West Ham United v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Matt Collins]

I think the Morrison one may have been a foul but it was a v difficult call and would have had to send him off for it. No complaints from me

[silhillvilla]

Don't get all the moaning. It's a very decent point, another clean sheet and we are building a solid defence now which is the basis to any successful side. Happy.

[Matt Collins]

I was looking at Man Citys bench at half time yesterday afternoon. It read  Hart,Richards,Lescott,Milner, Kolorov,Navas,Dzeko.

That was their bench. They won 7-0!

What chance is there for a club like ours with little financial backing from the owner.

The best we can hope for is mid table in the top flight....any season!

and maybe a League Cup run.

I often feel like this. Then I look at Southampton and Everton and think better is achievable with the right leadership and structure.

[supertom]

I think the Morrison one may have been a foul but it was a v difficult call and would have had to send him off for it. No complaints from me

I'm not sure Weimann would have kept control of the ball and had enough puff left to compose himself and slot it away. It certainly wasn't stone wall. A bit clumsy and a bit of a forwards challenge but it's one of those that could have gone either way. Sadly it went Morrisons way.

[Matt Collins]

On squad building, if we can keep benteke and then add a really good CM to complement Delph plus a creative player - either centrally or wide - next summer, then I think we start looking like a good side. Spend the £20m additional revenue on those players.

But the problems are a) £10m players tend to want big wages. Can we go there? Perhaps we can with lots of others off the balance sheet. B) benteke must be likely to leave soon. Every other player in that Belgian side plays for teams that are much better than us. And whatever money we bring in its going to be really hard to replace him. So far, kozak doesn't look like the answer, but I'm not writing any of the summer signings off yet.

[supertom]

I was looking at Man Citys bench at half time yesterday afternoon. It read  Hart,Richards,Lescott,Milner, Kolorov,Navas,Dzeko.

That was their bench. They won 7-0!

What chance is there for a club like ours with little financial backing from the owner.

The best we can hope for is mid table in the top flight....any season!

and maybe a League Cup run.

I often feel like this. Then I look at Southampton and Everton and think better is achievable with the right leadership and structure.

Exactly. And we could certainly at this time afford to spend a little more than we have done. The suggestion also seems to be that Lambert hasn't spent all he's been allocated either. Just how genuine the Dempsey bid was I don't know, and would it have required the money eventually used for Benteke? Or the money we were going to use on a midfielder this summer? Did that end up being used for Kozak or has he still got money aside for a mid?

Who knows. I certainly think after xmas, if we're in the shit, we could well see a Bent-esque signing in midfield again. And again with the massive TV money injection over the summer and many of the smaller prem clubs spending more than they would normally have, I think we should have a few quid.
A couple of decent midfielders is an absolute must. We need players of at least Delph's quality to partner the fab one in midfield.

[Clampy]

I think the Morrison one may have been a foul but it was a v difficult call and would have had to send him off for it. No complaints from me

Maybe but I can't help thinking that he'd have given the foul had it been in the middle of the pitch.

[eastie]

Another thing regarding yesterday's game, did anyone else think Howard Webb bottled out of at least booking Morrison for bringing down Weimann in the first half? The pundits on MOTD didn't seem to think it was a foul despite the fact that Morrison didn't make any kind of attempt to get the ball.

For me , I think if he gives the foul then he would have to give a red card - certainly seen them given but I think it was the sort of decision to go against an away team.

[DB]

I was looking at Man Citys bench at half time yesterday afternoon. It read  Hart,Richards,Lescott,Milner, Kolorov,Navas,Dzeko.

That was their bench. They won 7-0!

What chance is there for a club like ours with little financial backing from the owner.

The best we can hope for is mid table in the top flight....any season!

and maybe a League Cup run.

I often feel like this. Then I look at Southampton and Everton and think better is achievable with the right leadership and structure.

That's modern football, the have's and the have not's. We are in the majority of the have not's.
That said, I honestly thought we had the best young manager around when he came, yes it was hard last season due to the open heart surgery needed after MON to the TSM the state we were left in. But towards the end of last season, I thought we clicked and played some superb football. This season, seems we have fallen back again, yes some good results but also really poor ones. His signings from the summer have not really set the world alight, and when you look at Soton, Everton as you say really look ahead of us. OK, I'll wait until the end of the season, it's still early days and have some winnable games coming up....

[placeforparks]

i thought vlaar and baker played well yesterday.

[eastie]

i thought vlaar and baker played well yesterday.

Yes they did, although west ham hardly looked a threat up front , defensively we were fairly solid

[olaftab]

i thought vlaar and baker played well yesterday.

Yes  and we were never in any danger of losing this match.

[Chris Smith]

Not pretty but last season many on here were bemoaning our inability to grind out a point when not at our best. To do it with 3 or 4 key players unavailable was even more pleasing.

[Pat McMahon]

I was just chatting to my neighbour who is a Hammer. I hadn't realised that they were worried before the game as apparently they had lost their last 3 home games and had no fit forwards, hence Nolan playing up front.

He reckoned the crowd would have been on their back if we had dominated possession or scored first. His view was that we were tame and toothless and that our movement and ball retention were awful. Like me he thought it would be 0-0 after the first 10 minutes.

[CJ]

I think the Morrison one may have been a foul but it was a v difficult call and would have had to send him off for it. No complaints from me

I thought it was a foul and a red (as did today's Independent), but it would have been a soft one. What was more annoying was Allardyce's incredibly smug dismissal of the incident on MOTD