Sam Allardyce dubbed the visitors “long ball United ” and said: “The lads are absolutely gutted and so they should be.”
He added:”It was a fantastic performance and I thought we were going to see it through but it wasn’t to be.
“We just needed to find the second goal and didn’t manage to even though we had chances. It was a terrific performance that excited our fans but United always have that quality to pop up and score.
“In the end we couldn’t cope with long ball United. That’s not normally how you see them play but it worked for them in the end -it was thump it forward and see what happens. “
Of the Hammers performance he explained: “Our performance and strength was based on the midfielders getting it into the front men rather than going back to front.
“We blocked out Rooney, Di Maria and van Persie – we stifled them but couldn’t get that second goal which we could have done and in the end had to settle for a point rather than a famous victory.
“If you look at the amount of saves David De Gea made today he is probably just as worthy of them getting the draw as Daley Blind getting the equaliser.”
Mark Noble admitted it felt like a loss but added: “That shows how far we have come as a team. To feel gutted at drawing with United tells you that.
“We have great team spirit and good players. They just started slamming it up to Fellaini’s head and both Cheik (Kouyate) and Tonks were struggling at the end.”
Great performance yesterday by everyone who played, the only gripe is once again Sam makes a negative substitution bringing Valencia off and we lose a 1 goal advantage again how many times is that this season he has swapped to 4 5 1 and we have lost a lead (both everton games, Swansea, West Brom and now this one also ! Nolan and Song played exceptionally well but both were blowing after 60 minutes and had he put players on in the midfield with fresh legs Amalfitano and or Jarvis for one or both of them and if you are going to take Valencia off put the pacy Lee on in his place don’t swap to your useless 4 5 1 formation which hasn’t produced a single win this season…
It wasn’t we couldn’t cope ,it was that you as manager couldn’t cope.You made one mystery change and didn’t counter Van Gaals changes .Allardyce cost us two points and a lot of hope .Nolan may have run around but he actually contributed very little on the positive side.its the same old same old.
Were you even at the match?
Excellent performance today from the manager down. Sams team deserved all three points in my opinion. Kevin nolan played well again. Even his biggest critics are now recognising the effort he puts in. thats what West Ham is all about for me. We haven’t always had the best players over the years but when they put the effort in I appreciate it. And nolan is our club captain for Fred’s sake. Anyone who boos the captain of my club should be thrown out the ground in my opinion.
Looks as if we got the same as we have been dishing out to other teams for ages.Anyhow one more point closer to safety.
Fair play Bubs,agree about Nolan.I have given him so much grief but credit where credits due he put a real shift in today.Aint no questioning or doubting that,best he has played for a very long time.
Hope BFS remembers this when AC is fit,there lots to learn from this game for everyone which includes me,Nolan today deserves credit for the effort he put in but we need Kouyate in the side all the time and not at centre half,Song did not have his best but he needs to be in the team.we now need a result against Southampton,so BFS no sitting back let’s take our form to away games as well,if other players want to get into the team let them wait for there chance ans then earn there starting slot,this can only be good for them and there team,
As for Nolan I will back off until he deserves the bad press which he has in the last 2 months.