Cand H Match verdict
Irons 3 Domzale 0
(Hammers win 4-2 on aggregate)
No complaints …job done and we move on in our European adventure.
Having got off to a perfect start with that early goal from Cheik Kouyate and seeing him complete the frst brace of his career before the break, the Hammers could hardly have hardly have got away to a better start.
Feghouli added a cracker in the second, moving down the right and unhesitatingly firing past the keeper to put memories of that awful performance in Slovenia firmly in the coffin of hstory.
Kouyate will grab the headlines and he did a great job but for me the revelation of the night was young Reece Oxford at the back where he played with a composure beyond his tender age.
He was rarely troubled and has clearly grown up considerably over the summer and on this performance is probably in front of Reece Burke.
So let’s here no more talk of him being fancied at £10 million or whatever by the Manchester clubs – he looks a diamond and will be hard to overlook when Slav looks at his team for Chelsea.
A word too for Sam Byram, played out of position at left back and looking very good, partculaly with one penalty area interventio tackles in the second half.
Feghouli was tricky and clever whilst AC really put himself about, Mark Noble was brilliant and Michail Antonio had a terriic game going forward.
The crowd rose to what was a special occasion and we can all look forward with a bit more confidence than was the case this time last week.
What a great result!
However, Antonio is not a RB!
COYI!!
We all knowOxford is the real deal but why have we got to wait any longer for him to get older,
Why is Slav still giving Valencia playing time ? If he gets injured we will get stuck with him and at the moment he has lost it,he gave the ball away so many times and ran straight into problems,
Where as Novedt looks the real deal but again where is he going to fit in,
On tonight’s performance Oxford should play alongside Ogbonna Byram should play RB where he will shine,
So our new left back or Reid fills our back 4
Feggolui will start R W,Payet will come back into the midfield
That leaves Antonio or Tore or Ayew to fill the last place with AC Noble and Kouyate starters,
We are going to have some long faces
But great display tonight so much more passion from the players showing how much they wanted to win,
Disagree with you Bubs on Valencia look at how many people he ran into 2/3/4 at a time, yes he did give the ball away a few times but he was running that team ragged, he shouldn’t be sold imo not that my opinion is worth diddly 🙂
And yet, you only rated him as a 6 on the players’ ratings article ?
I could only follow the game on radio. I don’t know if anyone else picked up the remark by one commentator that he felt Reece Oxford was already the best defender in the PL. high praise indeed for one so young but on today’s showing well deserved.
If we can get a replacement for Antonio put Byram where he belongs, then I can see us going back to Sam’s days when we were a fortress at home but with one major difference. We will be a goal scoring fortress too