Hold on before we get too carried away in our disappointment!
Slaven Bilic made eight changes to a team that hadn’t played very well on Sunday and although he’s too big a character to blame the injury crisis we have to realise the man’s in a dreadful position.
I’ve read all sorts of stuff about players not being good enough and if I’m honest I haven’t been over impressed with some of the signings.
But several were brought in – like Tore for example – on short term deals because we thought we’d be in Europe. We needed bodies and that was the only reason they are here.
What happened last night was the result of players who aren’t used to life at the club being thrown together after a couple of training sessions and although many will say they should have beaten the Romanians, life in this game isn’t always like that.
EIGHT CHANGES! That is not easy to handle at this stage of the season.
Beyond that I still think there may be a hangover from the Chelsea match where although we didn’t play well we were so close to a draw and that could have made a huge difference to our attitude and confidence levels.
It’s a huge frustration to have gone out of the competition though but being absolutely honest I have to say that if it was a choice between losing on Sunday or last night I would have taken the Astra defeat.
There’s lots of talk about a new striker arriving and Wilfried Bony’s name has been mentioned but I wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole.
Good player at Swansea but his body language and attitude since arriving at City has been wrong for me and his move to China in January tell me a lot. It looks to be all about “show me the money.”
I hope and believe we will get Simone Zaza despite our exit from the Europa League. The guy will relish the opportunity of playing in the PL and the money is far greater than in Serie A.
Slaven is already facing the biggest challenge of his West Ham career and needs players back quickly so let’s not start rushing to judgement.
Things will improve and I trust the man!
I don’t buy that Leroy, yes I agree that we had a lot of players that are new to the first team playing together but why did we work so hard last season to qualify for Europe if only to throw it away by making poor team selection and mystifying substitutions ? I hope Slav does turn this around soon, our team whilst playing better football is devoid of any tactic other than getting the ball out wide and putting the odd cross in the box… Without Payet’s delivery that is limiting us to few real chances per game, football is not complicated and players should be able to understand the concept of passing and movement at every level of the game, it is what the academy of football was founded on but I have seen it in only a couple of games under Slav. He should watch some videos of his Croatia team play and he should have his team drilled on the concepts of passing and moving in tight spaces, everything I see when the players warm up pre-match looks half cooked, there is no intensity and seemingly only one plan, get the ball out wide as soon as possible and cross it, we should be able to string more than 4 passes together and create an opening through the middle but we aren’t at present. I want Slav to get it right and I will try to be patient waiting but he needs to get those players fired up and they need to get us off our seats to create the atmosphere, most of it we had to do without their encouragement last night and that can only go on so long.
Agree to a point Leroy but you did not mention once about the players playing out of position,
You seem to blame the new players for the most,
Novedt,Tore,Calleri are the new boys and yes they did not play that well,
But Reid was terrible and last time we played them Oxford was good so why drop him,
Kouyate was taken out of the game by the stupid tactics of playing a player to take silly one yard passes in front of the defence,
Antonio is are biggest threat at the moment and we stick him on the left stave him of the ball and they double man him every time,
The manager must take the most blame and no I am not say sack him,
He could have changed things early on
After ten minutes why did he not swap Tore and Antonio ?
Why did he not see playing Burke there was a waste and swap him with Read ?
Noveld or Obiang could have been taken off after
20 minutes with Fletcher brought on earlier forcing them to change there set up,
No we waited for the error we make so often when we run out of ideas,then we carry on as if it’s just a mistake on the score,
We are not a bad side we are just not playing well as the team is setup,
Come on Slav watch the match in slow motion and you will see that we are not talking rubbish,
Bony is on cruise control until he f*cks off to China for the big yuan over there.If he came to us he has nothing to prove,doesnt need to fight for a place in the starting line up because he knows he is offski in January.Barge pole is right.I would have taken him first time round when we showed interest but not now.
After this bloody defeat, I suggest Slav to walk the streets of London with fake mustache, sunglasses and bulletproof vest… there are wet snipers with night-vision on the roofs… hahah… 😉
Nice to hear you are OK matte ! My son has a friend here in London who has family in the town the quake happened ! No contact yet ?
How was Columbia ? Lol.
Hi John, it has been a tragedy, poor people. I live in Milan, there’s no danger here, at least I hope not… lol 🙂
Not wrong mate ?
We all been trying to figa out where you been , !! Haha.
Matte you have reappeared lol.**** me mate it is like an Olympic size swimming pool full of wet nappies at the moment.Bilic must go,the board must go,the players are sh*t lol.
Btw bad news about that earthquake,good to see you didnt get buried with a figa under the rubble 🙂
Hahah… Hi Rads, how are you mate? Yes, I’m alive and well, thank you. August is for my physical form, I do gymnastics with my figa… lol I read you’ve found your soul mate, those days are over… lol 😀
Good to hear youre doing well mate.Yeah a figa caught me & even worse she has one of those baby things growing in her belly lol.I have really f*cked up this time 😀
Congratulations Rads! You are a true hammer… lol if it’s a boy, you’ll name him Sam, promise me… haha 😀
Yes Matte of course he will be called Samuel Hippo Figa Lama.I think it sounds good lol 🙂
Matte have you flown in with Zaza for a medical ?
If you do pass some dodgy geezer in fancy dress it won’t be Slav he still painting his shoes with a left and right,
They have reached an all time low,
Moan moan moan,
Rads can you send my donkey home Mrs Bubs won’t go down the bar for more beer without Jenks to carry it back,
Hahah… hi bubs, I can vouch for Zaza, don’t worry… anyway he can’t be worse than Peg Leg Andy… lol
OK bubs,i just gave Jenks a couple of Stellas & he says he is good to go.He said he should be with you in about half an hour but he has a bit of a hangover so line a cold one up for when he gets back.That donkey can drink bubs,what a p*sshead lol 🙂
Never mind it tea total day for him in n Friday ready to go to the bar on Sunday for the game,
Glad everyone is in good heart today,
I have this feeling and it’s not me bladder we will pick up a point on Sunday,
Pity it won’t be 3 but I think we will be playing the champions
Just want to be entertained like last year,xuck the result just some great football,
Count nordveidt out , he’s injured ?
Better build a new fitness centre ,
Hope sully has got his boots ready ?
Zara must be crapping himself ?
Of course we are in good heart bubs.Leave the wet y-fronts bs to others.Im gutted we lost,but what f*cking good is screaming like a girl going to do,change the result? 🙂
Sorry guys but may I ask you to put OT in front out of your conversations that are not about doom & gloom,thankyou.Do you not realise today is ment to be a funeral.If you don’t cry,wail or tell the manager or board to stick their club up their asses you are not a true fan.Come on get with the script lmao
Hehehe Rick 😀
You are correct Rick I ment OT lol.Sh*t we have some fans that are not cut out for supporting West Ham.We all know we do everything the hard way.We have for as long as I can remember,its nothing new.If every fan reacted like some of the dopes on sites we would have no fans left by now,they would have all topped themselves years ago lol
Glad Leroy sees Bony as a bargepole jobbie – sorry Bubs – but I do think you made v good points about tactics, although I didn’t think Reid had such a mare.
And I don’t feel them as strongly. Slav’s decision making is a bit concerning, but now RB fiasco is hopefully history, not enough to get worried… YET!?
Long term Fletch and Burke are looking the business. If Antonio can fire on all cylinders, I am not disheartened.
The biggest problems are trying to keep a bloated group of great midfielders, and move Valencia on (something Slav still doesn’t want to do until….blah blah)
Who knows, maybe we will cause the shock this Sunday!
I think the only shock would be for pampers if we were to get a result at city ! Lol.
Their share price would go down due to a lapse of demand !
Unless they are overcome with joy that is ?
It is a democratic right to p1ss ones pants, JB….(and I should know)…..of course, the law gets more fuzzy when attempting to p1ss someone else’s…but hey, anything to keep your shareholding buoyant, eh, JB?
As usual………the best contributor to C&H is Leroy.