I am starting to miss Arn and Glock.
West Ham Post Match Bitching plus RAAAAAAATIINGS!
- Thread starter manwithnoname
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My thoughts
Karius - 5 - He looked to be trying to 'game' Payet into going for that far corner at the FK and paid the price for that. There are situations where a keeper has no excuse not to be set up optimally and a FK is one of those. Didn't have a whole lot else to do to be honest.
Clyne - 6 - a willing runner but he and Mane have yet to click well. He dealt 'ok' with WH when required, I think he just needs either more help down his side or to start looking to take more risks when attacking.
Matip - 6 - he was at fault for the goal, but aside from that I thought he was again very composed against a side that were hoofing for 90 minutes. Without that mistake he would easily have been a 7 or an 8.
Lovren - 6 - I thought he was fine, made some good covering tackles/ interceptions on second balls. Nothing of note that i noticed.
Milner - 7 - I thought he was often overlooked when he had space, was a constant threat. Quite often let down by options in the box but I he was a constant threat and was so without allowing any worries down his defensive flank.
Hendo - 7 - very impressive to watch in person. One thing I would comment on after seeing week of 'his passing is always sideways' is that those stats don't take into account the pace of the passing and how well he gets the ball into the right areas for us to launch attacks. He ran the show. Would score higher but I felt on some counter attacks from WH he left us was a bit exposed.
Gini - 5 - hard to give a rating here as I felt he got himself in space in the box very well, but he insistance on turns and flicks instead of just taking a chance and hitting it cost us. There were a number of plays where he was the end of an attack either with a poor pass or failing to shoot. However, I think finishing and confidence is easier to instill than the instinct to be in the right place in the box, so I am still confident he will start turning things around. For this game though, he was one of our most wasteful.
Lallana - 6 - Good goal and had a couple of good link ups during the game, however I felt he was a bit shy of his usual desire to be a fulcrum as before his short stint out, which I guess is to be expected. However, great to have him back and hopefully he gets back up to speed quickly.
Mane - 6 - had some good runs and got himself into dangerous positions but he blew hot and cold a lot. I felt him and Clyne had a lot of chances, especially in the first half to link up and cause trouble for WH that they were never really able to do. 2 assists though.
Firmino - 5 - I agree with other comments that he isn't having his usual influence since being moved into a roaming wide role. There were times he was coming deep out of frustration which also didnt help matters. We need to find a way to accomodate both Roberto and Origi without seriously damaging the performances of one of them, and for me RF needs to be kept in his centre forward role.
Origi - 6 - a willing runner and presser, his link up was decent but I was frustrated on occasion when his instincts would have him run into the channels but no one would be taking his place in the centre. He didnt get many chances to threaten but was there with the goal when required, after ensuring pressure was on the keeper.
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Klavan - 6 - did nothing wrong and looked composed when being pressed.
In summary, no one really excelled as we were frustrated by a West Ham team that forced us into playing a lot of the ball in the air. Both goals were from defensive mistakes but aside from those, I thought out shape was good and we were going for the jugular throughout. There were about 4 or 5 chances that were on the cusp of being 'on a plate' for the likes of Mane and Gini but either the passes were just slightly off or the player didn't shoot when they were in hindsight better off doing so.
Karius - 5 - He looked to be trying to 'game' Payet into going for that far corner at the FK and paid the price for that. There are situations where a keeper has no excuse not to be set up optimally and a FK is one of those. Didn't have a whole lot else to do to be honest.
Clyne - 6 - a willing runner but he and Mane have yet to click well. He dealt 'ok' with WH when required, I think he just needs either more help down his side or to start looking to take more risks when attacking.
Matip - 6 - he was at fault for the goal, but aside from that I thought he was again very composed against a side that were hoofing for 90 minutes. Without that mistake he would easily have been a 7 or an 8.
Lovren - 6 - I thought he was fine, made some good covering tackles/ interceptions on second balls. Nothing of note that i noticed.
Milner - 7 - I thought he was often overlooked when he had space, was a constant threat. Quite often let down by options in the box but I he was a constant threat and was so without allowing any worries down his defensive flank.
Hendo - 7 - very impressive to watch in person. One thing I would comment on after seeing week of 'his passing is always sideways' is that those stats don't take into account the pace of the passing and how well he gets the ball into the right areas for us to launch attacks. He ran the show. Would score higher but I felt on some counter attacks from WH he left us was a bit exposed.
Gini - 5 - hard to give a rating here as I felt he got himself in space in the box very well, but he insistance on turns and flicks instead of just taking a chance and hitting it cost us. There were a number of plays where he was the end of an attack either with a poor pass or failing to shoot. However, I think finishing and confidence is easier to instill than the instinct to be in the right place in the box, so I am still confident he will start turning things around. For this game though, he was one of our most wasteful.
Lallana - 6 - Good goal and had a couple of good link ups during the game, however I felt he was a bit shy of his usual desire to be a fulcrum as before his short stint out, which I guess is to be expected. However, great to have him back and hopefully he gets back up to speed quickly.
Mane - 6 - had some good runs and got himself into dangerous positions but he blew hot and cold a lot. I felt him and Clyne had a lot of chances, especially in the first half to link up and cause trouble for WH that they were never really able to do. 2 assists though.
Firmino - 5 - I agree with other comments that he isn't having his usual influence since being moved into a roaming wide role. There were times he was coming deep out of frustration which also didnt help matters. We need to find a way to accomodate both Roberto and Origi without seriously damaging the performances of one of them, and for me RF needs to be kept in his centre forward role.
Origi - 6 - a willing runner and presser, his link up was decent but I was frustrated on occasion when his instincts would have him run into the channels but no one would be taking his place in the centre. He didnt get many chances to threaten but was there with the goal when required, after ensuring pressure was on the keeper.
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Klavan - 6 - did nothing wrong and looked composed when being pressed.
In summary, no one really excelled as we were frustrated by a West Ham team that forced us into playing a lot of the ball in the air. Both goals were from defensive mistakes but aside from those, I thought out shape was good and we were going for the jugular throughout. There were about 4 or 5 chances that were on the cusp of being 'on a plate' for the likes of Mane and Gini but either the passes were just slightly off or the player didn't shoot when they were in hindsight better off doing so.
We got some mental ones on here who have replaced both though. Adding two more would be a bit much.
The equivalent of people wanting Bogdan in the team.
That Clyne chance was fucking huge and beautiful set up.
Klavan deserves a run in the side now, very impressive 45 mins from him.
Drop Karius and switch Firmino and Origi's positions and hope that is the spark to set us off again. Sturridge should be back soon surely? He may want to go on a scoring spree now so he can get a move in January.
Drop Karius and switch Firmino and Origi's positions and hope that is the spark to set us off again. Sturridge should be back soon surely? He may want to go on a scoring spree now so he can get a move in January.
He's got 1 goal.
I still stick with the point that he is getting himself into these opportunities. Sometimes something just needs to click with finishing. Look at Coutinho - he was guilt in his first 12-18 months of dragging shots wide very frequently, but now he looks assured and his finishing is much much improved. What has stayed the same is his instinct to be in the right place to receive the ball in a place where he can get a shooting opportunity.
I am heavily leaning towards this stance as well.
Forster from Soton and Kasper from Leicester should be obvious targets for me. Perhaps not in the Lloris and De Gea bracket but they've proven a lot of stability and showed the can cope with the environment and pressure. One has even been crowned champion. And they've both got a great age when it comes to keepers.
I think both of Kasper Schmeichel and Forster would be great buys and with both of them playing for teams that are either 1) struggling or 2) kinda our reserves they should be somewhat available to us.
Right age, minimum of errors, great ability and seasoned in the Premiership.
Good keepers, but whenever I've seen Foster, his kicking and distribution makes Mignolet look like Neuer.
Kasper's done well but he's at his peak right now. Live I've stated before I'm not that sold on "short" keepers. Don't have the same longevity as tall keepers.
I have not seen enough of him to judge that area of his game I guess, just been impressed with how effectively he gets things done whenever I've seen him. On the other hand distribution is one of Kasper's finest traits, even got a few assists last season on that account if I remember correctly. His main weakness is his height, why he's also almost always never rushing out on corners etc. but mainly defending the line. Not sure how that style would suit us.
I guess he could be peaking for some time though having recently turned 30.
His height is an issue perhaps, I agree, but if he can keep up his form (that's now been very good for more than 2 years) he could still become a top goalie at a top club - I mean his father was 28 when he moved from the Danish league to United.
On his day you'd struggle to find a better keeper, the main issue for me with Hart is his stability or complete lack thereof.
Not saying he can't get back to the top I am just a bit worried about what seems to be a fragile mentality - or a lack of concentration. Something like that anyways.
Short keepers don't have the same longevity as tall keepers?
I'd love to see the data set on that.
I wonder if the results may be at all skewed by the subset of "small keepers" being rather a lot less robust and large than the subset of "tall keepers".
I'd love to see the data set on that.
I wonder if the results may be at all skewed by the subset of "small keepers" being rather a lot less robust and large than the subset of "tall keepers".
I agree with him on it.
The majority of the keepers that play well into their mid thirties are the taller ones (because their length make up for what they don't have in agility)
I can name several keepers that have played almost into their forties at top teams and they've pretty much exclusively been very tall.
Example: Schmeichel, Kahn, Lehman and Van der Saar. I haven't checked but where were they at 35?
Cech and Buffon going strong.
Neuer will be in Bayern for a long time I think.
David De Gea.
Now where is Casillas at 35 and how do we rate him?
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Yeah, I knew that agility and bounciness would be the reason, but I'd have to assume that it's not really a statistically viable universe, given that most keepers aren't short, and so the prevalence of tall keepers playing until their late 30s and 40s may just be because there's far more tall keepers.
His father was also one head taller than him. The first thing to go is your agility. Taller keepers can cope.
Why would he join us? If he wants more money he could get a higher offer from plenty of clubs.
Why wouldn't he if we make the right offer?
Ffs you'd think we were in the Istmian not a club that was in a euro final and thrashed Barcelona in the summer( yeah ok but we still thrashed them ) the way some people go on.
Yeah but the draw is London and we're not exactly miles ahead of Spurs these days in stature. If he were to leave Spurs it would be for a regular challenger, not a team that's finished outside the top four alot recently. I know we all like to romanticise the pull of our club, but there's enough evidence around to suggest it's not enough to rely on our name and history. We might have got to the Euro final, but we got dicked.
Money talks Mark, money talks.
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