West Ham Post Match Thread | Friendly in Iceland

[PannickAtTheDisco]

KDB looking very bright in pre-season. Expecting big things from him this season

said this from the first training vid, looks in supreme shape and I think if he stays fit he will have an immense season, can just see he's had a great break and is ready.

 

[Chi-town blues]

All managers will be scratching their heads when we have face their team.
Line up will be unpredictable.
I thinks sterling and kdb will have a fantastic season.
Roberts reminds me of Isco.
Danilo is a good addition in our depth .
Ederson is good but I think he will have some rough patches in the beginning
before he settles.
Keep mangala as a backup.
Squad looks good so far .
Come on city!

 

[WallyA]

I think it's the fullbacks + formation that are making Stones play so well. There was one point today when someone went in behind and Stones had to go defend in the right back area, something we saw dozens of times last season, but instead of just backing off and backing off, he just went in strong and barged him into touch.

The difference I think is he knows Danilo was bombing back to cover, not to mention the other 2 CB's are still there, he doesn't have to stall and wait for Zaba/Yaya/Kolarov to get back before he can make a challenge.

I really want Mangala to come good, but I didn't think he looked good today, his touch is seriously lacking, just about acceptable until pressure comes on him, but then he's still just as poor as ever, and in possession, his passing leaves so much to be desired, he just doesn't make the incisive forward passes the main 3 do.

Do we need all 3 CB's to be making incisive forward passes though? From Mangala all I want is somebody who can pass competently to any other player, nothing fancy, pass back to GK when under pressure and so on. Let Stones, Otamendi or Kompany play the ball forward as our ball playing CBs.

Mangala is a beast of a defender, this is the quality that makes me want him, when we have players like Stones or Otamendi who aren't great defensively, it's good to have a defender who can pocket some of the best forwards there are.

Mind you I think there are better options, but I think the club have spent SOO much on CBs that we should just 'persist' with Mangala to not seem ridiculous.

 

[malg]

Nobody is going to listen to that non stop verbal diarrhoea, they will just blot it out & not notice when he says something important.

Exactly. I've played in front of keepers like that, and ended up doing what you've just said. Today was bloody ludicrous though. Maybe he's going to be like that until he learns more about them, or until one of them tells him to fuck off.

 

[allan harper]

I'm hoping he's on about West Ham. If he's on about us, after scoring 3, I don't know what to say.

Of course I'm on about West Ham, you'd have to be a bit thick to think otherwise after watching the game.

 

[justsaying]

Foden, Roberts and Diaz are ready for 1st team.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

All managers will be scratching their heads when we have face their team.
Line up will be unpredictable.
I thinks sterling and kdb will have a fantastic season.
Roberts reminds me of Isco.
Danilo is a good addition in our depth .
Ederson is good but I think he will have some rough patches in the beginning
before he settles.
Keep mangala as a backup.
Squad looks good so far .
Come on city!

They will park the bus either way

 

[Vienna_70]

Good solid workout. As others have said, more minutes in legs and Pep getting a better idea all the time of what his best XI is.

Sané looked good at LWB, so maybe the manager is planning to try Bacon in that position, especially against the bus parkers.

I thought Adabarioyo, Diaz, Foden and Roberts all did very well when they came on. I really hope they can all get some first-team experience this season.

Looking forward to next Saturday.

 

[domalino]

Do we need all 3 CB's to be making incisive forward passes though? From Mangala all I want is somebody who can pass competently to any other player, nothing fancy, pass back to GK when under pressure and so on. Let Stones, Otamendi or Kompany play the ball forward as our ball playing CBs.

Mangala is a beast of a defender, this is the quality that makes me want him, when we have players like Stones or Otamendi who aren't great defensively, it's good to have a defender who can pocket some of the best forwards there are.

Mind you I think there are better options, but I think the club have spent SOO much on CBs that we should just 'persist' with Mangala to not seem ridiculous.

Yeah, we do, because otherwise we are playing with 10 men in possession, which makes it almost impossible to create the free man Pep spends his life trying to create and undermines everything about our building up front the back.

Mangala is not a "beast" of a defender either , he's not a better defender than Otamendi or Stones - more physical maybe, but not better at actually defending.

Currently the best you could say of Mangala is he's big, which is a bit like us keeping a 6'5" striker around for the 2 times a season we end up knocking the ball long into he box desperately.

Plus Stones aforementioned increase in physicality and aggression means the need for a lump to push around Lukaku if Kompany is injured Seems a lot less pressing.

Not to mention the two very physical fullbacks we have, and those are the ones just as likely to deal with Lukaku type players (see his goal vs us last year at home)

 

[Citizen in Pakistan]

Pleasure to watch this city side, this season will be epic. Depth in squad is unbelievable and if we add sanchez it will be wrap