28 Comments

How we rated the Irons v Saints

 

hughhatHugh hands out the marks for the boys on a disappointing afternoon

Hart: Even by his experienced standards this is a Hammers baptism of fire behind a dodgy defence. A daft punched clearance didn’t generate great confidence and I can offer no more than the average mark 5

Zabaleta: Committed the offence for the Saints last minute penalty winner Β but showed his vast experience with some decent clearing up at the back. Such a shame he paid the heaviest of prices 5

Fonte: Slow, clumsy, unable to read the game and to be honest a total liability 2

Ogbonna: Pitched in at the last minute after Reid’s warm up injury. Looked all at sea at times with his partner at the back. Unimpressive 4

Rice 3Rice: Calm, impressive and busy on a difficult afternoon. At just 18 years of age this is a lad to the manner born. Love him 7

Cresswell: Great cross for the equalier and always looking positive and ready to get forward. Good performance 6

Noble: However much we may admire ‘Mr West Ham’s’ loyalty and committment time is taking a heavy toll – as with Fonte – and I believe he is now part of our past 4

Antonio: What a guy…what a player. A real handful throughout his 67 minutes on the pitch and still the man who sets the pulses racing 7

Ayew: I just don’t know what the bloke is all about and at Β£20 million he currently looks like a very poor deal indeed. Shocked to see his name on the team sheet but unsurprised by another underelming performance 2

Arnautovic: Missed an oustanding early chance and was always in the action whilst he remained on the pitch. Let himself and everybody else down with a horrible elbowing incident and sent the lads on Mission Impossible as a result. 2

Hernandez: Top striker, no hesitation when around that penalty area and he showed us, there’s a lot of hope given his amazing goal instincts.Β 8

Subs:

 

Obiang: Some great tackles and very happy to put pressure on himself after THAT injury. Impressive 7

Fernandes: Looked as good as we’ve seen him during his 25 minutes Β on the pitch. Good going forward and at the back 6

Sakho: Played in a big part in Chicharito’s goal and always making those crafty runs. Give him tme to get up to full fitness and he and Chica can be a dynamite partnership. 6

 

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

28 comments on “How we rated the Irons v Saints

  1. ‘a very deal indeed’, ‘another underelming performance’ – πŸ™ˆ

  2. Do you feel better for that pointless post Rich.Nothing better to do on a Saturday night then i take it.Why bother..

  3. It was at least a spirited performance . Whether we would have won with 11 is open to opinion and conjecture . We still don’t know what impact Anautovic will have at West Ham
    And now it seems we must wait a further three games before we do . He was an idiot and no amount of apologizing will conceal that . He left us with a virtual mission impossible .
    Hernandez showed why he is so valued and Ayew showed why he is not . Young Rice was outstanding and if he continues like this and remains Loyal to West Ham he is a Legend in the making . Sakho is showing signs of full recovery and with Carroll almost ready for a comeback West Ham can show the Premiership what they can do . Shame about Reid and welcome back Cresswell .
    I am still waiting to see what all the fuss is about Concerning Hart . Hasn’t done anything his billing portrays . Noble gave it his all yet again but showed why he should be removed from the starting 11 .

    • Pundits on TSN 4 stream panned hart and fonts ? Not good enough on the first goal they said far to slow for such a soft shot , he flopped ? And fonts was awfull all round ?
      I agree 100% and the diving punch ? Wtf???
      Rice 7 ? 5 from me far to much pressure to put on his shoulders , who in their right mind would put a kid next to noble ??
      Just watching BT1 premier round up ? Bilic is on borrowed time according to plug and Gerrard _64 goals against last year 7 so far this after 2 games !
      Upton park was a deterent awesome but the Queenie holds no fear for anyone according to them ?

    • Kevin good post. Time to bring back Adrian. Why do we persist with Noble,Fonte and Ayew??

  4. As a former centre half Slav really needs to get that position sorted before the transfer window closes.Poor Bobby must be turning in his grave when he sees the shambolic defending by Fonte and Ogbonna.Neither instills any confidence and we look like shipping goals galore with this pairing.Goals and chances are not going to be a problem this season but that defence has more holes in it than a tramps vest at the moment.Well done to the rest of the lads who performed heroically after the stupid sending off.Real spirit shone through which bodes well once we are at full strength and a couple of defensive additions added.

  5. Probably the best and certainly the most honest ratings I have read . Fonte , Noble , Ayew were … AS USUAL …. awful and did well to get 2 . Rice , Antonio , and Hernandez spot on and Obiang great after lay off . Sakho showed glimpses of getting back to his best .

    Get Noble and Fonte out of squad .. Ayew must be around to keep some value , and lets start building on what we have … No comment re Hart … personally I would have no problem seeing Adrian . COYI

  6. Agree exceptnfor Hart. Should be low with Fonte and Ogbonna. Adrian should be our #1 Hart is bc Name and Wages.
    But should have saved 1st goal and possibly last penalty. But in this game and last he keep Punching out the ball when he can catch and has gotten lucky. Masuaku cleared it at Man U so opponent didn’t get rebound goal.And was lucky doing it today as well. His decision making is poor and to be Honest I never was keen on him if moving for a GK why nota younger keeper Szczesny would have been great sign at Β£9m. LaFont etc.
    Hart never earned it in preseason to begin with to me it should have been Adrian’s position to lose. But I imagine Β£130k plus wages they don’t want on bench.
    But Skav told the media and Hart he has to Eanr his spot he didn’t in my eyes and know Skav has to have the clout and confidence to bench Hart and give Adrian the nod!

  7. And Now Reid signed 6 year deal which is just dafy business and injured within less then 24hrs of penning new deal. Players getting pensions on the bench or in stands. Fonte lacks pace and has only looked good in a back 3 bc he has t played with Ogbonna much. Burke looks good so far and will probably need him in January.
    Collins not on bench he is probably our most relaible CB besides youngsters is he Injured was in at Man U

  8. Sorry yes Antonio was Great and Rice should have started with Obiang who came on great as sub. And Chicharito showed why we brought him in with a brace fox in the box. Attack fine Defense is issue. Little Pea Perfect!
    And Arnie’s younger loan Replacement Jese Rodriguez scored a lovely goal to win against Arsenal. Marko is now added to out list….

  9. After watching Stoke v Arse, I am telling myself there are a lot of teams which sow fight, determination, pace and grinta. That is going to be our problem this year with players such as Fonte, Ogbonna, Masuaku, Ayew. None of them seem to be able to up their level.

    I also thought that Jese looks a better player than Arnautovic. Arnautovic has the same issues as Xhaka. Good player but tremendous anger management problems and lack of discipline. I also thought that Butland is much better keeper than Hart, and Hart is no better than Adrian. Adrian would have stopped the first goal.

    Solutions for the next game ? Put Collins and Rice CH. drop Noble and Ayew, Adrian back between the sticks. Lanzini to ignite the fire.

    Adrian
    Zaba – Collins – Rice – Cress
    Antonio – Obiang – Fernandes
    Lanzini
    Sakho – JH

    This should give more grant to the team and up the pace. We saw that things went better when Sakho came on. Keep him as a starter now.

  10. More grinta, not grant. We have to have the “commando” spirit, the fighting spirit.

    • Well said Dunlop, have only read account of the game so will wait for some extended highlights, Thompson for sky seems to think could easilly have been 4 sendings off and said Arnautovic,Tadic and Noble were definite straight reds was that the case ?

      • Tadic & Noble could definately have gone 32.Nobles was a shyt challenge & god knows what Tadic was doing,trying some Karma Sutra position on Hernandez i think πŸ˜‚

  11. I can see that Adrian lovers are going to call for Harts head even if he sneezes 😁
    He did f*ck all wrong.Im all for dropping players if they are shyt but not just because he aint your favourite πŸ˜ƒ

  12. Adrian saves the first goal ? He looked like a jabba the hut doing a belly flop rads πŸ˜‚
    6 foot 4 and dived / flopped, minus I inch to the floor , can’t catch a ball , and what was the diving punch all about ,can’t get near long shots ? Supposed to Marshall the defence and liven them up they said ! Apart from that he had a good game ! MOTD should be good πŸ˜‚
    2 games 7 goals its got to be Adrian’s turn v barcodes , yes I’m bias as I’ve never rated him
    But want him to do good like everyone , can’t see it , I’m going to have a cake and a cup of tea
    πŸ˜‰ 🍰🍡 under the counter lemon drizzle 😁

    • Spot on and maybew savrw that last Pen. Hart’s decision making is horrific and is punching will cost us goals almost has but lucklily fell to our players. He didn’t do enought to start after preseason #1 was Adrian’s to lose. And I think all the wages on Hart and loan fees better of spent on CB I wasn’t a fan of the move hoped it proved me wrong but so far he has Been sub par and Pep saw that has had sup par past 3 seasons.. He diwhen was younger and had likes of Company in fro t of him. We don’t have a Kompany we need a GK who can play behind ever changing back line. And Adrian is more use to it.
      They want buy a CB but would.love if could give Fonte up even tho I don’t think he is horrific just hasn’t been patented with anyone to gel and wos in back 3 the best but if he left and got Wimmer, Jannson, Lees would take Sahko! Even with injury at decent fee supposedly wants a move here.
      But Slav told Reporters Back 3 was Plan B and we are in Plan A time to switch to Plan B with Collins Rice Ogbonna

  13. MOTD pundits condemned our fouls but didn’t mention Tadic’s assault on Chicarito. It wasn’t even shown in the match footage. The hand ball in the box, although shown, was not mentioned or looked at afterwards. What is it with the BBC and West Ham?

    • Janus and the luvvie mooro 66 😠

    • Or the elbow on Arnie , just focused on noble !
      Spud janas still smarting after the 1-0 mooro66 ,
      Only ever comments when we lose it seems !

  14. Bloody hell Laz i hope i never go before the beak & youre on the jury, i will go down for 40 years for Jaywalking p*ssed πŸ˜‚

    • 😁 that’s life mate jaywalking πŸ˜‚ hanging if wearing headphones πŸ˜‚
      He’s crap mate , average at best , he’s past his best if ever he had it in the first place πŸ˜‰
      If ever you come before me again I’ll send Jenna round for six months therapy rehab xxxxπŸ˜‚

  15. You are clowns if you think Hart should be dropped for Adrian.The same Adrian who was dropped for being a liablity.

    The problem is you already made your minds up on Hart before he even played.Is there any player that you havnt all panned yet this season.Its a continual swipe at anyone in the team.

    Its not normal the way you all crucify every player.

    • Billy smarts recruitment officer has turned up again lads , looks like we will be in work this summer πŸ˜‚ brandishing his new CRITICAL POST POLICE DEGREE! ( CPP )
      Did you get the helmet with the blue flashing light on top and a free box of fudge fingers !
      Talk football and respect others opinions without the clown mantra , if you dont like it move on and find another course in how not to be serious and boring !!😴😴😴😴

      What about enlightening us on Adrian’s liabilitys as you are obviously clued up with the answers I personally will look forward to you’re explanation ! Games , mistakes etc!

      • So Adrian was dropped just for fun was he.Did you watch last season!!
        You just dont like being told you are moaners.Its always the same,you can rip everyone apart but as soon as other fans tell you the truth you get all pretty polly sorry for yourself.

  16. Then you can tell us all what and when he made these liabilities jug
    All g with you’re new degree of CPP !
    We all await in anticipation of you’re log of events ? Of course the midfield and defence had nothing to do with it! Did it , I watched every game like you so no excuses for not letting us in on these mistakes then ,eh jug?

  17. I am just happy to see a performance with a bit of fight (OK so maybe a bit too much from Arnie).
    Fonte disappointing.
    Let’s talk positives…
    Rice. Antonio. Chicharito.
    Somewhat for both fullbacks and Sakho.
    It will be interesting to see what happens when we have fit CDM alternatives to Nobes. Maybe he gives the team something intangible – some westhamness that assembled buys cannot. Maybe. Hard to justify his place on pure performance.

  18. Another way of rating is simply to say, in the light of individual performances, who justified his starting place.

    Hart – no
    Zaba – yes
    Fonte – no
    Ogbonna – no
    Cresswell – yes
    Rice – yes
    Noble – no
    Arnautovic – no
    Hernandez – yes
    Ayew – no
    Antonio – yes

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