West Ham v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[staffsvillain]

In addition to the patience of both the board, and supporters.

[phantom limb]

A disappointing result but I'm not wetting myself just yet. Once Hutton and Warnock finally toddle off and we get a couple of players in then we'll be fine.

[PaulWinch again]

I'll also point out we unbeaten for about the first 6 games last year, so I'm not too despondent at this stage.

[garyshawsknee]

Lamberts no mug,he'll soon realise what needs sorting out,who needs dropping,who needs bringing in. This season is gonna be a mixture of results and performances.especially when the team is packed with young players and players with no experience in England.

None of us obviously like losing,but we need to relax a little and let the guy get on with his job,i'm sure there will be 2 or 3 more additions before Sept which will help the manager a great deal.

[PeterWithesShin]

I'm not massively disappointed with the defeat. More the manner of it. West Ham won't get a much easier 3 points all season. We seemed incapable of upping the pace or our game in the second half and never really looked like creating a decent chance never mind scoring. I'd hoped to have seen the last of that. Hopefully a one off but that did disappoint me.

[brontebilly]

I never expected any other result today.   I did not expect to see us play particularly well today.   Far too much damage has been done by the triple whammy of the manner of O'Neill's departure and the horrendous follow up to that blow by the appointment of a sick man and an incompetent man in quick succession.   The team has to be rebuilt from the bottom up.   Lambert is no miracle worker but at least he knows what he wants.   If the players we have cannot deliver what he wants and what we want they have to be shipped out and replaced by players who can whether it is Darren Bent or Gary Gardner, Stephen Ireland or Charles N'Zogbia.   The game today showed us where we are and the magnitude of the task ahead.

We have a manager who can turn things around but he must have the financila backing of the owner.

surely we can forget about O'Neill now and try and move on?

[Chris Smith]

Pretty much as I expected. You can't just throw a load of players together under a new manager and a different system and expect it all to click immediately. Those trying to draw sweeping conclusions on individuals or systems based on that are being hugely premature, in the same way a few others were after pre-season.

As the players get used to each other and the way they are being asked to play hopefully things will improve, having Gabby, Dunne and Albrighton available will also help but I think it's going to take time.

[Monty]

I'm not massively disappointed with the defeat. More the manner of it. West Ham won't get a much easier 3 points all season. We seemed incapable of upping the pace or our game in the second half and never really looked like creating a decent chance never mind scoring. I'd hoped to have seen the last of that. Hopefully a one off but that did disappoint me.

Thing is, if there's a way to be crap, then the way we did it today was better as a platform. Last season we'd just get the ball, whack it brainlessly up top and lose it. Today we kept the ball and probed impotently - but at least we had the ball, a better long-term sign.

[Risso]

I dont know is it worth considering trading Nzogbia already. First game of the season but he just looked as bad as he did consistently last season today

Have to say, I defended N'Zogbia last season, but I've seen nothing in the pre-season matches, or today, to suggest that he's improved at all. If someone offered us a decent whack for him this window, and we identified a replacement, I'd take it.

He's infuriating. He worked hard enough, but when he gets the ball, he just seems to have no idea what to do with it. I don't know if he thought going to Wigan he was a big fish in a small pool, and that gave him confidence to take players on and beat them, but with us he just looks totally clueless as to what to do with the ball when he's got it.

For me, the main reason we created nothing today was that Delph and KEA were doing their job in midfield, but Holman (who I thought did absolutely nothing and looked lost) and N'Zogbia offered nothing to us going forward.

N'Zogbia is up there with Curtis Davies as an appalling way to spend £10m

[Monty]

I dont know is it worth considering trading Nzogbia already. First game of the season but he just looked as bad as he did consistently last season today

Have to say, I defended N'Zogbia last season, but I've seen nothing in the pre-season matches, or today, to suggest that he's improved at all. If someone offered us a decent whack for him this window, and we identified a replacement, I'd take it.

He's infuriating. He worked hard enough, but when he gets the ball, he just seems to have no idea what to do with it. I don't know if he thought going to Wigan he was a big fish in a small pool, and that gave him confidence to take players on and beat them, but with us he just looks totally clueless as to what to do with the ball when he's got it.

For me, the main reason we created nothing today was that Delph and KEA were doing their job in midfield, but Holman (who I thought did absolutely nothing and looked lost) and N'Zogbia offered nothing to us going forward.

N'Zogbia is up there with Curtis Davies as an appalling way to spend £10m

I agree, and I think Bannan has to play instead next week.

[Chris Smith]

I'm not massively disappointed with the defeat. More the manner of it. West Ham won't get a much easier 3 points all season. We seemed incapable of upping the pace or our game in the second half and never really looked like creating a decent chance never mind scoring. I'd hoped to have seen the last of that. Hopefully a one off but that did disappoint me.

Thing is, if there's a way to be crap, then the way we did it today was better as a platform. Last season we'd just get the ball, whack it brainlessly up top and lose it. Today we kept the ball and probed impotently - but at least we had the ball, a better long-term sign.

I think drawing any firm conclusions, good or bad, from one performance is futile.

[Dazvillain]

Lamberts no mug,he'll soon realise what needs sorting out,who needs dropping,who needs bringing in. This season is gonna be a mixture of results and performances.especially when the team is packed with young players and players with no experience in England
None of us obviously like losing,but we need to relax a little and let the guy get on with his job,i'm sure there will be 2 or 3 more additions before Sept which will help the manager a great deal.

If the board are not willing to spalsh big cash and are still worried about salaries,  it doesnt matter who our manager is, based on the squad and fire power up front we wont be too much different to last year unfortunately

[tarzansbrother]

I dont know is it worth considering trading Nzogbia already. First game of the season but he just looked as bad as he did consistently last season today

Have to say, I defended N'Zogbia last season, but I've seen nothing in the pre-season matches, or today, to suggest that he's improved at all. If someone offered us a decent whack for him this window, and we identified a replacement, I'd take it.

He's infuriating. He worked hard enough, but when he gets the ball, he just seems to have no idea what to do with it. I don't know if he thought going to Wigan he was a big fish in a small pool, and that gave him confidence to take players on and beat them, but with us he just looks totally clueless as to what to do with the ball when he's got it.

For me, the main reason we created nothing today was that Delph and KEA were doing their job in midfield, but Holman (who I thought did absolutely nothing and looked lost) and N'Zogbia offered nothing to us going forward.

N'Zogbia is up there with Curtis Davies as an appalling way to spend £10m

Kightly £1.5m already matched Nzogbia for his villa career. Should have told fat Whelan to fuck off.

[PeterWithesShin]

I'm not massively disappointed with the defeat. More the manner of it. West Ham won't get a much easier 3 points all season. We seemed incapable of upping the pace or our game in the second half and never really looked like creating a decent chance never mind scoring. I'd hoped to have seen the last of that. Hopefully a one off but that did disappoint me.

Thing is, if there's a way to be crap, then the way we did it today was better as a platform. Last season we'd just get the ball, whack it brainlessly up top and lose it. Today we kept the ball and probed impotently - but at least we had the ball, a better long-term sign.

My point was more about how we never looked like we were trying to up things and get an equaliser as the game wore on rather than passing it ok. I was happy with the opening 20 odd minutes even though it led nowhere. But once we were behind and especially the last 20 minutes or so we didn't seem to try anything different,. As Beelzebub said late in the game, it was as though we were defending a lead rather than trying to get back into it.

[Monty]

I'm not massively disappointed with the defeat. More the manner of it. West Ham won't get a much easier 3 points all season. We seemed incapable of upping the pace or our game in the second half and never really looked like creating a decent chance never mind scoring. I'd hoped to have seen the last of that. Hopefully a one off but that did disappoint me.

Thing is, if there's a way to be crap, then the way we did it today was better as a platform. Last season we'd just get the ball, whack it brainlessly up top and lose it. Today we kept the ball and probed impotently - but at least we had the ball, a better long-term sign.

I think drawing any firm conclusions, good or bad, from one performance is futile.

If you're trying to deny that we're going for a more possession-based approach, then you haven't just not watched the games, you haven't heard anything Lambert or the players have said in pre-season. That is clearly the plan.

PWS, that's true, but we kept our calm and I'd rather they did that than lost their heads. It was losing their heads which lead to the awful 15 minute spell which, ultimately, was our downfall.