Aston Villa vs West Ham Pre-Match Thread

[Percy McCarthy]

Greetings Villains. Another Claret & Blue derby is upon us, but this one sees neither team looking in particularly great form. West Ham three straight losses in the league and zero goals. A far cry from the team that was lighting up the league and prompting premature talk of a title challenge a little under a year ago, yet the personel playing now are pretty much identical to the ones we had back then. Indeed Moyes has signed several new players, but insists on "easing them in" and waiting until they're "up to speed" with how West Ham play (which at the moment seems to be not great) much to the consternation of many hammers fans.

The primary issue seems to be that West Ham are a victim of their own moderate success. No longers are we a side that teams will look at as three points to be grabbed by attacking and playing the way you want to play. Everyone adapts their game to nullify ours. It's certainly a compliment, and even Man City did it opening day, playing the "inverted full backs" that tucked into midfield and smothered the space, snuffing out counter attacks before they could be started.

The trouble is, Moyes changes tact like an oil tanker doing a handbrake turn. Our line up and general play is very predictable. Work the ball side to side across the back, push down the wings and look for an overload to get a cross in, which inevitably will be floated to where the keeper can get some catching practise. Our counter attacking has again been worked out (for about 9 months now) by putting a big centre back on Antonio and not giving him the space to bring the ball down or turn, which inevitably leads to the ball bouncing off of him or him falling on the floor flapping his arms about.

The other issue is centre midfield, somewhere that other teams think is a strength. The problem is Rice and Soucek have stopped both sitting and acting as a double pivot. Rice seems to think he is an all action superstar in the Steven G mould, bounding into the box and scoring pearlers. Indeed he's still trying to take penalties too. Soucek has also been bounding forward a lot - which is of course a strength of his - and looks like an auxiliary striker more than a DM. All this leaves holes for other teams to exploit in the middle, like Brighton did with impunity last week. We need a third man in there, linking play and pulling the strings. Lanzini has done this to an extent in the past, but honestly the game has been passing him by match after match for months. Fornals maybe could do it, but Moyes keeps playing him on the wing.

I'm maybe being a bit harsh. We had a long and exhausting season last year with a short break and short pre-season (especially for those players on international duty in June for those 4 pointless friendlies - sorry really important Nations League games). Add to that injuries to every centre back we had meant we weren't quite ready at the start of the season, but then in the Premier League there are no gimme games. If you're not 100% you're going to get beat.

Anyway, as to Villa. On the outside looking in, aside from that initial lift after Gerrard joined and you won a few on the bounce when Coutinho came in, I can't really see how you've changed as a team much from when Dean Smith was in charge. It looked like you were about to make a wash of signings, change how you played and push on, but that hasn't materialised. Worse, the area you appeared weakest when we last met - central midfield - is still the same. Still, Ings looks like he is staying fit and finding a bit of form, and sometimes all it needs it one in form striker nicking some goals to get the wins that gives the whole team a lift and turns things around.

It's hard to predict a result. If Moyes sticks to his usual 4-2-3-1 formation with the same predictable style and players from last season I can see West Ham sinking again. Last night he went with a 3-4-3 vs Viborg now that we've got some defenders back, and I suspect this is how he will want to line up. Get numbers into the middle of the park, smother Villa's play and look to dominate the match, something West Ham do not do enough of of late. I only hope Moyes is brave enough to stick Scamacca in from the start instead of Antonio, as the big lad looks like he knows where the goal is, whereas Antonio only seems to know how to miss sitters.

The Man City bit… they always play like that. I laughed at Moyes when he mentioned it after the game… it was like you hadn’t had anyone watch them before. And yet here you are, making the same dumb mistake.

[Percy McCarthy]

Initially I thought it was cheeky/rude of him but it made me realise that the tribal nature of football and supporters/men giving strong opinions to impress each other lends itself well to that sort of easily-said/written stuff. Plus, if we all earwigged on what acquaintances say about us when we're not there in "real-life", we'd probably stay sensitive forever.

His posts on here are generally of interest, respectful and he has a good understanding of football.

He thinks Man City pushing their full-backs into midfield was a tactic Pep suddenly came up with to nullify West Ham. I stopped reading after that.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Seriously,  who gives a shit about West Ham   It says more about our failings than their success. Nothing Sendo says offends me other than how an half arsed club like West Ham can begin to think they're in the same league as us.

Every day we contine to have an half arsed Manager they'll continue to celebrate every victory against us as a giant killing. Fifth best team in London,  I could care more.

If Sendo has any sense he'll be adding to his but plug collection. Cheaper no doubt and far less embarrassing than been seen in West Ham's current shirt

That said, there was a time I used to respect  West Ham.   That day has long passed . Cockney wankers? If the cap fits..

Oh and KUMB is a great forum but it is been taken over with twats .

[Rory]

Based on nothing, I think we'll randomly have an absolute belter of a game, win 2-0, Watkins and Bailey.

Me too. Not based on anything I know about West Ham (which is fuck all, to be honest) but we need a result and a performance and I reckon we'll get one.

4-1 to us.

[Rory]

Seriously,  who gives a shit about West Ham   It says more about our failings than their success. Nothing Sendo says offends me other than how an half arsed club like West Ham can begin to think they're in the same league as us.

Every day we contine to have an half arsed Manager they'll continue to celebrate every victory against us as a giant killing. Fifth best team in London,  I could care more.

If Sendo has any sense he'll be adding to his but plug collection. Cheaper no doubt and far less embarrassing than been seen in West Ham's current shirt

That said, there was a time I used to respect  West Ham.   That day has long passed . Cockney wankers? If the cap fits..

Oh and KUMB is a great forum but it is been taken over with twats .

Blimey, calm down Rudy!

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Calm down? I was being polite.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Come on Rory, they're the West Brom of London. I generally like their fans as they go back beyond the PL but now they all sound like Spurs fans. Plus their ground is shite.

Sad thing is they know it.

[Rory]

Come on Rory, they're the West Brom of London. I generally like their fans as they go back beyond the PL but now they all sound like Spurs fans. Plus their ground is shite.

Sad thing is they know it.

You said 'who gives a shit about West Ham' then wrote five paragraphs. I think you're great, but that's overkill, mate.

Is their Wikipedia page even that long? 'Formed 'n' that. 'Ammers. Only went an' won the fackin World Cup, di'n't we? Fackin Mi'wall. Oioi, free stadium. Be'ave!'

(Look what you've done! I don't even have a problem with West Ham, apart from them being twats.)

[LeonW]

I’ve always found West Ham to be a club trying to be cleverer than their London counterparts and very very only occasionally managing it. They had that season in 98/99 which was a massive achievement for them finishing 5th. Then 2005/06 when they did well in the league after getting up and reaching the FA Cup final. Then the Payet year. Then recently under Moyes. It’s all very much top end of their glass ceiling, with no trophies to speak of. They have the occasional maverick player that provides inspiration. But that’s really it. A club fighting to punch above their weight and very very occasionally doing so. The new stadium is god awful and I think the majority of their supporters would return to Upton Park in a heartbeat.

[LeonW]

Oh and also a club that always seems to have been on the end of favourable decisions from official bodies.

Fielded an ineligible player in the league cup against us in 99 but got a replay rather than getting kicked out of the competition. Yet Bury got kicked out of the FA Cup a couple of years later for doing exactly the same thing.

Got away with having players under 3rd party ownership (Tevez and Maschersano) who helped keep them up in 2006/2007 but rather than a points deduction which might have relegated them, just had to pay a bit of compo to Sheff Utd after they pushed for it.

Who paid for their current stadium again??? What a scam.

[Bad English]

3-1. We will obviously connive to let them take the lead but in spite of Critchley still being preoccupied with his passport application we will have too much for them.

[algy]

Initially I thought it was cheeky/rude of him but it made me realise that the tribal nature of football and supporters/men giving strong opinions to impress each other lends itself well to that sort of easily-said/written stuff. Plus, if we all earwigged on what acquaintances say about us when we're not there in "real-life", we'd probably stay sensitive forever.

His posts on here are generally of interest, respectful and he has a good understanding of football.

I agree with eamonn.

[ChicagoLion]

I used to like them, pwopa  supporters, ground, kit and some iconic players.
Look at the state of them now two faced fans,shocking kit,horrible stadium, shamefull owners and the football whilst it has bought some success is dreary and one dimensional.
Fuckem.

[RamboandBruno]

Initially I thought it was cheeky/rude of him but it made me realise that the tribal nature of football and supporters/men giving strong opinions to impress each other lends itself well to that sort of easily-said/written stuff. Plus, if we all earwigged on what acquaintances say about us when we're not there in "real-life", we'd probably stay sensitive forever.

His posts on here are generally of interest, respectful and he has a good understanding of football.

I agree with eamonn.

Agreed.

People are entitled to be anti west ham/anti sendo/anti anybody, but some of the stuffs a bit OTT, particularly slating west hams ‘achievements’ given the fact that we’ve won f*ck for 26 years and haven’t had a more than half decent premier league season since 2009-2010.

[Mister E]

Who paid for their current stadium again??? What a scam.

More a reflection of the quality and integrity of the London Mayor of the time ... Bozo who??!!!