West Ham London - 1 Aston Villa - 1 The Post Match Thread.

[Brend'Watkins]

We missed Kamara but even so the midfield coped well. Positives - McGinn’s much improving form. Negatives, Chambers isn’t bad but isn’t much good at anything. Bailey offers little and is now also a liability. I think UE has a good idea where we need to improve and don’t think it involves either.

[Baldy]

It is clear that Unai means real business and our players have responded magnificently to date. The transformation from the Gerrard days beggars belief.

If Hammers go down, I would like Jarrod Bowen in our claret and blue. I think he would suit our style of play and offer so much more (including consistency) than Bailey and Traore. 

[Rigadon]

Add Bowen to Watkins and that's an attack that would frighten defences.  I think somebody else said earlier in this thread, swap Bailey for Bowen and it's difficult to see how we wouldn't have comfortably won the game.     

[Mortimer's Bear]

What an awful, awful stadium.

[rob_bridge]

Bowen is the one I would take.

The way we play I agree. I wouldn't touch Benerhama although he played well yesterday

[ChicagoLion]

Reflecting on the game , we usually have problems with WH in the midfield but on this occasion the problems were down our flanks, which shows how well Mcginn Luiz and also Buendia did as he often dropped in and did well.

[paul_e]

Bowen would be an upgrade on Bailey but I'm not sure he'd be as good a fit as some suggest. If we're looking for players at London clubs that are below us in the table Eze would be above him for me. Similar in terms of goals and assists but has a little bit more chance of doing something spectacular to change a game.

Of course the links in January means that Nico Williams is the benchmark now and he'd take some beating.

[wolfman999]

What an awful, awful stadium.

And we, the good old taxpayer, paid for it so they  can sell their own ground and rent this for peanuts

[pauliewalnuts]

What an awful, awful stadium.

Just been reading the KUMB (West Ham forum) thread on the stadium, interesting reading.

https://www.kumb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=164789&start=15480

[CT]

What an awful, awful stadium.

Agreed, it’s horrific for so many reasons.

The song we sang about “You sold your soul” couldn’t have been more apt.

[sendô WHU]

Well in the end I think that was one of those matches where both teams a probably satisfied with a point but disappointed not to have taken all three.

West Ham started brightly enough, but a bit of huffing and puffing aside didn't really create a great deal. Then it's the classic sucker punch of your opponent scoring with their first attack. In truth though for me that goal underlined why West Ham are having problems this season, and it's the tale of two opposing recruitment policies at full back and the mentalities of the teams. Villa having added Moreno after already signing Digne last season have a left back looking to get forward wide on the overlap and put in good crosses. West Ham, satisfied with one half decent season from Coufal who cost peanuts have not strengthened, and so had the centre back Kehrer nominally at right back, scared seemingly to move away from the comfort of the penalty box and giving Moreno plenty of space to line up a cross.

Still, at the least West Ham did not crumble like they did down at Brighton last week, and were rewarded after a sustained period of pressure with a clumsy penalty from Bailey after Paqueta had had his shot cleared off of the line.

Much of the rest of West Hams play has been typical of this season. Some great play down the wings by Benrahma or Bowen that in the end lead to nothing, normally because there was no-one in the box each time that Bowen skinned Moreno (Ings seemed a yard off of the pace to me - have you lot sold us a dud there?) or because Benrahma did too much like he normally does, shortly before ballooning a shot over the bar. Still, it's testament to these two that Emery took both of your full backs off before the end. Moyes of course would never dream of doing such a thing, expecting the game to change itself. Indeed, it was the 76th minute when he took Paqueta off for Fornals, a like for like sub and only because Paqueta was looking like he might pick up a second yellow, and then the 86th minute before he swapped out Danny "ten touches all game" Ings - but for Cornet, and NOT Scamacca.

You can understand the frustration of Paqueta, a player who is best utilised with good players in front of him, moving around, making runs and creating space. Instead he always gets the ball with Sideways Pass Rice and Soucek behind him, the big Czech only ever driving forward looking to get onto the end of a cross. So he can do nothing but ping balls out wide to Bowen or Benrahma. Then upfront we've got a lone striker who was only sold to us because his former club didn't consider him suitable to play the lone striker role, one that Scamacca is even less suited to than Ings. Still, come the end when Emery swaps out a striker for a defender and makes it clear Villa are settling for a point, why not chuck in Scamacca AND Cornet, sacrificing either Soucek or one of the centre backs? That sort of negative mentality for me is a big reason why West Ham have gone from challenging for European spots in back to back seasons to battling relegation. It filters down from the top and infects the whole team.

I suppose at the least the players showed some fight this game. First Paqueta hacking down McGinn and then Rice getting in the face of Buendia when he was screaming like his leg was hanging off only to jump up and start sprinting again 5 minutes later. That's not to condone foul play, but at home in a relegation fight you want to feel like your players are giving their all - something we didn't see last week vs Brighton.

Villa for their part look much improved with mostly the same players as earlier in the season. When they got the ball down and moved it around they played some good football, passing freely though our static, supposedly world class midfield. The difference, once again, in having a progressive, forward thinking manager, and the reason why you lot are thinking about whether you could qualify for Europe despite a poor start.

[Risso]

Hiya Sendo, hope you're well. Ings isn't a dud but you have to play in a very specific way to get the best out of him. He isn't going to run and chase balls all game, but put the ball in space in the area and he's very clinical.

I don't know what's gone wrong with your lot this season, as for the last two years Rice for example has looked world class in lots of games, but seems extremely ordinary this year. You seem a bit like Leicester, still got lots of very good players but for some reasoning it's just not happening.

[Percy McCarthy]

Hiya Sendo, hope you're well. Ings isn't a dud but you have to play in a very specific way to get the best out of him. He isn't going to run and chase balls all game, but put the ball in space in the area and he's very clinical.

I don't know what's gone wrong with your lot this season, as for the last two years Rice for example has looked world class in lots of games, but seems extremely ordinary this year. You seem a bit like Leicester, still got lots of very good players but for some reasoning it's just not happening.

Ings won the Ashley Westwood ‘oh he was playing?’ award on The Villa Podcast.

[sendô WHU]

Hiya Sendo, hope you're well. Ings isn't a dud but you have to play in a very specific way to get the best out of him. He isn't going to run and chase balls all game, but put the ball in space in the area and he's very clinical.

I don't know what's gone wrong with your lot this season, as for the last two years Rice for example has looked world class in lots of games, but seems extremely ordinary this year. You seem a bit like Leicester, still got lots of very good players but for some reasoning it's just not happening.

Multiple things tbh Risso. Without going too in depth, it's a mixture of becoming too predictable with Moyes only being able to play one way with the mid/low block and counter/set pieces, key players falling off a cliff (Antonio) and poor recruitment, with square pegs (Scamacca, Ings) trying to be forced into round holes. Add into that we've lost a lot of voices/leaders in the back room (Noble, Stuart Pearce, Alan Irvine, Dawson), some other players have simply suffered from poor form plus the classic injury problems that have made it hard to play a settle back 4 all season.

Heads seem to have dropped, and in all honesty I think certain people are going through the motions because they have their eye on a summer exit.

Hope you are well though. You at least much be pleased that your club are seemingly moving in the right direction?

[Risso]

Multiple things tbh Risso. Without going too in depth, it's a mixture of becoming too predictable with Moyes only being able to play one way with the mid/low block and counter/set pieces, key players falling off a cliff (Antonio) and poor recruitment, with square pegs (Scamacca, Ings) trying to be forced into round holes. Add into that we've lost a lot of voices/leaders in the back room (Noble, Stuart Pearce, Alan Irvine, Dawson), some other players have simply suffered from poor form plus the classic injury problems that have made it hard to play a settle back 4 all season.

Heads seem to have dropped, and in all honesty I think certain people are going through the motions because they have their eye on a summer exit.

Hope you are well though. You at least much be pleased that your club are seemingly moving in the right direction?

That Scamacca looks absolutely dreadful, I have to say.

Yes,we've got lots to look forward to hopefully. Personally, I was disappointed that we didn't try to do more in the January transfer window, as after shifting out Ings to you lot, and other deadwood like Nakamba and Sanson, plus Archer on loan to Boro, our squad is now so small we haven't been naming 9 subs, and have two keepers on the bench. We've been promised a bit of a spree in the summer though, so we'll see.

Under Emery, it feels like we've got a modern, intelligent manager for the first time in god knows how long. It's also nice to be observing a ridiculously tight relegation battle from afar without being embroiled in it. I'd say good luck mate, but I'd love it if West Ham went down sorry*. Come and say hello when you're playing our beloved neighbours Small Heath next season!

(*I actually think you'll be OK though)