West Ham v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Chipsticks]

I've just got in from work, aside from the match in general, (I'm getting the gist of how poor we were) Can someone please tell me how Lowton, Vlaar, and El Ahmadi got on?

[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.

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

Well he got a lot out of an inferior squad to ours last season,so Im not shitting my pants just yet.

[Risso]

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.

I agree, you could clearly see what the plan was.  Instead of hoofers like Dunne and Collins we had Vlaar and Clarke trying to play it out of defence.  Ditto with Lowton instead of Hutton.  The main problem is that N'Zogbia and Holman were so bad at doing the attacking side of things.  Ireland started brightly but faded, meaning that Bent was majorly isolated.  The trouble is, I just can't see a coherent attacking team in the players we have available. 

[Risso]

I've just got in from work, aside from the match in general, (I'm getting the gist of how poor we were) Can someone please tell me how Lowton, Vlaar, and El Ahmadi got on?

Lowton - did OK, lots of energy, final ball was quite often a bit rubbish, but didn't help by having a really poor winger in front of him.
Vlaar - for the first half was so so, in that he looked like a kid on too much Sunny D, but once he settled down second half he looked very composed and tough as old boots. 
El Ahmadi - very neat and composed, easily our best midfielder today.

[The Situation]

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

You're judging him based off playing under a manager who hates any sort of creativity or creative players and one game of the new season under a new manager, new style etc...

I've calmed down a little now and the posts above me are right, we can't just expect to change just like that over night into how we want to. We need to allow time for the team to gel and get used to play with each other in a new system under a new manager. Although a lot of fans have been sick of hearing the word "patience" over the last 2 seasons we really need to be. Put this game behind us now, and despite how bad we played at least look at how possession and passing retention has improved - its just what we do with the ball that should be looked at but that needs time to get where we want, it won't happen over night.

And its very early days yet but I'm going to watch Vlaar more closely. He could be a prominent leader of team from the back, who knows... but he does seem to have the attitude of someone we need in defence. We need a figurehead or leader like Laursen was for the team.

[PeterWithesShin]

Despite being a bit shaky in the first half, I really like the look of Vlaar for the long term.

[brian green]

You cannot forget O'Neill like you cannot forget Doug Ellis or Ron Saunders.   Martin O'Neill's departure and the manner of it completely bounced our board and our owner into an ill thought through replacement for him.   When that chicken came home to roost an even worse thought through replacement was appointed.   That administrative car crash is what eventually put Paul Lambert in the dug out today watching the dog's breakfast he has inherited.

[Nev]

I haven't seen the game but this time last season, having watched us against Fulham, I knew exactly what was going to happen.

This time the future is a lot less certain and bearing in mind the most optimistic amongst us can't see beyond a mid table finish, we are going to play shit and loose games at times, and today was one of those times.

[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.

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.

I think you've misunderstood my point.

The Baggies went down under Mowbray trying to play a possession based game, so that in itself isn't enough. We were very poor for long periods today and trying to claim that it is better or worse than anything else is a futile exercise. We have to wait and see how things develop and that applies to both sides of the debate.

[Billy Walker]

I'm disappointed by the result but I can see what the manager is trying to do.  As always, it's early days for every club in the Premier League at this time of year and its far too early to reach any solid conclusions about anything.  The manager was on about backing the young players and being patient this season and I think three more solid signings and plenty of patience will see us through to a good season.

I don't know why, but I feel as though if we reverted to three centre halves (like when GT had McGrath, Mountfield and Kent Nielsen at the back) we would be a lot more solid as a team.

[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.

I think you've misunderstood my point.

The Baggies went down under Mowbray trying to play a possession based game, so that in itself isn't enough. We were very poor for long periods today and trying to claim that it is better or worse than anything else is a futile exercise. We have to wait and see how things develop and that applies to both sides of the debate.

I see, fair enough, apologies. As for that specific point about Mowbray, he had previous for that sort of neat but ineffective football, whereas Lambert has previous for being effective and easy on the eye. For that reason alone, pretty much, I remain optimistic.

[Tom_Mc9?]

Ah well, these things happen. I'd rather have lost 1-0 to West Ham and look forward to a season with Lambert in charge to drawing 0-0 with Fulham and having a season of McLeish to endure. Onwards and upwards.

[Rob92]

I'm not going to panic yet. We knocked it around nicely and it's clear how Lambert wants us to play. As others have said, we had simply no penetration when going forward and the only way we tried to get it to Bent was by putting a ball over the top, which was always blocked by the head of Collins or Tomkins.

We lost the physical battle in the middle of the park and we were worryingly short of wide options. N'Zogbia was frustrating again and I thought Holman struggled to make much of an impression before being subbed.

The goal was bizarre. I haven't seen a replay, but I'm going to assume it was clearly onside for the referee to over rule the linesman in the way that he did. Overall I thought it was a game that neither side deserved to win. We need to do better.

[eastie]

Im far more worried by the performance today than by the result - we looked a very poor side today .

[tarzansbrother]

Norwich look fucked without Lambert. We have have got ourselves a good manager.