We’re thankful for the Hammers fans who think a bit further than the current pre-season results.
Yes, of course wining is a good habit but over analysing (ok, we may be guilty on this occasion) is a trap than can lead to either deep pessimism or over the top expectations for the season ahead.
And a couple of members of the lively ClaretandHugh Facebook forum @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/363174467150521/ have been quick to send a reminder of past seasons.
And those of us who are perhaps paying to much heed to events in China should perhaps be grateful for their comments.
Andrew Sawyer put things very succinctly indeed when commenting: “Did we not win all pre season games under Avram Grant…. And we all know how successful that was.”
And he was quickly joined by Michael Phillips who added: “Also we lost all our games before our best ever season.”
We look forward to Fulham at the weekend!
COYI
Chill out Boys, getting too fired up.. Pre season results mean NOTHING.!! NOTHING. Just Fitness
COYI COYI
Also, we are yet to play anything like our strongest line up. Haven’t even featured Fornals and Haller yet, so I think we can relax. I think Pelle knows who his stars are, and whilst it’s important to get their fitness up, he uses pre-season to run the rule over other fringe players to gauge what he needs. He can’t really know what he has to play with (e.g. Cullen, Sanchez, Johnson etc) until they play.
There have been some notable high points though – seemingly Ben Johnson is knocking on the door for a regular first team role. Rice is picking up where he left off, and Noble is still having an impact. Wilshere is looking decent.
Just hoping Reid is able to recapture his fitness and not be worried about injuring himself again. He’s always been class, and fitness will come with more games. We need him, Balbuena and Diop to be a force this season. I love Oggie, but he’s suspect.
COYI.
In my opinion You are all missing the fact that WH have a poor squad to go into next season with and this is nothing to do with pre season. I’ve been watching the team for 50 years and I can see we have allot of weaknesses. We have around 11 players that are consistent and good enough for premiership level (and I include the two recent purchases in this, even though they have not proven their premiership pedigree yet), 9 players in the squad that simply aren’t good enough for the premiership, and 4 key playmakers that all have a poor injury record and as such could collapse on us at any time!! This is nothing to do with panicking because of seeing a poor pre season so far, but general concern that the squad has allot of weaknesses that have not been sorted out and not enough quality has been brought in to upgrade the squads overall quality in order to step up a bit this year (in my opinion we have regressed as much as we have improved).
Can’t agree that we have a poor squad. I think we have a lopsided squad full of quality in the final third but not good enough in defence.
Fabianski hopefully stays fit all season, and if he does, we have no worries in goal. Not convinced on our back up keepers but hopefully they won’t play. I am happy with our centre back pairing but am concerned should one get a long term injury, we saw last season how Balbuena’s absence affected us. Reid is a question mark and for me, Ogbonna is far too inconsistent, add to that he’ll concede a bunch of penalties with VAR.
I’m content to leave right back alone for another season and see whether Fredericks or Johnson can make the step up. I don’t think Johnson looks natural on the left. The left back position is our real weak area. Cresswell and Masuaku seem positionally poor, Cresswell is better but often injured. Both are not good enough if we want to improve and have a real shot at getting in the Europa League.
Our attacking midfield options look fantastic but we need an engine, a midfielder who can support Dec defensively but is athletic enough to break forward. This is our other key weakness and Carlos Sanchez looks a massive worry.
I also think we could do with another striker and another centre back however as with the right back position, I think we can make do this season. That said, Llorente on a free would be a good option as he can play in a similar way to Haller so our system wouldn’t need to drastically change if Haller is out.
We definitely need quality at LB and CDM for this season and why not a freebie up top. I don’t expect huge fees. I’m hoping we can find value similar to the Balbuena deal. Not every quality player costs 20m. We just need to know where the value is. Ignoring our weaknesses is a mistake however. While I think we won’t have any issues with relegation. I can’t see us making the progress we all crave without addressing our flaws.
I certainly agree that pre season is about fitness and experimentation. The point about previous years’ pre season results is well made. I’m sure lessons will have been learned in China. As a wise person once said, you don’t learn as much from successes as you do from failures.