Hugh hands out his marks
Randolph: Little do really but there is some authority about the fella although suspect on crosses 5.5
Zaba: Was worried ahead of the match but what a pro. Barely put a foot wrong and didn’t hesitate to collect a yellow for the cause at the end 7.5
Diop: Nice goal and entirely solid at the back 7
Ogbonna: Another super performance from a leading Hammer of the Year contender 7.5
Cresswell: Did his business at both ends of the pitch. No complaints 6
Noble: Scrapped away in typical fashion an there was some decent close control in there along with his obvious passing ability 6
Rice: Lost out in one or two tackles but always recovered possession – got forward well too 7
Snodgrass: Great ball in for the goal, an involved in most of the threatening action while providing some fine set pieces 8
Fornals: Decent game again and there’s more to come but didn’t understand him being subbed rather than Lanzini 6.5
Lanzini: The odd glimpse of the one time wonder boy but faded just as quickly 4
Haller: Too much forward movement broke down on him and some of his finishing was pretty shocking 4.5
Subs:
Ajeti: Some serious effort from a guy on a mission to show himself off to the boss – five minutes of helter skelter action from him. Fair play to the guy but he arrived too late so No rating.
Masuaku: Couldn’t find those killer balls but goes past players as if they don’t exist at times 5.5
Manager Moyes: His team selection was about right given the injuries but the Fornals substitution was clearly suspect. He has organised us at the back but he and the board need to find a striker with real edge over the next couple of weeks an whoever it is needs to be PL proven. 6.5
Agree about Haller. I was thinking we needed a 2nd striker, but rapidly becoming convinced we need a 1st choice striker
For all Hallers positives, for a big man he gets brushed off so easily and his link up play is atrocious… the amount of times we lose the ball through him is getting painful to watch. Plus fluffed a simple one on one … he’s no 20 goals a season striker! Hope I’m proved wrong
A big positive for me is as expected with Moyes a much more solid defensive unit.We were conceding 3 every game at home under Pellegrini towards the end of his tenure.Foundations being built but we are lacking up front which is worrying with Leicester looming.Need Antonio and Anderson for that one I feel to get anything.
I am afraid I disagree with this. He had a real battle with Mina today who is a quality centre half. I think he came out of that honours even. He (bit like Carroll) gets lumps kicked out of him and gets virtually no decisions from officials. Yet any time he gets on top he gets penalised, one shoulder challenge today left Mina in a heap and was penalised yet when it happens to Snoddy there is no foul! The big problem is he is too isolated. His better performances this season are when he has pace around him to give more room and defences to worry about – Anderson against Bournemouth and Antonio at Southampton. He scored in both games. Today he had nothing beyond him, he had two centrehalves on his back and they can push on him knowing there is no threat in behind. Even Ajeti joining him made a difference as suddenly there was someone to win both flick ons he won. I accept his finishing was not good enough today but several of his finishes this season have been genuinely top class and something we have lacked for past few seasons. He suffers from crowd believing that because he cost £40m plus (not his fault but fair value for a competent goal scorer who is 25 and has resale value, incidentally the same is applied to Anderson when he plays too and that seems linked to his transfer fee as well). Certainly those sat around me today were abusive and unsupportive. If Antonio or anyone else in our team were able to run beyond him he looks a different player. He is not the problem, the lack of pace in this team and forward running from midfield or wide positions is.
Totally agree with you Ridders he needs a second striker with him for sure. People should look how good he has been when he has a strike partner. Also agree with our midfield needing more pace. that is why Fornals was taken off he has not got the speed to go pass the fullbacks from wide areas.
Sensible post
Bang on what I have been saying.
Snoddy a good championship player at best! I like the guy but come on not prwm league!
So dissapointed with Haller. Such an expensive player, who even verbally pledged to pay WH back with good performances. He looks totally disinterested and his lack of effort together with his bad passing and school-boy attempts at goal, only leaves one furious.
Antonio’s urgent return is our only answer at the moment.
Lanzini completely off the boil … and seems to just be going through the motions for his hefty pay packet.
Ogbonna, Diop, Declan and Zaba showed what WH supporters expect from their players.
Some players are never the same after the sort of injury Lanzini had. I think he has been back in the side long enough to have returned to his best if he was going to…
Haller isn’t the problem, give him the service he will score. Zaba was my mom and for me this is were we go wrong because Fredericks is not a patch on him, anyway lanzini was terrible and should of been hooked after 60 mins to give ajeti a decent run or why did we buy him. Should of and would of been 3 pts today if Anderson or Yarmolenko had of been fit.
I like snodgrass for his effort but for the life of me I don’t get left footers playing right side. With the little pace he has lost by stopping and turning inside 100% of the time
I thought that we played quite well – and for once I didn’t have the feeling that inevitably we would concede a second goal and lose
However the bench showed how unbalanced our squad is – seems like Moyes has joined the fans in discarding Sanchez hence two kids and three centre halves on the bench – others have commented that we never replaced Kouyate E. Fernandes (who may actually be better than G fernandes) and Obiang – it will still be a long hard grind to avoid relegation but I now have hope
Some posters have compared Moyes to BFS – perhaps a better comparison is that Pelle is not too different from Avram Grant
COYI
“Haller: Too much forward movement broke down on him and some of his finishing was pretty shocking 4.5”
Not only was some of his finishing pretty shocking, I think once you watch a replay of the Everton goal you might be like me and put a fair bit of the blame on Haller as he just stood there and watched it happen, if he had have attacked the ball as it came towards him he may well have either headed it away or at least blocked the header that resulted in the goal.
Ajeti was lucky to remain on the pitch, in my opinion. Any kind of use of the head against an opponent wil lead to a sanction these days. With the injuries and lack of depth in the squad, the last thing we need is stupidity on the field, especially by a player who should be trying to force his way into the manager’s thinking for the right reasons.
I was surprised Fornals came off instead of Lanzini. I always thought Anderson needs more end-product out of his undoubted talent but we missed him today. Hope Moyes goes 3 at the back v Leicester by bringing Balbuena back in alongside Diop and Ogbonna – suits our meagre playing resources better, in my opinion. Looks like Byram would have been of benefit had he’d stayed (and stayed fit). Fingers crossed we get a young dynamic box to box midfielder like Berge before 31 Jan.17 points to go. Looking forward to Wed. COYI.