West Ham (H) Post Match Thread

[Tbilisi]

Best team we have played this season.

Felt for Torres and Sergio being played with little game time before. KDB rusty.

Think this is the best City team and squad I have ever seen.

 

[Doctor Jimmy and Mr Jim]

Coming off a midweek European trip and two days rest, that is such an immense result - and against a pretty much full strength and very in-form team. Moyes got his tactics pretty much right but yet again this side of ours, despite looking a bit out of sorts at times, never hit the panic button.

Both CB's will rightly get the plaudits and were absolutely outstanding, but today I also thought Zinchenko had a bit of a blinder in the 'inside full back' role. Not everything came off, lost possession a couple of times and he's not in Len's league yet, but he never shirked it once. Mahrez too seemed to understand the meaning of the word 'team' today, so fair play to him also.

Thought Foden and Jesus injected some much needed urgency when they came on and they affected the game in a positive way.

In the end I didn't think that West Ham deserved a draw - too conservative for me over 90 mins - but you couldn't have begrudged them if they'd snatched an equaliser at the end. They played well and hopefully they keep up the top 4 challenge. But for us? After not firing on all cylinders?......huge win. Huge win. The gap gets bigger, the remaining games get fewer. Let's see what the others have got now.....

 

[Lavinda Past]

Sergio and KDB nowhere near firing on all cylinders today, we spent most of the game playing with 10 men. Still got the job done against probably the second best team in the PL at the moment.

3 points, top of the league, on to the next one!

 

[Scottish Cityzen]

A lot of players were not at their best but no harm in the end.

Very impressed again with Torres. I just wish he was brought into the game more often.

Yip, a few decent flashes of play.

I was really impressed by his tracking back and interception just before he came off. Easy for a young player to switch off.

 

[franksinatra]

The most telling thing for me was Pep’s admission recently that when we make the game up and down and frantic, we are not good. We need to make passes. Pass, pass, pass. Control. We only get that in the truest form with KDB on the bench. It’s a mad situation but KDB giving the ball away, as he does more than most in our squad due to his style, is exactly what can make a game too up and down, too many transitions. And Pep has said he doesn’t want this.

Come the most important matches Kev along with Dias, Ederson will be the first names on the team sheet.

Pep likes posession but he also knows the crucial part of any game Is having players which make the difference. Without KDB we lose a huge amount of our attacking threat and the ability to change the course of a game. None of our midfielders, be it Foden, Gundogan or Bernardo have the ability to pull that pass off for the first goal and is the reason why he will always be in our strongest side and considered one of the best players in the world.

 

[Coatigan]

Anyone got any idea what happened to blueinsa, he'd be absolutely loving this run.

Hope he's ok and enjoying it as much as the rest of us.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

You mean he tries the killer pass and it's intercepted. If you don't try those passes you don't get to be the Assist King of the World.

He tries them too often really. That’s the issue at the moment. There is a balance to strike.

 

[percypawpaw]

Considering we played away in Europe Wednesday night it was a great result, we have probably had one of the shortest turnarounds between any game this season, with all the travel etc, we are in a great position, Come on City.

 

[Gray]

No fight from me. You could argue about Phils inclusion just now but I think he shades it for his energy and pressing.
Kev has not been at his best all season irrespective of the stats. We do not control games as well when he is not at his very best. The trade is control vs an assist in most games.

That leaves a bench incuding:
Kevin
Mahrez
Laporte
Walker
Ake
Fern
Steffen
Kun
Torres
Mendy

Add in another midfielder and that team of subs could finish top 4.

Doyle or Palmer?

 

[jamesha]

Well done guys. That's some team you have there, and you were deserving winners. A truly class outfit, from top to bottom...pep especially. Many thanks for accepting me onto your forum, I appreciate it.

As for my lot...well, we did everything I expected and more. I said before the game started that Manchester City away is the hardest game a football team can face, (along with 'take a good look at that ball from kick off lads...you won't be seeing much more of it today') but we acquitted ourselves well, stuck to our task and gave a decent performance.

I'm confident that we can finish in the top half now, maybe even push for seventh, but I refuse to get carried away with talk of top four just yet (at least until it's mathematically impossible for us to finish outside of it!!!). Pragmatic? Perhaps...but more likely scarred by previous failures! As the song goes...fortunes always hiding!

Congrats again, and I look forward to next season's encounters.

Stay safe folks, and COYI!

Not blowing smoke up your arse but West Ham looked like one of the best teams we have faced this season. Maybe our playing some rusty players aided that perception but overall they seemed like a well organised team with some effective players. Even big Jessy looked half decent. Not sure why West Ham's owners are messing Moyes about - he has done a good job there and deserves a decent contract.
No reason why West Ham can not finish at least top 5 and the goal should be top 4 - most of the "big" teams are pretty awful this year including United.