Bowen impressed in late arrival
David Moyes was keen to talk up the Hammers application at the Etihad last night.
As the old cliche goes you are only as good as you are allowed to be and City were their brilliant in a game which most Irons fans had written off before the start.
Such as Kevin De Bruyne – the man of the match – are on an entirely different level and he, in particular, chose last night to turn on one of his best displays of the seasons.
Having said that, the Hammers – despite one or two periods with Declan Rice showed the way forward – never had any serious inclination to have a go and that was the bitterly disappointing element of the game and the approach of David Moyes.
That he should mention ‘goal difference’ being a consideration demonstrated his cautious approach and circumspect thinking.
We saw that it could have been different whenhe finally gave Jarrod Bowen a chance to show what he had with the new signing taking limited opportunity to go past players and looking as though he would have been a real threat had he been used earlier.
Moyes said after the game to Sky per https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/february/19-february/david-moyes-effort-players-was-fantastic: “I thought the players did a great job in trying to be organised, disciplined and structured in a way that would make it hard for them
“We did it for long periods, but they move the ball so well. They advance the ball every time they move and put you on the back foot so many times.
“There were lots of good defensive moments in the first half when we had to defend when it looked as if they were in, but overall I’d have liked us to play much better, especially with the ball and on the counter attack. We had a few opportunities, and we didn’t take them.
“I want to be able to play, look forward and play good stuff. I think we showed really good organisational qualities tonight – we were disciplined in our roles, everybody knew what they had to do, and against these teams you have to be.
“There will be games coming up when we have the chance to play differently, but obviously we’re in a period of a couple of tough games.”
“I’m confident [we can get of the situation],” he added. “These games were always going to be difficult for us but getting a good structure, especially defensively [is important], because if you don’t concede any goals you always will pick up points.
“We have to take that, try to improve our football, because we’ve got some good games coming up at home.”
You think city were brilliant ?? They didn’t need to break sweat or get out of 2nd gear ,and KDB one of his best games of the season!!! It was like a testimonial pace game for them or a training session of defence against attack ,it was an embarrassment a prem team played like a plucky low league team in fa cup tie against the big boys
” I win games ,that’s what I do ” david Moyes 😂😂😂
I’m afraid this is what you get from a manager that is known as one of the dinosaurs. Football has changed since he was at Everton. As he said recently, Liverpool play the long ball sometimes, as teams did back in the day. But they don’t just hoof it up to the guy up front, they play the swiftest of transitions, backed up by other offensive players. Last night it was a case of hoof it up to Antonio and let one other player support so that if (when) City win it back we aren’t left with players up the field and therefore short at the back. This is football from a bygone era.
If the players read this site i wouldn’t say this for fear of deflating them even more but the way we play with Moyes, all this ‘Stay tight at the back and if you don’t concede you have a chance’ crap, doesn’t bode well for our clubs future. I know there are different opinions regarding the manager and i don’t wish to say that those championing him are wrong but i personally can’t see how we even begin to move forward as a club with him at the helm. You’d think he’d have moved with the times what with the amount of football he must have watched over the last few years, both as a pundit and during his work with UEFA but it’s the same old tactics he has always been known for and football is quicker, more technical and with players hitting their stride at a younger age than when he was semi-successful with Everton all those years ago.
This isn’t meant to be a negative rant, though it might not read like that. I just saw the game last night and was saddened at the lack of depth regarding the tactics. I believe, as Noble said earlier this season, this is the best squad i’ve seen in my 42 years as a supporter but we’ve been like a rudderless ship due to poor management. If we had a Klopp or Guardiola do you think we’d be in this position? Anderson, Fornals, Haller, Soucek, Rice, Antonio, even Snodgrass; they are really solid, talented players who have either done well with us or at other clubs. They just aren’t going to show their best under this manager, as most didn’t under the last one, who i was blindly a champion of by the way.
Sorry for the moan, Hugh, but last night was abject and utterly disappointing. If Palace can have a go at City, Wolves and Tottenham too, then why can’t we? Goal difference isn’t relevant at this stage, there are too many games left and even losing 4 or 5-2 wouldn’t have made much of a difference to it but it might have injected a wee bit more confidence than last night’s performance. Against Liverpool, Norwich have twice had a real go this season and could have gotten something out of at least one of those games with better finishing. I have no confidence we will give them the same tough game, not with this manager at the helm.
No vision at all, Rice is a good defensive midfielder he is no play maker. Set up to draw, bound to lose, didn’t disappoint. Two wingers and a midfielder up front. If Bowen isn’t good enough, then why buy him. Still an easy one on Monday, my guess is we will have three ground staff up front.
11 goals conceded in last 4 league matches, and this playing negative football with little or no attacking threat. Praising the defence, of which there were 9 of them in effect last night is a joke. It is like a repeat of his first spell. Only the owners of this club considered him still to be a manager, not once but twice. It is truly beyond a joke
With a front 2 of Haller and Antonio, and Bowen and Anderson out wide. Backed up by Soucek and rice in midfield, surely they would win 4 out of remaining 12 matches. Under Moyes he will never employ this set up, as Noble seems as if he has to play
Great game last night, three defensive midfielder, a midfielder up front and £65 million worth of strikers on the bench for 78 minutes!
Playing Bowen next to Antonio was an obvious way to keep the ultra defensive line up while having a forward in the same time zone as Antonio
If it didntwork out Snod Lanzini or Anderson were options to replace Bowen or Noble.
In some ways the performance and the score were a re run of the Liverpool game.
No point in going gung ho and taking a battering. The fact is goal difference does matter. Also the pride and confidence of the players comes into it, and if we are more organised in defence we’ll about time.
Agree. No injuries to critical players. Need everyone fit for the season that start after the LVP game.
Given the pre game prediction of West Ham fans and the bookies offering quite long odds on anything other than a Citeh win, a 2-0 result isn’t the worse case scenario…?
Just a game that shows how far we have sunk. I have never seen a more training ground attack v defence ‘competitive’ game in my life. So negative. I have no issue with loading the defence against what is clearly a far better technical team, but you’re got to try and change things once we go behind. A swashbuckling 4-1 would be better for morale than this rubbish.
We were really lucky to get away with 2-0. On another night it could have been many more. Masuaku is a truly awful footballer. A complete liability. You can’t set up to park the bus when he is part of the back line. Commits himself all the time and can’t time a tackle to save his life. Noble, bless him was way off the pace, Soucek did next to nothing for me, Rice obviously did his best and did fairly well. Got caught out a few times but mainly because he had zero options to offload. All very depressing. At least the next game will be much easier?!!
I do not want to be too negative but I have to admit that when I saw the line up last night I was really annoyed. We knew what was going to happen before a ball was kicked. What we saw last night is not west ham. I wrote another comment that I would have loved to have seen a forward line of Antonio, Bowen and Anderson as I really think city’s defense would have hated playing against them. I can’t get across how much I hate the get men behind the ball and hope we nick something style. If we are to get relegated this year I would hate to go out with a whimper but if we carry on like last night it’s exactly what is going to happen. The first thought going on to the pitch cannot be just don’t lose anymore because by the time we come round to games we can realistically win the players will be too afraid to lose to actually go out and win a game. So disappointed!!!!
I would play Ngakia and Cardoso as wing backs in front of Cresswell, Ogbonna and Diop. Rice with Soucek and Snodgrass with Antonio and Bowen for the Liverpool defeat in preparation for Southampton. Think we’ll be just as toothless against Liverpool as we were last night at City but it will be used as another preparation for Southampton and beyond. COYI.
👎⚒👎⚒👎⚒👎⚒ and that’s Moyes in a nutshell IMHO
What sort of manager sets a team up with no intention of winning.He thinks we defended well,Jesus could have had a hat-trick ,plus other missed chances.I cannot see how playing this sort of football is going to give them confidence.There will be more of the same next Monday .
Just looking at the face of Moyes tells you everything about the Hammers!
Did anyone see the face of Simeone the other evening? A completely different attitude!
Ultimately bringing Moyes back was just yet another awful decision by our clueless board. I don’t think you can blame Moyes, he is who he is, we all knew what we’d get from him. There can be no surprises about his style of play.