West Ham v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[pauliewalnuts]

It might have been as bad as Norwich, but I seriously doubt it will be when the manager's had a whole season in the job.

Bingo.

Yes, it was piss poor in many ways, but fuck me, what kind of transition does anyone expect in 90 minutes of competitive football, and having made minimal additions to the squad?

[Chipsticks]

It might have been as bad as Norwich, but I seriously doubt it will be when the manager's had a whole season in the job.

Bingo.

Yes, it was piss poor in many ways, but fuck me, what kind of transition does anyone expect in 90 minutes of competitive football, and having made minimal additions to the squad?

What worried me was the people in the 'season expectations' thread hoping for a top 8 finish.

[placeforparks]

hottest day of the year. away end in direct sunlight and no water or soft drinks at half time. shambles.

[usav]

Yes, it was piss poor in many ways, but fuck me, what kind of transition does anyone expect in 90 minutes of competitive football, and having made minimal additions to the squad?

Some decent additions to the squad?   Otherwise we are going to be in for more of the same, a new manager isn't going to just fix us.

Look at Southampton today, gave it a really good go and played some really good football.  I fear we are not even on their level - yet.

[olaftab]

Does anyone thing Clark will be switched to left back when Dunne returns? 

I am hoping Dunne will not return other than as back up CB.

[Toronto Villa]

Yes, it was piss poor in many ways, but fuck me, what kind of transition does anyone expect in 90 minutes of competitive football, and having made minimal additions to the squad?

Some decent additions to the squad?   Otherwise we are going to be in for more of the same, a new manager isn't going to just fix us.

Look at Southampton today, gave it a really good go and played some really good football.  I fear we are not even on their level - yet.

Southampton played with the energy and desire afforded to newly promoted players given a national audience against the champions. They were great today, but before we kick ourselves in the nuts, let's just see where they are in a few months. I'll put money on us being above them as they run out steam. The have been many promoted teams that have started well and faded very badly.

[Havencheese]

It takes time.

Our improvement will come over time, it was disappointing but I'm not concerned with the result, or even how badly we played at times. We knocked the ball around for what, a total of thirty to forty minutes all up, in the style Lambert wants us to play and hasn't even finalised his squad yet. I'd imagine in what, a few months he'll have us playing his 'plan A' style game for a full 90 minutes if necessary. So in effect I think we're almost half way there with the cattle we've got. He'll strengthen the squad it seems (with him being outspoken about the Defoe and Jones offerings) and even then be an even better team. The time to worry comes when at Christmas we are sitting in the bottom three, with no options on the park, no creativity, no goals and conceding a stack of them...but that aint gonna happen. Knowing this it makes me feel as if I have a much greater football intelligence than the likes of wannabe, sensationalist pundit/ponse Robbie "fucking" Savage, but then again that's not a difficult achievement is it? Take it from another former midfielder by the name of Paul Lambert, paraphrasing that: Savage is full of shit.

On the Holman side of things, he didn't even make the full 90 minutes a few days ago for Australian friendly against Scotland. Hobbling off in the second half, so I'm surprised he even got to start let alone come off the bench.

I'm still cautiously optimistic, yet excited about this new era. Soton and the Norwich of last year were able to exceed what we've done after one game because the've been with their respective managers for long enough for everything to click into gear. Be patient my children.

[andrew08]

Long term the above is true one would hope but in terms of performance it was no better than Norwich IMO and this is a post match thread.

I was not impressed by tippy tappy footy when the full backs don't push on and we don't create chances for our only decent striker. Don't forget I wasn't paying £39 to see a warm up game where we practice our future 'style' this was the first game of the season and the team wasn't ready/capable of beating an at best average West Ham side.

Of course I can see where PL is trying to get to and hopefully the end result will be a great style of footy with results to match. Just get there soon please.

[nick harper]

With only three first team players out on Saturday, you only had to look a the bench to see how woefully thin the squad is. We need at least three in before the end of the month, otherwise I fear for us over a long season. I hope the board back him.

[sendō WHU]

Well I was pleasantly surprised that we came away with the points in that game. I thought it had draw written all over it beforehand, and in truth there was little in that match that stood one side above the other. The first half was probably one of the most boring halves of football I've watched in some time.

Still I guess positives for us, it's an opening day win and hopefully the start of some momentum. We've got a run of "easy" games through the early autumn with a run of "hard" games come October/November so points on the board is important. Allardyce hasn't changed much from what worked well last year with the team happy to sit back and wait for chances in set pieces. Quite fitting then that it was Nolan that got the goal.

Disappointed in Villa for you lot. You can see what Lambert is trying to do getting the team to retain possession and build through the middle but it didn't work for a number of reasons. You don't seem to have any creative midfield players, either a skilful man in the middle with an eye for a pass or pacey wingers who can beat a full back and charge into the box. Darren Bent - arguably your best player - was a spectator. You'd have been better off doing a Barca and going 4-6-0.

Also, Bent as captain? Seems a strange one to me, he's never struck me as captain material. Although I don't like to see strikers as captains, should be a defender or a defensive midfielder for me, someone who is going to be in the middle of the park most of the time amongst the action so he can marshal the troops if need be.

Still, early days and there's a long way to go so no need for doom and gloom yet. The only reason I fear for you lot at present, is I remember how bad West Ham were in 09/10 under Zola. We stayed up with a poor team and a poor points total by virtue of there being three teams worse than us. However we failed to improve the next season and paid for it. Villa last year reminded me of us in 09/10. You don't seem to have improved yet, but I hope you do.

Although not too much of course. 

[Drummond]

We played good possession football, passed it around and only lost 1-0.

West Ham were promoted and have momentum of winning games, whereas we've just landed our 4th manager in 3 years who is trying to change the style of play again

It will take time but the evidence is there to see, the revolution has started.

[lordmcgrath5]

Cheers, Sendo  - fair and measured as usual.

Agree with you totally about Bent as acting captain - doesn't make sense to me either.

[lordmcgrath5]

MOTD highlights

Cheers for that, Legion, hadn't seen that site before. They even had highlights of (my German team) Duisburg's flukey away win in the German Cup on Saturday. I'd been struggling to find a highlights site for Duisburg since they closed their PayTV offering earlier this year.

[PaulTheVillan]

We played good possession football, passed it around and only lost 1-0.

West Ham were promoted and have momentum of winning games, whereas we've just landed our 4th manager in 3 years who is trying to change the style of play again

It will take time but the evidence is there to see, the revolution has started.

Sense.

This thread can now be closed.

[pauliewalnuts]

Also, Bent as captain? Seems a strange one to me, he's never struck me as captain material. Although I don't like to see strikers as captains, should be a defender or a defensive midfielder for me, someone who is going to be in the middle of the park most of the time amongst the action so he can marshal the troops if need be.

Yup, that surprised me, as well.