Reece Oxford looks set for a spell on the bench after his impressive League debut at Arsenal.
The 16 year old was substituted by Pedro Obiang at half time in yesterday’s defeat against Leicester.
And the summer signing immediately added bite to the Irons and looked set to nail down a place in midfield for the forseeable future.
ClaretandHugh was told: “It was impossible to not play Reece after his performance last week but it’s always going to be difficult at that age.
“He’s a tremendous prospect and is very much a part of the squad but Pedro showed that he’s an exciting player during the second half.”
ClaretandHugh was told exclusively: “Pedro looked the business and was involved in much of our good stuff. Reece is a fantastic young player but looks likely to be used more sparingly. He’s very young after all.”
The problem is this stupid ‘Sam keeps you in the Premiership’ tag.Now you have prize plums that stick by this thought even though we were diabolical last season for the final 5 months.Any other manager who couldnt give us an away prem league win in 6 months would have been slaughtered.Any other manager who gave us 3 Prem wins after xmas onwards would have been slaughtered.But all these wally brains worry about is that ‘you dont get relegated with Sam’,’Sam brings you stability’.We win at Arse,lose at home to LCFC & already some are saying can we support Bilic after this loss,are we going to be on a downward spiral.Not to put too fine a point on it,it is a f*cking joke!! 😉
Stingray if we won the treble those people would still want Hippo back,they have a fixation
Even if we don’t get relegated which is all they wet there pants about,if we finish in the top 8 in their eyes Slav will be a failure,
We just need to put that result right against Bournemouth and we can go to Liverpool who now don’t have their lucky charm against us any more Gerrard,
No one has actually said that even in defeat we played good football and with a bit of luck going our way we would have got a result
I couldnt believe some of the comments on here lastnight.People moaning about Bilic after one defeat.The same people who wanted hippos contract renewed even though we went six months without a Prem away win & only won three Prem matches after xmas.Maybe it escaped their attention that we won at Arsenal the week before & we aint lost both our opening matches.
Oxford is a central defender who can also do a defensive job in midfield – as demonstrated perfectly against Arsenal – he just gives the simple ball and is good at doing a specific job but he is not a midfield player.
When Obiang came on you saw an immediate improvement, a proper progressive midfielder not just a makeshift stopper.
Oxford’s going to be a good player but he needs bringing through carefully, developing his game – he could be a real star in a few years time but not yet.
Totally agree with all you say Demonic Person,lol.We are a work in progress under Slaven.If people dont understand or have the patience for it then they should get off the train at the the next stop!!
From my viewpoint, our problems yesterday were
a) young Oxford went to sleep and let his man run off him; great prospect and will learn every week;
b) the incessant passing the ball round the back four rather than use the skills we now have to carry the ball forwards. Playing it round the back invites pressure and creates risk; it doesn’t create the hole behind the forwards we hope for if the opposition are pressing;
c) a referee who could send off one keeper but couldn’t spot a blatant clothesline by the other. It wasn’t even a borderline case, where the forward’s running away from the goal – Sakho’s flick was actually goalbound as the arm came across the throat. Also, on 49m30s, Sakho took an arm across the face at the South Bank end from Huth. I’m thinking of getting an ‘I saw West Ham given a penalty’ t-shirt to go with my ‘I saw Steve Potts score’ one.
On the upside, I enjoyed much of our play more than I have done for years; the ‘be careful what you wish for’ brigade never seemed to understand that losing wasn’t always the issue; it was the manner of our capitulations under the previous idiot. Payet looks to have real class, and on first view Obiang will be a regular and Lanzini has plenty to offer.
Not happy days yet, but sooooooo much more to be cheerful about than three months ago.
I think Jenks and Oxford were the right call on the day,easy to say with hindsight. Probably easy to for me to repeat it should’ve been Tonks for Reid. I love Winston but he just can’t play the new way yet,he looks nervy on the ball and really concentrates to play to feet so the full back has to wait for the ball rather than running onto it by which time he’s closed down. I don’t blame Winston for this as he’s only known an antiquated pump it long system for four years whereas at least Tonks was schooled by Tony Carr. I equate it to you old boys learning the logical decimal money system instead of the strange imperial one……..now where did I put the key to my bunker lol
I except both of your arguments but think we needed at least 1 more attacking option from the start,Lanzini instead of Noble or Young Vicking on the bench not Magia,
Payet needs more options to lay the ball off and Sakho is playing well but has 2 defenders on his case for 90 minutes
Obiang looked very good yesterday,i was pleasantly surprised after he seemed to vanish without trace.Re the jenks/tonka issue.All day long for me Jenks should have started at home.Away match maybe tonka deserved to keep his place.
Bubs I agree with you yet again. I have been saying for a long time now that we need another winger with pace and trickery as we have not replaced Valencia or Downing. I don’t blame Bilic for playing Oxford but I do blame him for bringing in Jenkinson – he is a one trick pony. Oxford’s position is right full until he develops not CM or CB. If not go and get a proper RB. Our strongest team is Adrian, Oxford, Reid, Ogbanna, Cresswell, Obiang, Song (need him holding) Kouyate, Valencia, Payet, AN Other, Sakho. There you have it – I still cant believe we have not signed Song and a winger. We are talking about spending 10 million on a forward. In my opinion we need a winger (no 1), Song (no 2) and a good right back (no 3). There you have it.
Nah,different arguement bubs.At home we needed Jenks attacking abilities.Though he had a poor game,still seems short of fitness.Would have loved to have seen the reaction if we had had three central defenders in the back four at home.If hippo had done that he would have been massacred if the back four had had Tonks,Reid & Ogbanna in it 😉
Can understand keeping Oxford but using those same excuses we should have kept Tomkins,
The problem for me is we were at home and only had 3 people with strong attacking skills,
I know a lot of fans want Noble in the team and captain but we should have had Lanzini or another attacking option maybe Young Viking or Jarvis,
Not moaning even though we lost the team played well but with Valencie out we need more attacking options we are going to scare nobody bringing on Magia or Nolan,
Ref had a stinker but letting in 2 goals with 8 defensive players is not good
I can understand why Bilic started Oxford.He was superb last week.Difficult call for the manager.If he had dropped him many would have been moaning that he didnt deserve dropping,but then Reece didnt have a good first half & you have the wise after the event merchants saying Bilic should never have started him against Leicester.So many experts around,lol.I was impressed by Obiang,he looked good 😉
From the 2nd half display, Obiang looks good. Let’s not forget he is also a young player at age 23, but played some 4 years of regular football. I think Bilic would choose the midfielder who is better suited for different opponents. So another good option in the MF department.
I don’t think it was ‘impossible’ to leave out Oxford after last week but I can certainly see why Billic went with him again. The problem was this was actually a bigger test for the young man as at Arsenal he had one job and that was to protect Reid and Ogbanna. At home he had to be on the ball more and kick start our play from the back. I thought Obiang looked quality when he came on and hopefully he can really kick on in his first season with us. It would be fantastic if we get get Song back. I can’t see many teams getting the ball off us if Obiang and Song were to play together in the middle of the pitch. Then if you are going to play a diamond with two up top unfortunately Noble may be seen as the weak link as I am sure most will want to play Payet and Kouyate. Either way we will have many options through the middle of the pitch which would be fantastic. It was a shame how yesterday ended up, especially with Adrain being sent off. Hopefully it will prove to be an early learning curve for the squad and for Bilic and we will grow from it starting next week.
So Obiang’s athleticism, running ability and range of passing will be wasted as he sits in a pocket in front of our defence? Noble will still be in midfield, slowing play down and being too slow to go past players further up the pitch or to catch players who drift past him. Stop playing Noble just because he is “one of our own”. Put Kouyate and Obiang in front of our back four and play a front four – with a new striker to help Sakho