23 Comments

How we rated the Irons against Saints

Hugh hands out the marks

Martin: Did his job well -went down with what looked like a groin at the end. Pray he’s ok with Roberto as back up although Fab being tipped for a Boxing Day return 6.5

Fredericks: There was some top class defending from the right back during the second half in particular 7.5

Balbuena: Did really well at the heart of the defence 7

Ogbonna: My front runner – with Antonio – for Hammer of the year. Near faultless again 7.5

Cresswell: Did well at front and back 6.5

Noble: Usual battling performance and particularly effective in first half as our midfield dominated 7

Rice: Typical performance, breaking stuff up and effective all over the pitch 7.5

Snodgrass: Usual battling performance but needed to show more . Set pieces were on the spot however. 5.5

Fornals: Improving with every game as he consolidates his place – becoming a battler and goals are not far away 6.5

Antonio: Quite incredible – a footballing terrorist – at the heart of absolutely everything good about us 9.5

Haller: As everybody has been saying a different player with a partner. Grabbed his goal, some fine passes. Back to his best 7.5

Subs:

Diop: On at the end No rating

Sanchez: Worries you every time he is near the ball 1

Yarmolenko: Very poor – nothing of note at all. Not for me 1

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

23 comments on “How we rated the Irons against Saints

  1. To give Fredericks a 7.5 is a crime, according to these ratings he played as well as Ogbonno, Haller and Balbuena !! and better than Cresswell and Fornals. I must have watched the wrong game. He was muck, cannot pass a ball.

    • You mark on how they played in their positions – it’s not comparative

      • ?? A RB is only compared to a RB?? Or have I lost Something?
        I am mostly happy for the team on a day like this, (and that includes Fredericks) but Ogbonna and Balbuena were far superior in anything they did. But then they are CB:s and maybe should not be compared with others?

        • I said not comparative. I marked him as a rb not a striker or midfielder and I thought he did well for te most part in a difficult second half

          • Not rocket science… 2 up front, started on the front foot, more grit and determination, won”ugly” in the end but that’s what is needed when you in a relegation struggle.
            Cannot believe Fredericks rating… he unfortunately is not up to premiership standard, Balbeuna and Ogbonna much better, defended corners, freekicks and won the majority of the high ball duels.
            Rice looks tired to me, often had to recover from his own mistakes but give credit where credit is due he always tries, but like some of his team mates lacks pace but generally reads the game well.
            Noble gutsy, good effort. Snoddy average but always trying, Antonio, a man mountain and Haller OBVIOUSLY FAR BETTER with support.
            Pellegrini average, substitutions poor, “forced” into playing 2 upfront…. OUT OUT far to stubborn next manager please!!!!
            PS along with Yarmelenko, Zabaleta and other dead wood.
            Surely Holland would influence game more than Yarmelenko given 20 minutes or so.
            COYI… Palace…. Hmmm. Saha v Zabaleta (if fit) can only cringe at the thought.

      • I’ve never heard of that form of marking before???

  2. Phew! Much more fight in the team again today. Haller showed he can play well when the system suits him. Antonio led the way … again. Close shave at the end – team didn’t look like being fit enough to reach 90 mins … again. MP will probably cling on for the time being but all the problems are still there. Nevertheless, I’ll take the 3 points gladly. 21 points to go … COYI.

  3. Johnham my first reaction to reading the article was to comment in a similar vein to how you’ve read it.. Fairly decent on the defensive tracking side but going forwards, unless he’s on the overlap play breaks down far too often when it reaches Fredericks. The pass to Snods was criminal

  4. Frederick’s picked up his 5th yellow card, so we will see how we are with out him next game ???

    • I think I read earlier in the week that this weekend marks the anniversary of the launch of Claret & Hugh. Thanks to Hugh, Sean and all the rest for all your hard work. C & H is my go-to site for news every day. I’ve never thought you are a mouthpiece for the owners – and like all the rest of us fans, you sometimes change your minds on topics. Well, why not? We are all Hammers fans; we all care deeply about the club and will always have differences of opinion – otherwise this site would be much less fun. I also appreciate the respectful tone you always try to promote (even if you do shout in CAPITALS sometimes!). If it’s not the anniversary, I apologise … maybe this week was all a dream (or a nightmare, depending on your political persuasion …). Keep up the good work and keep the faith.

  5. Agreed, Fredericks is very average. He’s a squad player at best. Pace gets himself out of trouble but not the standard we need. Passing poor, end product generally poor. Decs was also poor today. Caught out quite a bit and wayward passing. But less of the negs, we won! Haller looks a different player with support. We’ve all been saying it for weeks and finally it happens and surprise surprise is looks good. Even more damning for Pelle that he was to inept or arrogant to see it. More fight generally though, played Saints off the park first half. On to the next.

    • Fair summary. Long may the sudden injection of grit last!
      Fredericks is little more, or less, than we have come to expect; either from him OR whoever hired him.

  6. Harsh criticism of Fredericks is unfair when considering that he has had Snodgrass and even worse the lightweight formerly known as Yarmolenko in front of him. The pass he made was off, but so was Snodgrass . My heart sank when Yarmolenko came on as he will not / can’t tackle and bottles it leaving us and Fredericks exposed.
    Overall we did well today and with a different ref might have been more comfortable.

  7. Fredericks 4 at best can’t pass and can’t defend… You must have been watching a different game…

  8. Yarmolenko worked his nads off when he came on. Now when I see a player giving his all for the cause, fighting for every ball, working hard defensively and in attack, unlucky not to score when the ball fell on his weaker right foot, then I’m inclined to give the boy a good mark. Your score for Fredericks may well be surprisingly high but your 1 score for Yarmolenko is an absolute disgrace.

  9. Signings – I would buy: INGs, McNeil, Brookes, Harry Willson .. also a strong CB from Championship and a decent quality keeper – Macarthy from Soton or Ryan.

    Then I would buy good RB.

    I would sell / lose .. Zaba, Reid, Ajeti, Sanchez, Lanzini, Snoddy, Roberto, Yarmalenko, Hugill and Wilshire… that alone will get a fortune off wage bill.. I reckon that’s £600k per week there, or £31.2m a year.. the players I mentioned above in wages would be on not much more than half that and fired up.

    I would then promote: Silva, Holland, Coventry, Cardoso, Powell to 1st team squad and use them and bring back Diangana.

    Much better balance to squad then, player wise, age and cost.

  10. As much as I like Pelle, he is too inflexible and refuses to play 2 up front, which is the reason we paid 45m for haller – and Fornals for 25m, as a number 10 just behind the top 2…. that’s why we spent 70m, surely u play to their strengths?

    We do this with Moyes in Charge – the team currently isn’t fit enough, so many games we are hanging on after 75mins, when Moyes left we were fit and playing for 90mins –

    I figure The above additions/ deletions would leave Us a good young british squad with some great foreign players who will get better playing with a younger, faster more aggressive team – namely: haller, Diop, Oggie, Fornals and Anderson.

    Noble (slowly faded out), Rice, Antonio, CRESS, remains in the team.
    Fred, Arthur and balbuena stay in the squad, the new keeper would eventually replace Fab with Martin as the number 3.

  11. Good all round however I thought Antonio was very good. Haller happier and more involved. Elsewhere ogbonna was good again. Also praise to mark noble who I thought was our best midfield player tonight. Passed it very well and broke things up. More involved than rice, who was a bit quieter. Mark spoke very well on sky after the game when interviewed. So passionate about West Ham united and talked a lot of sense.

  12. Again from 60 mins on we struggled and clung on against a really poor side. Against a better side we’d have thrown away 3 points.

    Whilst good to get a win, this shouldn’t be allowed to paper over the cracks.

  13. It could so nearly have been a draw, desperate defending in the last 15 mins.
    What happens if Haller and Antonio are injured!?

  14. Not sure about Rice rating. So many poor passes, and then has to clean up his own mess. I think 5 a better reflection. He could do with a break from the team. But not possible, given lack of replacements. Same for Fornals, passing accuracy not good enough.

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