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Comments
I was considering a Malbec, also very good with roast lamb.
Zouma is high quality but physically at the end of his career now.
Aguerd has great athleticism but lacks a little ability, I do think he has a role for us still.
Mavropanos is not Premier league standard and I actually feel is playing at the best of his ability to have had the odd good match. Arsenal bought him and let him go and I think we were a little naive to think we would find out something they didn't. I am happy to keep him as fourth choice cover.
Ogbonna. Love the guy, great ability and swagger but just at the end of his career now.
Aguerd, 3rd choice, Mavro 4th but two new starting centre backs. If Aguard wants to go I may not be against Zouma staying as cover in the way Ogbonna has for next season, as like Ogbonna he is all class but can't take regular football now.
Hopefully will mellow me out a bit.
1 xCB, 1 x LB, 1 x striker and 1 x AM.
We may also need a keeper, RB, CM and another striker if Fab, Johnson, Phillips and Ings leave.
Not sure how much of this will happen.
We should have changed formation at half time.
Did they have a plan for us not to be weakened in mf? That they could share with the manager.
I do wonder about the thinking. And whether some of the changes were pretty much enforced, by the condition of players who have not had a lot of rest. (Internationals etc). We see it in many other clubs during this stage of the season. There are a lot of legs with a lot of games in them, with not too much recovery time.
Paqueta - inconsistent, when good he’s great, but he often is very average & reckless.
Kudus - has hit the buffers since AFCON. Season may be catching up on him.
Antonio - can’t keep expecting him to be relied upon at his age, it’s not fair on him.
Bowen - injured, as we know.
Mavropanos - liability; has several reasonable games with no nonsense defending then makes a mistake that costs a goal or two, then repeat.
Aguerd - his concentration levels are so poor I am not sure he will ever be a consistent PL defender.
Coufal, Emerson, JWP, Alvarez - all ok, doing reasonable jobs. Fab still keeps us in games way too regularly.
I would have taken Ings (or even Antonio) off and brought on Soucek (or Johnson) at halftime to shore things up. Let's face it, Ings is a goal poacher. He needs to be in the box. If that chance in the first 5 minutes had fallen to Ings instead of Antonio, he probably would have scored. IMO Alvarez had a very poor game, especially considering he has been rested.
I don't have a problem with the plan but I do for the lack of reaction from the manager or Plan B.
West Ham boss David Moyes speaking to Sky Sports, on George Earthy's injury: "It's been a head injury, he is awake and on his way to hospital. His first three or four touches were terrific, really disappointed for the boy. He has been doing ever so well in training. We will all look after him."
My strong advocation has always been to play with an attacking four, so I always disagree with sacrificing Antonio for another DM. The other option for today is what we have done the last two matches in push up Emerson and replace him at full back with Creswell, which probably would have worked better today with hindsight, but the Antonio, Ings was worth a try, but I would have moved to change it at half time. It does look like Ings is never going to fit into the current side as he isn't a break fast and score type player such as Bowen, Kudus and Antonio.
Ings just has not worked, but the biggest thing that has not worked out is Phillips, he was meant to be the Rice figure to shore up the defence, which is what we really need, and like Ings just has not worked out.
Clearly concerned about Earthy, the players reactions were immediate and very telling, let’s hope he makes a full recovery, so unlucky as he clearly has so much potential.
I expected Johnson to come into the midfield for Ings with Antonio moving more central, not sure that the straight swap with Coufel added anything and he was unlucky to be pulled off as he was one of the few who looked effective.
Our central defence pairing looked very, very vulnerable and Fab kept us in it by keeping the score respectable.
https://www.whufc.com/news/earthy-discharged-hospital
conceded 30.
Now: 48 points from 33 EPL games, scored 52 goals, conceded, 58.
Therein lies the problem - 15 points from 13 games and let-in 28 goals, that is mediocre and not far off a relegation struggle.
Is it the players, tactics, manager, bad luck, coaching staff or lack of squad depth, or all of these?
Chelsea thrashed Everton 6-0 tonight and are now just a point behind us with two games in hand. That makes the 8th finish very precarious and probably unlikely even if we beat Chelsea in the away fixture. Or maybe Moyes and players are now focused on Thursday's game which looks likely to be the only route to European football next season.
Personally, I think things have felt stale since the turn of the year. We let go some very underperforming attacking options, and we replaced them with a defensive midfielder who can't get into the side when our only other true DM is out. The January business was rubbish, depleted our squad depth (though the caveat to that is that neither Benrahma nor Fornals felt like they were contributing AT ALL, so weren't offering much of anything).
When he joined they were 15th, just above the relegation zone, now they're 7th and into the final of the Coupe