West Ham (A) - EFL Cup R4 - Post-Match Thread

ninjamonkey said:
Can have zero excuses there. Out with a whimper. Piss poor showing, no desire in that game at all. To throw away a 5 year reign like that is infuriating. Every single one of our forward players were total dogshit all night, kdb, gundogan, sterling mahrez and Palmer were all as bad as each other, casually jogging around waiting for somebody else to do something, never bothering to show for a forward pass and instead just looking to pick up the ball in the same areas as one another and have nothing infront of them each time they pick up the ball, it was easy for a second string west ham.

Its not the lack of a striker that's cost us because not once did we get the ball into a position where you could say a Kane or whoever scores there, its everybody on the pitch wanting to do the same thing coming towards the ball with no willingness to run off it

Don't know why anybody is focusing on the penalties, that's not knocked us out, it should never get to that stage. That's a lottery, it was in our hands to win it before it gets to that.

I'm not for one second having this bigger fish to fry and less games bollocks after the last 4 years of winning it. It's 4 more games for another trophy, 4 games that players who are complaining about not playing would get more game time had they not been shit tonight.
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That was our 2nd string out there. It nearly came off . Win the penalty shoot out and everyone doesn't care how we played. Although 15 shots and 7 on target should win the game in normal time. If he plays the first team we win that.
 
Manchester_lalala said:
I want to see more from him as he’s capable of scoring a lot more than he already has. He’s scored plenty of goals for us this calendar yet but he can improve on that.
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Missing a lot of one on ones these days maybe that is sapping a bit of confidence but overall contribution is vast in most games so you can't really complain.
 
bellbuzzer said:
could be a blessing in disguise, furher into the season. Pep's "we go for the lot" has too high a price, in terms of fatigue, form and motivation/hunger....for my money, and one less distraction. When every game is a "must win" for nine months, when rivals play less games due to targetting 1 or 2 comps, and are less dependent on rotation, burn-out is a real possibility. Wonder if the team felt a bit meh ( as seems a lot of posters do), i wouldn't blame them if so, they aren't machines.
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I think there is something in that or at least I hope so and it is not a sign that we are in decline. Win the next three games and this will be a minor footnote in history come the international break.
 
Thanks god, iam extremely happy we lost carabao cup after 5 years, now is the time to focus UCL. Well done all the players including stefen, we lose as a team we win as a team.
 
ninjamonkey said:
Can have zero excuses there. Out with a whimper. Piss poor showing, no desire in that game at all. To throw away a 5 year reign like that is infuriating. Every single one of our forward players were total dogshit all night, kdb, gundogan, sterling mahrez and Palmer were all as bad as each other, casually jogging around waiting for somebody else to do something, never bothering to show for a forward pass and instead just looking to pick up the ball in the same areas as one another and have nothing infront of them each time they pick up the ball, it was easy for a second string west ham.

Its not the lack of a striker that's cost us because not once did we get the ball into a position where you could say a Kane or whoever scores there, its everybody on the pitch wanting to do the same thing coming towards the ball with no willingness to run off it

Don't know why anybody is focusing on the penalties, that's not knocked us out, it should never get to that stage. That's a lottery, it was in our hands to win it before it gets to that.

I'm not for one second having this bigger fish to fry and less games bollocks after the last 4 years of winning it. It's 4 more games for another trophy, 4 games that players who are complaining about not playing would get more game time had they not been shit tonight.
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More simple reason is WH are not Bruges, nor Brighton. They are on good form for a reason. We changed 9 players, we still played well, had very good chances near the 5m50 (Palmer, Stones, Sterling), even right at the end. If you cannot put away chances like that you'll pay, and we did. They had some half chances but none as good as ours.
What I agree with is that we needed this cup, Palmer is not going to play in other competitions I fear (maybe 1 or 2 fac matches max), unless he somehow mature early and become as good as senior players in the next 3 months.
 
bellbuzzer said:
could be a blessing in disguise, furher into the season. Pep's "we go for the lot" has too high a price, in terms of fatigue, form and motivation/hunger....for my money, and one less distraction. When every game is a "must win" for nine months, when rivals play less games due to targetting 1 or 2 comps, and are less dependent on rotation, burn-out is a real possibility. Wonder if the team felt a bit meh ( as seems a lot of posters do), i wouldn't blame them if so, they aren't machines.
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You should never turn down the chance of winning a trophy but this could be a blessing going forward. The next round of the league cup is just before the Christmas schedule and then you have to play 2 legs after that in early January. Not to mention the final that falls in around the time the champions league gets up and running again.

Need to keep in touch at the top of the league and press on in the new year.
 
bennyboy said:
Had to end sometime.
Their keeper was brilliant in the second half.
Too many of ours not on their game.
Gundogan,KDB,Mahrez and Raz.
Sorry but that's me with that ground.
Queued an hour in total to get in and get my match ticket printed.
Scanning done before you get near your turnstile.Madness.
Walk to and from the park to underground horrendous.
Then a view inside which is poor.
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That’s before you queue 15 minutes for the bogs to realise for some strange reason the entire block you are waiting for is cubicles, in which the toilets have overflowed and there’s three inches of piss to wade through on the floor
 
paulsimpson said:
That was our 2nd string out there. It nearly came off . Win the penalty shoot out and everyone doesn't care how we played. Although 15 shots and 7 on target should win the game in normal time. If he plays the first team we win that.
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Ahh, it was their second string too though
 
On the walk back to the station and during the lengthy queuing it was obvious how generally unbothered people were by the outcome, heard a lot more grumbling after the draw with Southampton. Could have done without the lads on half term trying to get the runway song going but they were soon drowned out.
 
Got what we deserved. Far too passive and slow, with only the boys at back trying to at least get us moving.

The midfield was a joke, Gundo and Kev both wanting to play in the ten, leaving a legs gone Fern to try and patchwork quilt it.

De Bruyne, Sterling and Mahrez were shocking and Pep deserved better from all of them against a team who also rested their best two players in Rice and Antonio.

Kev clearly isn't kidding Pep, either.

I believe he was making a clear point by removing him before the penalties.

Fit or not, his simple decision making hasn't been there for a while.

As for Raheem pulling out of 50/50 challenges now, I hope that is self-preservation ahead of him thinking he has a move on the horizon.

Some of our players are making it easy for Pep to know what his best team is, as others are being left behind.
 
mccity said:
Goodbye sweet sweet Carabao..
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It's because of performances like this in the league cup - that we should be demonstrating at the next home game and demanding a change of manager - i believe conte is available
 
Stones and Ake should both have scored from free headers, but otherwise without our normal starting midfield, we lacked energy, and the ability to receive the ball on the half turn.

Pep tried to do just enough, but there's a lot of revisionist thinking on here, especially as we played far worse against Wolves a few seasons ago, but still progressed on penalties.

We've also won two finals on penalties and hadn't lost a shootout since Brighton in 2008-09.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
Got what we deserved. Far too passive and slow, with only the boys at back trying to at least get us moving.

The midfield was a joke, Gundo and Kev both wanting to play in the ten, leaving a legs gone Fern to try and patchwork quilt it.

De Bruyne, Sterling and Mahrez were shocking and Pep deserved better from all of them against a team who also rested their best two players in Rice and Antonio.

Kev clearly isn't kidding Pep, either.

I believe he was making a clear point by removing him before the penalties.

Fit or not, his simple decision making hasn't been there for a while.

As for Raheem pulling out of 50/50 challenges now, I hope that is self-preservation ahead of him thinking he has a move on the horizon.

Some of our players are making it easy for Pep to know what his best team is, as others are being left behind.
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Pep is sifting out the players who are not contributing enough. At this point, after so many years the manager would normally be gone but because it’s pep we need a pack reshuffle. Some of the players have lost the drive/hunger pep demands. Time to move a few along.
 
argyle said:
Saw a stat that this is our 5th game this season where we haven't scored.

The whole of last season we had 6 games.

If this doesn't improve rapidly, it's going to cost us this season.
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Our best XI right now scores goals, no problem: 2 at Anfield, 5 at Brugge, 4 at Brighton...The problem is when we field a weakened side: Spurs, Southampton, PSG (Sterling + Mahrez), WHam...In all of them Sterling started, and he is awfully out of form.

Our best XI now plays at a higher level than at any point last season. But last season (at least December-March) most squad players were on form and rotation worked fine up to April. This season we tend to struggle when we field more squad players: e.g. Ake, Ferna, Sterling, Zinch, Mahrez. Plus KDB who is out of form now.

What should we expect if things continue like that? When we play with our very best XI, we will play sublime football, sometimes better than in any previous season under Pep (including 17/18). But when we rotate, performances will be a bit average, and we will drop points.

Early days, though. I expect KDB to improve significantly, Gundogan as well (was injured recently), Stones as well, hopefully at least one from Mahrez and Sterling...We need to have squad players in good form in order to be able to rotate successfully. Rotation will be key to winning the big trophies.
 
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