ClaretandHugh’s Niall McDonald rates the Irons in Romania
Randolph: Couple of regulation saves. No chance with the goal 5
Byram: Comfortable back in his preferred position. Booking looked harsh to me 6
Oxford: Best controller of the ball and passer in the side. A very important interception in the last minute 6
Ogbonna: Another 90 mins under his belt 4
Burke: Adequate at full-back tonight in the same way Tomkins was 5
Tore: Has a touch of the Julien Faubert’s about him to me… A few decent crosses but jury still out 4
Noble: Skipper made the most telling contribution with the all-important away goal from the spot 6
Obiang: Noble sat which left Obiang in an advanced position he isn’t suited to 4
Antonio: “good news, you’re not playing right-back tonight Michail… You’re playing left-wing!!” A towering header went close and a few marauding runs hopefully restored some confidence 6
Valencia: Not scored since January and didn’t look likely to do so here. Subbed after an hour 4
Calleri: Glimpses of ability and presence on his debut. Looks a willing runner, will hope he gets more service 5 Subs:
Carroll: A strange change for me – we weren’t set up to play around AC and he had little impact 3
Collins: Turned far too easily by Alibec for the equaliser. Looked unsettled after the error 2
Browne: The young number 52(!) over hit the final ball to Antonio on the break that could have sealed a win 3
Antonio’s miss was awful. Should lose a point for that. Burke and Byram played well. The rest not so.
Burke’s pass for Antonio was perfect and should have been put away with ease.
Burke and Byram were our best players and Tore though somewhat rusty played OK and put some cracking crosses in which should have resulted in at least 1 goal.
2nd half overall team performance was one to forget. A real shocker. But it is West Ham and games we should win easily, we never do.
A striker (or 2) and a quality right back needed big time.
Valencia gets worse with every game he plays.
Do you mean Browne’s pass?
Yes, Sorry.
The scores on the doors for Spain are
Randolf 6
Byram 7 Oxford 7 Ogbbona 6 Burke 6
Obiang 6 Noble 7
Tore 6 Calleri 6 Antonio 6
Valencia 4
AC 4 Collins 3 Browne 5
I thought the scores above quite harsh for an away game on a crap pitch with a very new side players that don’t know each other,players playing on the wrong side of the pitch,
We should now get the job done at home with the class to come back in but we should stick with Byram and Oxford along side Oggy as they looked good and Burke deserve his chance again in his right position
The good thing for us tonight is how promising Calleri looks already in a team of players he does not know he looked Mobile and his play is intelligent,
Things are looking up
Antonio played left wing many times for Forest from my recollection of seeing him.It isn’t a position alien to him.Maybe alien to west ham fans though who never saw him play on the left flank.
Antonio although not playing at his best still looked the most likely to score goals, I was mystified by bringing Carroll on that game was calling out for Fletcher to play alongside Callieri, I thought Browne played well showed great awareness to play Antonio in. I was surprised Collins got turned but it was a great bit of play and finishing. Last season at this time is almost an exact replica of how we were playing, the players look short of fitness and the back 4 are not closing down attackers, hopefully this season will follow the same pattern and we will click into gear.
This time last year the same w@nkers were p1ssing their pants as well lol
haha