West Ham post game....

[Scully]

Thought the ref had a good game for once. Got the pen right and most other decisions and bookings were fair for both teams.

No complaints with the ref yesterday, which makes a welcome change. To be honest he could have sent MDM off too for that tackle.

 

[Dax777]

Velencia was left on his own as Delph got sucked towards the ball. Ya

Enough is enough but the reality is we can expect a fair few further similar episodes while this management tesm is in situ

Fantasyireland, I am curious as to your expectations of manager when his team concedes goals of individual error. Outside of getting rid of such players and perhaps buying error free players. You really can't coach for individual errors.

 

[halfcenturyup]

I'm not grumbling at the point. West Ham are a good side and played very well yesterday. A point when they are in that form is OK. I don't even agree with most of the player criticism esp Toure...its just that wretched 2nd goal. It's killed me. We concede too many of these soft, dozy arsed goals. It's becoming the signature tune of Pellers reign. At Villa in his first season we were undone by a long hopeful punt upfield and two seasons later it's a throw in. No team at this level or any fucking level should be undone like that. No more. Enough is enough.

No, no, no. They are just individual errors, they will get sorted out when the players understand Pellegrini's system.

Remember that one?

Oh sorry, there it is again .....

 

[Dax777]

I don't disagree with your basic premise that Yaya is important to us but I fundamentally disagree that he's played as a DM. He isn't and defensive midfield players don't score 20 goals like he did two seasons ago. De Jong was a defensive midfielder as his role was to sit in front of the back four and intercept anything coming in to avoid a defender being exposed.

I don't really know the correct definition for the role that Yaya does - maybe deep-lying playmaker, link-man or something - but he basically dictates the rhythm of the team, taking the ball off defenders and keeping it moving, mostly forwards. Somewhat like Pirlo.

Well yes, that's the role he played against West Ham, and frankly did it well.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

No complaints with the ref yesterday, which makes a welcome change. To be honest he could have sent MDM off too for that tackle.

It's was a risky tackle that's for sure. I think we just about got the benefit of the doubt with that because I certainly think had he got past Demichellis he would have got a shot away.

 

[Dax777]

Yes he didn't have a particularly great impact in those 30 minutes, but that's not my point. He's been good for the majority of the season, so to say he shouldn't start over someone whose been poor for 4-5 matches now because he had a poor impact as a substitute seems a little odd. Not to mention the fact if he starts then we can have our front 4 all in their natural positions rather than the nonsense of Silva/KdB as wingers.

Fernando coming on for Silva was the right call? Perhaps if we wanted to hang on for the draw, which is what the last 10 minutes turned into after that substitution - but why should we be wanting to hang onto a draw against West Ham? This is a team that got destroyed by Newcastle just last week - a point is simply not a good result, we needed a win & I think you'd struggle to say we're more likely to get the win with Fernando on the pitch in place of Silva regardless of how he'd played.

Think you're misinterpreting my post, Kelechi came on & had a positive impact yes - and whenever he has come on he's almost invariably had a positive impact correct? I'm saying the manager did the right thing bringing him on for 30 minutes, whereas in the past he's given him 2-3 minutes which is next to pointless really - my point was that he should be doing what he did today more in the future, rather than reverting back to giving him 2-3 minutes which wouldn't surprise anyone if it happened.

My apologies on the Kelechi confusion. I was just asserting itvwaa a good sub.

On the issue of Fernando sub, it was good because we got the equalizer for taking a risk of putting in a Striker for a CM. No need to continue playing so riskily when the game was tied. Sure we looked up when we played with 5 attacking mids, but that was partly because WH was ahead and sat back. Once it was tied, if they had gone back into their normal mode, we'd had been short 2 players in central mid. For me that was a good common sense sub.

We weren't looking for a draw, but we weren't gonna go all out looking for the with an unwartanted risk of actually losing it.

Nothing wrong with that sub in my opinion. Had we not giving up a silly error goal. It would have been Kelechi in for Silva directly.

 

[BobKowalski]

No, no, no. They are just individual errors, they will get sorted out when the players understand Pellegrini's system.

Remember that one?

Oh sorry, there it is again .....

Yeah I remember that...and the follow up tune 'It will all get sorted when we buy players who can fit into Peller's system'. That's gone well.

 

[Dax777]

No complaints with the ref yesterday, which makes a welcome change. To be honest he could have sent MDM off too for that tackle.

If we are being honest, he was partial towards us.

 

[fatbloke]

Utter shite.

Cracking response, well explained and thought out.

 

[Dribble]

I didn't think the Fernando sub was that bad in itself. We had no one in front of the back four and risked losing the game as much as winning it. But it's the thinking that left us short in the first place that annoyed me. He put Iheanacho on for Delph, who was providing some cover, yet left Silva and De Bruyne on, both of who had been completely ineffectual. That left Yaya as the only midfielder who might have provided some defensive cover but that's just not his game. Had he taken KDB off it wouldn't have altered the defensive shape at all. Yet after two changes he then realised that Song had the run of midfield and was a danger to the chance of us getting anything out of the game so had to counter it. But if he hadn't cocked up hi subs in the first place he wouldn't have needed to do that.

I actually believe he's costing us points and that we'd be better off getting rid and letting Kidd and the players run things for the rest of the season. They all look completely pissed off with him.

I disagree with getting rid now. There's a good manager deep down inside Manuel but he's painted himself into a corner with his all out attacking ethos and doesn't seem to have the strength of character to change that philosophy for the good of the team.

If we were to get rid now, outside of Mourinho, I can't think of anyone available who would step in until the end of the season and improve things significantly. For me Txiki has to step in and point out the obvious to Manuel. We were all led to believe that our holistic philosophy would be based on Barca's 433 but what we have seen over the last 2 1/2 seasons has been anything and everything but.

From the moment I saw the team sheet I shit myself thinking 'What the fuck is he doing playing Yaya in a midfield two AGAIN!' What happened yesterday had nothing to do with injuries or rotation, it was purely down to a lack of respect for a team who handed us a beating at home earlier in the season and that is all down to Manuel. But as I said, he's got us into this situation, he needs to dig us the fuck out of it...