West Ham United vs Aston Villa Post-Match

[Chris Smith]

Maatsen’s cushioned pass in the lead up to the goal was a thing of beauty.

He was brilliant when he came on. I admit I couldn't see quite why we'd paid so much money for him. Well he gave a big hint as to why yesterday. That left side with JJ is going to cause a lot of teams an awful lot of problems. West Ham just couldn't deal with them.

Good post. Having Maatsen in the team would allow us to move Konsa to right back as Maatsen gets forward so well. Unless we sign the Feyenoord lad. He was excellent in his cameo yesterday and i’m looking forward to seeing how he gets on. I thought Digne had a good game yesterday, but Maatsen and is even better going forward.

I think he might be planning to use either as starters depending on the opposition in a similar way to how he rotated Digne and Moreno before the latter got injured.

[Villa Lew]

Fully deserved win, the period before the pen, was our best spell, thought we were brilliant, could easily have been 4 up. It's probably been a long time since I've seen a better debut than Onana's and a special mention to Torres, Youri, Rogers and 3 of the subs Maatsen, JJ and big Jhon.

[Monty]

Must say people do say some strange things about VAR.

'Clear and obvious you don't need VAR' - the full phrase is 'clear and obvious error', so, yeah, you do need VAR, what other mechanism would there be to overturn it?

'They're saying he touched the ball but not enough?!?!?' - this has been the rule since forever, just touching the ball doesn't necessarily mean it's not a foul. Cash got a toe on it but they clearly thought Soucek would've had it under control were he not clattered. I always think back to the time Gerrard got sent off against us for an attempted crippling on George Boateng - he was protesting that he 'got the ball', which was technically true, his boot skimming the top of the thing on its way to Boateng's shin. Getting a toe on the ball isn't everything.

I thought it was harsh, but I get why they didn't overturn it, or spend years agonising over it. People complain that VAR should only be there to correct blatant mistakes, then complain that it doesn't intervene on an obviously somewhat subjective incident. The fact that people on here disagree about whether it was a penalty tells you they were right not to change whatever the on-field ref's decision happened to be. It's not perfect but it's what we've lived with in cricket for years, and I think it's pretty much the best we can do.

[Flamingo Lane]

Contactless. That made me chuckle.

[olaftab]

Good morning H & V

What a beautiful morning ☀️☀️☀️

It is indeed. Just had breakfast in the garden and now will watch the full re-run.

[john e]

Good morning H & V

What a beautiful morning ☀️☀️☀️

It is indeed. Just had breakfast in the garden and now will watch the full re-run.

I’m sitting in the garden in the Sun with a coffee and a massive cigar on

[AGRIPPA]

Not particularly from this game, but I always thought Fulkrug was a mad signing at that price and on that length deal. I think they’ll regret signing him, even in that short display he looked very static.

Their new midfielder next to Soucek hardly had a kick. Both full backs are very average too. Wouldn't be surprised if West Ham struggled this season. It isn't like Emery taking over from Gerrard when everything was a mess. They were solid if a bit dull under Moyes, they were wide open on the counters today.

I thought exactly the same…not sure why people think we did well to get that result…..until the pen they were dog shit

[danno]

Must say people do say some strange things about VAR.

'Clear and obvious you don't need VAR' - the full phrase is 'clear and obvious error', so, yeah, you do need VAR, what other mechanism would there be to overturn it?

'They're saying he touched the ball but not enough?!?!?' - this has been the rule since forever, just touching the ball doesn't necessarily mean it's not a foul. Cash got a toe on it but they clearly thought Soucek would've had it under control were he not clattered. I always think back to the time Gerrard got sent off against us for an attempted crippling on George Boateng - he was protesting that he 'got the ball', which was technically true, his boot skimming the top of the thing on its way to Boateng's shin. Getting a toe on the ball isn't everything.

I thought it was harsh, but I get why they didn't overturn it, or spend years agonising over it. People complain that VAR should only be there to correct blatant mistakes, then complain that it doesn't intervene on an obviously somewhat subjective incident. The fact that people on here disagree about whether it was a penalty tells you they were right not to change whatever the on-field ref's decision happened to be. It's not perfect but it's what we've lived with in cricket for years, and I think it's pretty much the best we can do.

I think Nev has expressed this far more eloquently than I can, but the crux of the problem with VAR will always be that a big percentage of the decisions made by a referee are subjective. So another referee viewing replays isn’t very helpful.

The decisions still remain subjective, are still argued over, and take longer.

Yesterday for example ( pre VAR) the pen is given, TV replays show Cash getting a toe on the ball and some of us feel aggrieved. Game continues.

With VAR we get all the dissatisfaction of the first with an extra dollop of feeling aggrieved that it’s not looked at by the referee and/or overturned.

[john e]

Pao Torres is absolute quality he could play for any team in the world including Man City, Real Madrid, Barcelona

But he plays for us and that’s all that’s matters

[LeeB]

Pao Torres is absolute quality he could play for any team in the world including Man City, Real Madrid, Barcelona

But he plays for us and that’s all that’s matters

In the first half, when he was being closed down by two West Ham players and he just shuffled the ball between both feet and went past them, I mean what centre half does that?

[RamboandBruno]

Must say people do say some strange things about VAR.

'Clear and obvious you don't need VAR' - the full phrase is 'clear and obvious error', so, yeah, you do need VAR, what other mechanism would there be to overturn it?

'They're saying he touched the ball but not enough?!?!?' - this has been the rule since forever, just touching the ball doesn't necessarily mean it's not a foul. Cash got a toe on it but they clearly thought Soucek would've had it under control were he not clattered. I always think back to the time Gerrard got sent off against us for an attempted crippling on George Boateng - he was protesting that he 'got the ball', which was technically true, his boot skimming the top of the thing on its way to Boateng's shin. Getting a toe on the ball isn't everything.

I thought it was harsh, but I get why they didn't overturn it, or spend years agonising over it. People complain that VAR should only be there to correct blatant mistakes, then complain that it doesn't intervene on an obviously somewhat subjective incident. The fact that people on here disagree about whether it was a penalty tells you they were right not to change whatever the on-field ref's decision happened to be. It's not perfect but it's what we've lived with in cricket for years, and I think it's pretty much the best we can do.

100% agree with this. Even at 1-1 when the win was in the balance, I didn’t feel particularly aggrieved, this is not altogether related to VAR, I thought Cash was clumsy and didn’t need to make the challenge at that moment.

Overall really good performance and brilliant start to the season, total dominance for 2/3rds of the game and subs who made a massive impact.

Next Saturday will be a huge test, but exciting nonetheless.

[olaftab]

Pao Torres is absolute quality he could play for any team in the world including Man City, Real Madrid, Barcelona

But he plays for us and that’s all that’s matters

In the first half, when he was being closed down by two West Ham players and he just shuffled the ball between both feet and went past them, I mean what centre half does that?

That's great and his ball to Maatsen was a gem but it concerns me that he is nowhere close to a place in his national team?

[Smithy]

Pao Torres is absolute quality he could play for any team in the world including Man City, Real Madrid, Barcelona

But he plays for us and that’s all that’s matters

In the first half, when he was being closed down by two West Ham players and he just shuffled the ball between both feet and went past them, I mean what centre half does that?

That's great and his ball to Maatsen was a gem but it concerns me that he is nowhere close to a place in his national team?

The same was true of Sid Cowans. Not being properly recognised at International level doesn’t automatically mean you’re not a top class player. Sometimes your face just doesn’t fit. I’m far more interested in what OUR manager thinks of him.

For the record, if we maintain a top four challenge and get to the knockout stages of the Champions League, I’ll be shocked if Pau doesn’t get another call up.

[rob_bridge]

Pao Torres is absolute quality he could play for any team in the world including Man City, Real Madrid, Barcelona

But he plays for us and that’s all that’s matters

In the first half, when he was being closed down by two West Ham players and he just shuffled the ball between both feet and went past them, I mean what centre half does that?

That's great and his ball to Maatsen was a gem but it concerns me that he is nowhere close to a place in his national team?

The same was true of Sid Cowans. Not being properly recognised at International level doesn’t automatically mean you’re not a top class player. Sometimes your face just doesn’t fit. I’m far more interested in what OUR manager thinks of him.

For the record, if we maintain a top four challenge and get to the knockout stages of the Champions League, I’ll be shocked if Pau doesn’t get another call up.

Being honest I think Spain demonstrated they were a good head above everyone else in Euro 2024. Not being able to get into their squad at this moment is not a reflection on him. He would get into basically every other one, maybe except France, anywhere in the globe

[Risso]

Must say people do say some strange things about VAR.

'Clear and obvious you don't need VAR' - the full phrase is 'clear and obvious error', so, yeah, you do need VAR, what other mechanism would there be to overturn it?

'They're saying he touched the ball but not enough?!?!?' - this has been the rule since forever, just touching the ball doesn't necessarily mean it's not a foul. Cash got a toe on it but they clearly thought Soucek would've had it under control were he not clattered. I always think back to the time Gerrard got sent off against us for an attempted crippling on George Boateng - he was protesting that he 'got the ball', which was technically true, his boot skimming the top of the thing on its way to Boateng's shin. Getting a toe on the ball isn't everything.

I thought it was harsh, but I get why they didn't overturn it, or spend years agonising over it. People complain that VAR should only be there to correct blatant mistakes, then complain that it doesn't intervene on an obviously somewhat subjective incident. The fact that people on here disagree about whether it was a penalty tells you they were right not to change whatever the on-field ref's decision happened to be. It's not perfect but it's what we've lived with in cricket for years, and I think it's pretty much the best we can do.

You're correct that just winning the ball doesn't mean that a foul isn't then committed, but in this case, Cash does win the ball, then Soucek puts his leg between Cash's legs, and they both fall over. Absolutely nothing Cash does could be construed as a foul, and if it isn't a foul, it isn't a penalty. It didn't look like a penalty at the game, and it sure as shit doesn't look like a penalty on the replays.

Then at Everton, in a similar situation, the referee was sent to the monitor and the decision was overturned.