bowen is ineligible, needed to be signed by Midday yesterday to be able to play today. He'll be introduced but will only be able to watch.

Soucek will probably be on the bench. I would imagine he'll replace Noble on 60 minutes or a yellow card, whichever comes soonest.

Blakey wrote:

westhamonkey wrote:

but hopefully none of this will matter as our new players step seamlessly into the side and we win, win, win...

Bowen is ineligible, needed to be signed by Midday yesterday to be able to play today. He'll be introduced but will only be able to watch.

Soucek will probably be on the bench. I would imagine he'll replace Noble on 60 minutes or a yellow card, whichever comes soonest.

I was speaking more in terms of the remainder of the season, but other than that, agreed agreed and agreed...

or Soucek will replace Lanzini because Noble has the golden ticket while anderson is out...

The game's not on in the UK so you'll have to wait till MOTD to see what happened.

that's one of the good things about living in the States... every game... every week... of course, the downside is... so have to watch West Ham play, weeks in... week out.

be interesting to see how this team line-up shakes out...

Fabianski should play but is still probably not entirely fit

Guardian has the back four as:

Zabaleta, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell

the 'midfield'

Rice, Noble

sitting deep behind

Snodgrass, Lanzini, Fornals

and up front on his own in a formation that never works and should never be deployed at home... Haller


no, no, no, no... do NOT play a lone striker at home... for the love of god...

Lanzini needs to be dropped to try to prove you need to put in a performance to get picked... I'd honestly say the same about Haller as the 'lack of service' excuse are running a bit thin.

But to be honest, you could drop half that team for that reason... but then you stumble onto the other problem we have... no depth, so who's going to replace them?

I mean, sure... Lanzini has been pony in recent games... so replace him with... Sanchez?


The Evening Standard goes with the following but seems o be woefully out of the loop regarding who's actually fit to play...

Fabianski;

Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell,

Zabaleta, Masuaku; Rice, Noble, Snodgrass;

Antonio, Haller

They think Antonio will play but he's listed as injured and still out on the BBC...

so the treatment table looks like:

Fredericks
Wilshire (he shouldn't even figure in anyone's thinking)
Antonio
Anderson
Yarmolenko

the only thing that comes shining through regardless of which line-up you look at... we have no strength in depth at all.

so Soucek looks very likely to feature - I agree with Blakey that it's likely to be as a sub... especially since he's not played competitively since mid December.

the bigger question to ask is whether certain players are just going through a bad patch or if they're just not good enough...

I'd put Haller, Anderson, Lanzini, Sanchez and Yarmolenko into that category.

Zabaleta is out anyway so he's not included in any long term thinking

Wilshere needs to be hung out to dry and shouldn't figure in any long terms plans - but how do you ditch a sicknote player other than wait out their contract and keep paying the money?

Noble is way beyond his sell-by date and should go... hopefully Soucek will be his long term replacement but it just seems impossible for people to see past their rose tinted spectacles when it comes to Mr West Ham

Rice has been hot and cold, the Liverpool game being a prime example... he had some mare-ish moments but also had a couple chances he could/should have done better with...

The defense is a mystery... they kept Liverpool to only two goals... which is commendable... but it's the simple mistakes, poor positioning, lack of concentration that cost us and we've seen those traits for years... so what do we do?
Ogbonna, Diop, Cresswell... they're all equally capable of scoring goals, defending well but also gifting goals to the opposition - but how long does it take to swap out an entire back four?

Ngakia did well after a dodgy start midweek and I hope he gets a chance to become more familiar with playing in the first team (he's not even listening in the squad on the offish) but I also know we have a manager I don't lie and who will apparently bench or drop players - take the blossoming partnership between Antonio and Haller as a prime example.

the biggest problem (which you can see clearly by looking back at this fixture form January last year) is that nothing seems to change.
Performance-wise, player-wise, result-wise.

I mean... how is it that Brighton, the team we face in one many, many upcoming must-win games, is our bogey team? How can we fail to beat them so regularly?

We need to win tomorrow
I hope we win tomorrow
I'll be pissed if we don't
But I'll also not be at all surprised.

We need to take it one game at a time... if we win... it doesn't negate all the bad we've witnessed...

one game at a time...

ooh it's hard getting up this early after only 6 hours sleep...

Brighton kick off playing right to left...

OMG... Soucek starts....

who's in the team...

holy shit... how did Brighton miss that?

midfield and defense are left standing... cross comes in for a ....

you guessed it

free header from the edge of the six yard box.

Fortunately somehow he conspires to put it win instead of the back of the net...

1 and a half minutes gone.

ok...

back to the line-up:


west ham corner fizzes across the open goal....

it's all go so far...

but as I was saying


1Fabianski
2 4Fredericks
2 3Diop
2 1Ogbonna
3 Cresswell
41 Rice
11 Snodgrass
28 Soucek
16 Noble
30 Antonio
22 Haller

subs from:

4 Balbuena
5 Zabaleta
1 0Lanzini
1 8Fornals
2 6Masuaku
27 Ajeti
35 Randolph

corner and a free kick too s...

7 minutes gone some how... it's been all sorts of running around and huffing and puffing...

Like I said... Ngakia comes n an puts in a decent shift against the top team in the country... then doesn't even make the subs bench to play Brighton?

I suppose you gott teach them early that playing well means nothing.

Is he injured?

free kick from out on the left by the penalty area, Diop heads wide...

we've clawed possession back to 38%... so that's something.

15 minutes gone... we go in for a melee of close quarters talking... and actually win the ball.

Fredericks high cross goes out of play before Soucek can get to it.

So far... we've shown a lot of effort, a lack of sharpness in front of goal and the ability to fall asleep completely at the back.

Soucek as you'd think/hope seems full of beans and is running a lot.

It seems to be infectious as there's a lot of energy out there right now - which is osmhitng we've not seen recently (or a t all)

Here's some tweets:

"Soucek always looking to be in the box for crosses! Loving it, another target and looking sharp!! #WHUBHA"

"We seem more up for a fight today. Soucek already taking up some good positions. Come on West Ham! #WHUBHA"



while I'm fishing for tweets, Brighton again cut through the defense like it's not thee, go one on one with Fabianski but he palms way the shot and we escape.

some BBC insight into the fickleness of the game:

"As it stands, by virtue of Watford's lead against Everton, West Ham have dropped into the Premier League relegation places.

Now might be a good time to take the lead but as the ball bounces around in the Brighton box from yet another West Ham cross, no one can get on the end of it to work a shot away."

we have a corner - which looks like it's trying to be clever but really just ends up in us doing nothing with the ball.

we're up to 45% possession... that counts, right?

Noble and Snoddy conspire to fupp up a simple free kick.

Noble lunges to take it not realizing that as they've been doing, Snoddy will pretend run at the ball, step over it and leave it for Noble to take...

Noble then tries to keep moving and retime his run at the same time but by this time the forwards, seeing the movement around the ball have run into place... the Brighton defense waiting for the ball are all still sanding still and the ball floats over everyone who is offside and goes out uncontested.

It's like these people have never met OR trained together...




Brighton again go close t the other end on an attack straight through our team.

here's Auntie's version of the free kick...

"26 mins
Post update
West Ham 0-0 Brighton
West Ham win another free-kick in Brighton's half and Mark Noble curls it into the box.

Not one, not two, but three West Ham players are trapped offside and the ball sails out for a Brighton throw-in.

That one might need a bit more work in training, lads."

And that's how you do it...

Another free kick, this time from the opposite side... you keep Noble as far away from things as possible...

noddy swings in a low ball, Diop lunes and his outstretched foot directs the ball past the sprawling keeper and into the back of the net.

30 minutes gone and it's 1-0 to those boys from cockney.

from the BBC:

"30 mins
GOAL: West Ham 1-0 Brighton
Issa Diop
West Ham take the lead and that will do a lot to calm some nerves amongst the home support!

The Hammers win another free-kick in Brighton's hand and Robert Snodgrass sends it into the box and Issa Diop gets a foot to it.

Brighton will be disappointed with that. Prior to the goal they looked like they were getting back into this half."

well... as it stands in the table... we are currently in 15th place... but there's a lot of the game left to play and the other teams still need to do their bit...

Brighton attack but run out of players to get the ball.

We counter well... Ogbonna gets the ball from Noble.... gets too the edge of the penalty area... turns, seems Noble in the middle of the box.. plays the ball to him...

and...

Noble sets himself up for a strike, swings his leg, turns himself all the way round and completely misses the ball and falls over.

some good build up and play between players...

lovely cross from Fredericks... antonio hits a great volley but it hits a defender instead of the back of the net.

Antonio and Soucek are linking up well.

Haller is as anonymous as ever

Noble is just noble

Rice seems a bit more settled than in midweek.

the defense look great going forwards... not so good when actually doing the defending bit.

nice to see Fredericks back


I feel sorry for Ngakia does anyone have any information on why he's not playing?

I feel sorry for Dianganna too... although more sorry for us... I'd certainly be giving him a go up front in place of Haller if I was in charge.

get in there...

Snoddy gets a goal...

2-0

he made it himself with a long run down the wing, lays it off to Fredericks...

Freddie's cross gets headed out to Snoddy who (as you'd hope from a professional player) had moved into the box looking for the ball or rebounds...

the ball comes to him and he half gallingly gets a foot to it and it's in the back of the net.

right on the stroke of half time...

cockney boys 2

half time whistle goes... 2-0 up at home at the break...

we're currently 15th on goal difference...

how Auntie Beeb saw it:

"44 mins
GOAL: West Ham 2-0 Brighton
Robert Snodgrass
Bang, 2-0 West Ham.

Robert Snodgrass has had a cracking half and links up so well with Ryan Fredericks who tests the Brighton defence, the visitors attempt to clear with a poor header.

It falls back to Snodgrass who duly fires home unmarked inside the box with his left foot. Great finish."