West Ham vs Aston Villa post match thread

[Malandro]

I thought the defence did very well and that save at the end from Guzan world class.

In front of them there is no creativity, threat, movement just safe boring football.

In isolation this was a decent result but it is 1 point and 1 goal in seven.

The ref was shit.

I don't understand why we play both Cleverly and Westwood. Neither are good enough defensively OR going forward, and they just strike me as two players effectively failing to do the same job.

Precisely. I don't understand why we play either of them.

I said this when Cleverley first arrived. Especially as Westwood was looking like an improved player, covering much more of the pitch, and tracking runners more diligently.

Now we have a physical presence with Sanchez, but two midfielders alongside him who see plenty of the ball but rarely actually do anything with it.

Lambert has far, far too much faith in Gabby and Weimann for my liking. He should have signed players to put pressure on them, instead.

Gardner seems to be doing well for Brighton, perhaps he would have been a better option when delph got crockef

[pauliewalnuts]

Lambert unsurprisingly thinks we were excellent today

And there you go, that is the whole problem, in a nutshell.

[supertom]

Lambert unsurprisingly thinks we were excellent today

And there you go, that is the whole problem, in a nutshell.

He's come away from 3-0 defeats thinking we were good. The guys a clown.
The sadder reality of today is, he's probably bought himself another half a dozen games with that result.

[Kevin Dawson]

I very rarely comment on the post match thread. Mostly because emotions are running high. But after that, I just have to. Gabby and Nzogbia....what's the point? Baker was good, but the rest? If Vlaar wants to go in January, then fine. As a leader, he's dreadful. And as for Lambert....we seem incapable of passing, moving, showing real fight..
.oh, but we'll give him a 4 year contract.....we're sleepwalking towards relegation, but Lambert and Lerner don't see it....perhaps we'll sign Cleverly in January for £6-8 million, with 6 months left on his contract....

[supertom]

I thought the defence did very well and that save at the end from Guzan world class.

In front of them there is no creativity, threat, movement just safe boring football.

In isolation this was a decent result but it is 1 point and 1 goal in seven.

The ref was shit.

I don't understand why we play both Cleverly and Westwood. Neither are good enough defensively OR going forward, and they just strike me as two players effectively failing to do the same job.

Precisely. I don't understand why we play either of them.

I said this when Cleverley first arrived. Especially as Westwood was looking like an improved player, covering much more of the pitch, and tracking runners more diligently.

Now we have a physical presence with Sanchez, but two midfielders alongside him who see plenty of the ball but rarely actually do anything with it.

Lambert has far, far too much faith in Gabby and Weimann for my liking. He should have signed players to put pressure on them, instead.

Gardner seems to be doing well for Brighton, perhaps he would have been a better option when delph got crockef

We're very short on options at the moment. 1-2 more injuries and we'll definitely have to call GG back early.

[Rudy65]

I thought the defence did very well and that save at the end from Guzan world class.

In front of them there is no creativity, threat, movement just safe boring football.

In isolation this was a decent result but it is 1 point and 1 goal in seven.

The ref was shit.

I don't understand why we play both Cleverly and Westwood. Neither are good enough defensively OR going forward, and they just strike me as two players effectively failing to do the same job.

Precisely. I don't understand why we play either of them.

I said this when Cleverley first arrived. Especially as Westwood was looking like an improved player, covering much more of the pitch, and tracking runners more diligently.

Now we have a physical presence with Sanchez, but two midfielders alongside him who see plenty of the ball but rarely actually do anything with it.

Lambert has far, far too much faith in Gabby and Weimann for my liking. He should have signed players to put pressure on them, instead.

Gardner seems to be doing well for Brighton, perhaps he would have been a better option when delph got crockef

We're very short on options at the moment. 1-2 more injuries and we'll definitely have to call GG back early.

Saw GG recently for Brighton and although it was great to see him playing he looked average. Not sure he would improve us to be honest, but then again thats one game

Joe Bennett was typically lightweight in the same game

[steffo]

https://vine.co/v/OeEu20vFOLt

Imagine Benteke throwing himself at crosses where he is attacking the ball, rather than deep crosses from full backs.

[supertom]

Today was a particularly sad day for me today as I found myself missing Stewart Downing. It's been the first time since he left and I don't like the feeling. He didn't even have the best game particularly but he was their creative focal point and kept creating space for himself and trying to create chances. We've got nobody in the side who does that, who'll keep on plugging away and finding space and trying to make things happen.

Are we as a club that far gone that we can't find another Stewart Fucking chinless wonder Downing? He was doing exactly the sort of thing you'd want a playmaker to do. Lamberts had five windows and hasn't rectified a problem he identified the day he arrived. Pathetic.

[Rudy65]

Lambert unsurprisingly thinks we were excellent today

And there you go, that is the whole problem, in a nutshell.

Exactly

Am I the only one who feels instant anger when I see Lambert, which is multiplied ten fold when he is talking absolute bollocks in his interviews. Even TSM never had that affect on me.

As someone else said he is so small time.

Finally I dont get the anger toward Downing. He was good for us and £20m was good money. Some of the fans doing wanker signs behind his back when he is taking the corners look like absolute tossers themselves. I bet their mothers are proud

[footyskillz]

A very well earned point. The suspensions and injuries meant was always going to be extra tough against the form team of the league. Guzan had clearly been prepared well to command his area and was outstanding . Also the defence was resolute in stopping the West ham attacks. Nathan Baker and Ron Vlarr were especially good today. It seemed there was excellent support from the Villa fans and taking a point and a clean sheet is a big plus. The match itself was entertaining and Villa really had periods of control if not exactly threatening. I think a lot of credit has to be given considering the circumstances and the next few game weeks can be built on from this finding form.

[Legion]

Vlaar.

[SoccerHQ]

If our form was better a superb point.

On it's own you have to say well played as West Ham are in brilliant form so a point down there isn't to be sniffed at but on the downside another game where we barely created anything.

Thought that was the best the middle three have played in a long time, Sanchez and Cleverley probably had their best games for the club and Westwood was excellent.

Where it falls down is the front trio simply aren't reliable in possesion so too many moves break or slow down. That's one of the areas where we miss Benteke.

Still at least this point breaks the horrible run so hopefully we can get something off Southampton and beat Burnley and the table will look a bit more comfortable.

[paulcomben]

I very rarely comment on the post match thread. Mostly because emotions are running high. But after that, I just have to. Gabby and Nzogbia....what's the point? Baker was good, but the rest? If Vlaar wants to go in January, then fine. As a leader, he's dreadful. And as for Lambert....we seem incapable of passing, moving, showing real fight..
.oh, but we'll give him a 4 year contract.....we're sleepwalking towards relegation, but Lambert and Lerner don't see it....perhaps we'll sign Cleverly in January for £6-8 million, with 6 months left on his contract....

Oh yes.

[Ron Manager]

I personally cannot think of any reason why we should buy Cleverley. He has played quite a few games for us now without showing anything
other than an excellent workrate. No goal threat,no through balls of class. The stark fact is that he is (like Westwood) an average Championship midfielder. Which means of course Lambert will tell us 'He's absolutely excellent Tom' when we can see with our own eyes he is very far from that.

[phantom limb]

I didn't actually think we were that bad, we got a point against a team in good form and didn't crumble when they were bulldozing us at the end. However we've been so shite the last few weeks my standards and expectations are now pretty low.