Aston Villa v West Ham post-match thread

[SoccerHQ]

I was hoping he would bring Hourihane on for the last thirty minutes.

me too. The times Hourihane has come up with a goal when we havent looked like scoring.   Im suprised he wasnt brought on .

Lansbury wouldn't have been a bad shout either considering he finished well for the disallowed goal at Palace.

Didn't get the swapping DMs sub (AEM was made just before red card).

[tomd2103]

Frustrating but not disastrous.  Odd how we fell apart once they went down to 10 men.  We looked tired, which perhaps explains the multiple misplaced passes towards the end.

Positives: Nakamba had a decent debut,  the defence didn't give them a clear chance on goal, we created the clearer chances, Guilbert looked quick and committed, Grealish looked good first half.

Less positive:  Tempo still too slow,  way too many sloppy passes, neither winger much cop, centre forward a bit isolated and missed two free headers even if one was offside, Taylor, whilst ok defensively, is useless when attacking, a seeming reluctance to have a pop (Taylor and Grealish had sight of goal second half and bottled it), Jota looks lightweight, a bit slow and very one-footed,  struggling against 10 men.

All in all we don't look a bad team, certainly nothing like 3-4 years ago, we maybe need a bit more time for players to bed in and for things to click.  And maybe Dean needs to re-think the formation.

Cant agree with the bit about Nakamba. Gave the ball away numerous times under little pressure. Hopefully was just a bit nervous on his debut.

  Nakamba gave the ball away about 3 times but on 2 of those he quickly got back and  won the ball back. He had a very good game  and was probably the difference to winning a point or losing the game.

Thought it was a few more times than that and some of them were in quite dangerous positions in our own half.  Despite that, he did look pretty promising though.  Very athletic and mobile, got stuck in and looked pretty comfortable on the ball. 

[SoccerHQ]

Should have won, but once they had the man sent off they stopped in their own half, denied us or themselves any space, and the odds on the draw shot up.

Overall I'm surprised to see people complaining about the quality. I actually thought everything - passing, pressing, defensive shape, decision making - was of high standard, with the exception of actually finishing the bloody chances. It's an odd division, with ten teams capable of finishing between tenth and bottom, and none of them, not even Newcastle, are what I'd call bad. Three pretty good sides will go down this year, and while we might well be one of them it is nice to actually have a pretty good side.

The passing and crossing in the second half was absolutely abysmal.  I can't recall a game where we made so many sloppy, unforced errors.  The second half was really poor almost from start to finish.

I think Monty's general point is it's actually a really good quality premier league this year.

For all the money we've spent West Ham had tonight in final third Felipe Anderson (signed for 36m and 2 caps for Brazil) Lanzini (would've been in Argentina world cup squad but did his ACL just before the tournament), Yarmolenko (81 caps for the Ukraine and cost  15m) and Haller who's already scored 3 in 3 before tonight. They signed him for club record 45m.

They also put on Pablo Fornals who played very well in the under 21 tournament this summer and has 2 caps for the full Spain team. Signed for 24m.

"West Ham's much-hyped attacking quartet of Haller, Andriy Yarmolenko, Manuel Lanzini and Felipe Anderson struggled to create many opportunities.

Mark Noble's seventh-minute snap shot, which was straight at goalkeeper Tom Heaton, proved to be their only shot on target."

There are positives. Defensively we're looking pretty good now given Everton's 100m attacking 4 didn't create much against us either until late in the game.

Any team that stays up against the odds usually has a strong defensive core. Burnley, Stoke and Brighton all gone down that route in the last decade rolling out the clean sheets.

The scoring bit is the problem.

[Risso]

Marvelous made a couple of bad passes early on, but grew into the game I thought, and to his credit looked up to speed with the Premier League.  I think Luiz has more quality on the ball, but Nakamba more physical presence.  Can definitely see that there'll be games that suit one or the other more.  On that point, Luiz could have come on earlier, as I think his better range of passing might have helped unpick West Ham a bit better.

[Risso]

Should have won, but once they had the man sent off they stopped in their own half, denied us or themselves any space, and the odds on the draw shot up.

Overall I'm surprised to see people complaining about the quality. I actually thought everything - passing, pressing, defensive shape, decision making - was of high standard, with the exception of actually finishing the bloody chances. It's an odd division, with ten teams capable of finishing between tenth and bottom, and none of them, not even Newcastle, are what I'd call bad. Three pretty good sides will go down this year, and while we might well be one of them it is nice to actually have a pretty good side.

The passing and crossing in the second half was absolutely abysmal.  I can't recall a game where we made so many sloppy, unforced errors.  The second half was really poor almost from start to finish.

I think Monty's general point is it's actually a really good quality premier league this year.

For all the money we've spent West Ham had tonight in final third Felipe Anderson (signed for 36m and 2 caps for Brazil) Lanzini (would've been in Argentina world cup squad but did his ACL just before the tournament), Yarmolenko (81 caps for the Ukraine and cost  15m) and Haller who's already scored 3 in 3 before tonight. They signed him for club record 45m.

They also put on Pablo Fornals who played very well in the under 21 tournament this summer and has 2 caps for the full Spain team. Signed for 24m.

"West Ham's much-hyped attacking quartet of Haller, Andriy Yarmolenko, Manuel Lanzini and Felipe Anderson struggled to create many opportunities.

Mark Noble's seventh-minute snap shot, which was straight at goalkeeper Tom Heaton, proved to be their only shot on target."

There are positives. Defensively we're looking pretty good now given Everton's 100m attacking 4 didn't create much against us either until late in the game.

Any team that stays up against the odds usually has a strong defensive core. Burnley, Stoke and Brighton all gone down that route in the last decade rolling out the clean sheets.

The scoring bit is the problem.

I don't disagree that West Ham are a good team, but our players were just kicking the ball into touch when under no pressure whatsoever, and having a man advantage.  That was the disappointing part of tonight.  Jack especially was very wasteful.

[SoccerHQ]

Should have won, but once they had the man sent off they stopped in their own half, denied us or themselves any space, and the odds on the draw shot up.

Overall I'm surprised to see people complaining about the quality. I actually thought everything - passing, pressing, defensive shape, decision making - was of high standard, with the exception of actually finishing the bloody chances. It's an odd division, with ten teams capable of finishing between tenth and bottom, and none of them, not even Newcastle, are what I'd call bad. Three pretty good sides will go down this year, and while we might well be one of them it is nice to actually have a pretty good side.

The passing and crossing in the second half was absolutely abysmal.  I can't recall a game where we made so many sloppy, unforced errors.  The second half was really poor almost from start to finish.

I think Monty's general point is it's actually a really good quality premier league this year.

For all the money we've spent West Ham had tonight in final third Felipe Anderson (signed for 36m and 2 caps for Brazil) Lanzini (would've been in Argentina world cup squad but did his ACL just before the tournament), Yarmolenko (81 caps for the Ukraine and cost  15m) and Haller who's already scored 3 in 3 before tonight. They signed him for club record 45m.

They also put on Pablo Fornals who played very well in the under 21 tournament this summer and has 2 caps for the full Spain team. Signed for 24m.

"West Ham's much-hyped attacking quartet of Haller, Andriy Yarmolenko, Manuel Lanzini and Felipe Anderson struggled to create many opportunities.

Mark Noble's seventh-minute snap shot, which was straight at goalkeeper Tom Heaton, proved to be their only shot on target."

There are positives. Defensively we're looking pretty good now given Everton's 100m attacking 4 didn't create much against us either until late in the game.

Any team that stays up against the odds usually has a strong defensive core. Burnley, Stoke and Brighton all gone down that route in the last decade rolling out the clean sheets.

The scoring bit is the problem.

I don't disagree that West Ham are a good team, but our players were just kicking the ball into touch when under no pressure whatsoever, and having a man advantage.  That was the disappointing part of tonight.  Jack especially was very wasteful.

The last twenty were poor, no doubt. We are often clueless playing against 10 men so it's nothing new when you think we weren't even taking advantage of it in the championship.

Add in Brunt getting sent off in the play offs and we couldn't score a goal against 10 men WBA in the whole of extra time period.

It's just something we're frustratingly really bad at under countless managers down the years.

Our first half performance was good.

[SoccerHQ]

Marvelous made a couple of bad passes early on, but grew into the game I thought, and to his credit looked up to speed with the Premier League.  I think Luiz has more quality on the ball, but Nakamba more physical presence.  Can definitely see that there'll be games that suit one or the other more.  On that point, Luiz could have come on earlier, as I think his better range of passing might have helped unpick West Ham a bit better.

Could be worth looking into a diamond midfield v Arsenal. With out lack of quality in final third it's pretty difficult to justify playing three of them really so would rather load central midfield more and try to give more licence for Grealish and McGinn to get forward.

[Risso]

We were OK first half, but West Ham still had 60% possession.

[Flin5tone]

What on earth happened with Mings and El Ghazi in the first half?, looked like Mings went OTT on Anwar when he'd done nothing wrong?


As for the game, I thought it was entertaining and enjoyed it but some of the passing was absolutely horrific. Dean Smith messed up tonight, made the wrong changes and left it far too late, also he needs to look at playing a different formation, we looked better when Davies was on the pitch. Wesley should be fined for his Dive, an embarrassment.

[Risso]

What on earth happened with Mings and El Ghazi in the first half?, looked like Mings went OTT on Anward when he'd done nothing wrong?


As for the game, I thought it was entertaining and enjoyed it but some of the passing was absolutely horrific. Dean Smith messed up tonight, made the wrong changes and left it far too late, also he needs to look at playing a different formation, we looked better when Davies was on the pitch. Wesley should be fined for his Dive, an embarrassment.

Mings rightly said something to El Ghazi (who was shit all night) about his lack of tracking back.  El Ghazi took it badly and shoved his head towards Mings.  I've seen players sent off for that sort of thing.

[PeterWithesShin]

AEG was slow in tracking a runner who got in a cross that Mings put out for a corner. I don't mind players giving each other a bollocking but not the head clashing, I think AEG was quite lucky not to get a red, I reckon there's a good chance he'd have got one if he'd done that to an opposition player.

[Flin5tone]

It seemed like Taylor was at fault to me and TM went a bit OTT, either way not something you want to see.

Something needs to change, the effort is there you can't fault that at all and the games are enjoyable to watch but goals win games and I really can't see us getting many at the moment.

[PeterWithesShin]

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/11811702/mings-el-ghazis-heated-exchange

[SoccerHQ]

AEG was slow in tracking a runner who got in a cross that Mings put out for a corner. I don't mind players giving each other a bollocking but not the head clashing, I think AEG was quite lucky not to get a red, I reckon there's a good chance he'd have got one if he'd done that to an opposition player.

What are actually the rules regarding violent conduct if you do it to your own players? I remember years back there was disagreement between I think Southampton keeper who slapped one of his defenders and the Holte just laughed at it and ref gave a quick talk and let it go.

Then you have more extreme case of Bowyer-Dyer when both got reds. Also years ago Batty and Le Saux having a fight while at Blackburn, can't remember if either got sent off.

As much as the Bournemouth defeat was self inflicted, having a player get a red card for aggressive play towards a team mate would've topped that. Strong opinions are fine but we need to cut it out on the field.

[Risso]

Violent conduct is violent conduct, doesn't matter who it's aimed at.  He's an idiot.