West Ham (Away) 21st January

[plaidharper]

5 minutes ago, Shukes said:

Do you honestly think having another manager with these same players, will change anything?

Were running out of managers to get these players working to be honest.

Carlo Ancelotti is one of the most respected managers ever. He had to walk as he simply knew there was nothing he could do with this team. Who is better than him, that can come in and change the way these players play? 
 

I honestly believe the ethos of these players is what hurts us most. I’m going round in circles saying this….. and it will all become clear when we get players that are more about press, aggression and work rate. 

A very poor west ham side beat us today by simply turning up the pressure for ten minutes, that’s all it took. But can we turn out players into highly aggressive players? Course you can’t, no manager can change the fundamentals of a player. This is why we have transfer windows.

Think Frank is a nice fella but do not rate him as a manager so I do not see him as a long term solution...

I do see what you mean.  Pep probably couldn't get this team going... 

As Bill just said on TV 'Bad Times'...

[Gwlad]

I wonder if Edwards, Cole and Clement have too much influence so that the team is not entirely down to Frank.

[plaidharper]

4 hours ago, Gwlad all over said:

I wonder if Edwards, Cole and Clement have too much influence so that the team is not entirely down to Frank.

Doubt it.  Do not see Frank talking to Clement or Cole on match days.  Just Edwards at times.  Not much going on, on the touchline to be honest.

[MikeO]

"The pressing of this Everton front three has been relentless. West Ham are having real difficulty getting the ball out of their own half."

Nice read; sadly it's about the women's team today...they are 2-0 up at half time.

[Bailey]

I have just watched the highlights (along with 30 mins at the end). 

From the first whistle we looked so passive. The midfield two are in slow motion, Mykolenko doesn't know whether to press or stay in line against Coufal (which gives them loads of space), the back three have no idea what the other is doing. Its sloppy all over the pitch. Only Iwobi looked lively.

The first goal is a shocker. It has to be the worst defensive line going. Mina is way out of position and Coady is deeper than everyone else (shock), Mina is therefore underneath it, Coady is beaten in the air (shock), Tarkowski should either try and clear everyone out or stand off and does neither and Gana just stops. The latter obviously left the whole tracking his runner thing at PSG. Id also question whether Pickford should quite be as deep (starting behind his line) but thats a small thing compared to the rest.

Moments later at Antonio's free header, our 3 centre backs leave Mykolenko 2 v 1 at the far post. 

Not long after that, you see our problems in attack. I have been banging on about attacking width all season and it being a problem with Lampard's Chelsea side but its destroying us too. The play needs to move from left to right, Iwobi has it centrally, looks to play it wide and no-one is there. Coleman is in line with the 6 yard box and that is it. Iwobi gets circled by 3 West Ham players, tries to turn out and loses the ball. That all started by a poor decision by Gray by the way, he had Mykolenko in a bit of space and width behind him but played Iwobi into a dead end. I also dont understand Gray centrally. You want him 1 v 1 not 1 v 3.

Next thing you know, Tarkowski sells himself, Onana stops tracking the run of Bowen (must be a French league thing), Mina can't cover and we are 2 down. 

Talking about width again but there is a moment shortly after the 2nd goal when Iwobi wins a corner. He was playing a ball from the right wing. Prior to that the whole of our team was on the right side of the pitch. When he tries to put the ball in, Dom is the only player in a goalscoring position in the box and there are 3 West Ham players around him. Its fucking dreadful.

We started the 2nd half brightly and the changes almost worked. Great ball McNeil and Dom should have done better and then Gana's touch lets him down from a Davies cut back. Width on one side, followed by getting to the byline on the other side. Actual football! Davies then knocks a 20 yard ball 10 yards too far so service is resumed, but there was hope for a brief second! 

That hope continued with Iwobi playing a delicious through ball that Dom couldn't quite reach. That was individual brilliance though as there were around 5 West Ham players around the two of them. 

Then the problem of Iwobi playing right wing back kicks in. The one two gets played around him. Mina nowhere near his man taking him out the line and Gray stops (presumably expecting Iwobi to defend, rather than stand there). Coady does an incredible job of allowing the West Ham player as deep into the box as he can, whilst not getting anywhere near the shot. Pickford makes a great save. Davies then loses his man at the resulting corner.

Coady then excels himself with an even better job of allowing an opposition player deep into the box and shooting with Rice who narrowly misses (Davies just lets him go, Onana watches on too).

The rest of the highlights play out to Mina comically trying to break forward from his CB spot and Iwobi playing balls to Dom when he is completely outmarked... oh and Coady finally getting a block in! Hurrah.

You cannot watch that and say another manager wouldn't do any better. The bits I could see where a complete and utter shambles all over the pitch. At this point I feel like any other manager would get more out of this squad. Let's face it if Lampard had a playing career as a league 2 plodder, he wouldn't be in a coaching job. Him and his mates need to be sacked as soon as possible. He has had far too long already.