West Ham v Saints Match Thread

Ralph being a bit too clever again; JWP is playing well, get him in the middle of the pitch.

Nobody criticised playing him RB last week when he kept Grealish quiet.

Nobody criticised playing him RB last week when he kept Grealish quiet.

Different circumstances. KWP not fit, Soares sold and Valery banished (for whatever reason). This week KWP was fit, JWP should play in his normal position.

Whens Ralf going to stop tinkering with the teams set up?..........west spam were there for the taking after we equalised......calamity keeping once again proved our downfall and from there onwards we seemed to struggle to create an opening in which we could build upon...weve been excellent away from home this season but once again i was somewhat baffled at westergard coming on instead of long /adams ...now for a nervy st marys against an ugly Toon team next week .We were better than this...also Bertrand dose this guy ever seem up for it and intrested seems very one paced and pedestrian at times today he needs someone to push for his position ,mcqueen maybe?who knows but we seemed not capable of providing enough chances today.Oppertunity missed.

That was a shambles. We had 66% possession, probably three quarters of it five yard passes in our own half. McCarthy is just plain stupid. He was directly at fault for the first two goals. He was back to his kamikazi passing out as opposed to his direct play last week. His pass to JWP was rediculous, quickly closed down, played a nothing ball up the line instead of putting his foot through it a couple of passes and it's in our net. The second was a pussy like lack of determination by McCarthy It was his ball all day except he went for it like a prima ballerina and was knocked off it.

The third goal was another Bednarek bullied by Antonio. If teams are going to put it about then they have to be expecting to be mercilessly clattered not half heartedly challenged.

WHU were more aggressive the whole game and we let them. Smallbone was a major problem today. He failed to physically challenge and apart from a few forward balls he played sideways and backwards. along with the back four that pinned us in our own half. We were giving the ball away regularly after a dozen or more passes and then taken apart on the counter.

If we don't stop this possession based negative rubbish and get back to attacking immediately we win the ball as we did with our goal, Bednarek forward for once to Bertrand, to Armstrong breaking, to JWP overlapping pull back to Obefemi. Dynamic, one touch, direct. The defenders and the keeper need to play the passes immediately forward, once we go sideways we are in the mire.

Teams are wise to the fact we are poor at subduing counter attacks.