West Ham v City FA Cup post match

[waspish]

I said it in the match thread and I'll say it again, Sagna was outstanding, proper defender, great distribution and got up and down all night. Some of his link up play was fantastic, he was injecting pace, helping us get forward in numbers icily, as opposed the side to side stuff which allows the opposition to get organized. MOM for me among some other really good performances.

The one obvious downside was stones who was playing sleeping lions instead of football at times. On current form I would have Kolarov in at CB until vinny is back or more likely we buy, or stones wakes up.

I was confused by west hams tactics. Seems the only point of Carroll was to mark yaya who then dragged him all over the place this seemed to just produce a chasm in the middle which made for buffet football for silva who certainly helped himself.

Agree about Stones seems he trying to show how calm he is under pressure to an extent he to passive! His backing of at one point nearly cost us a goal, he is still learning and young but he needs to come out of his malaise.

 

[Blue Hefner]

A great performance, 5 wins from 6 and 9 days off until the next game. Things are going pretty well

The West Ham keeper, Adrian is pretty good and made some excellent saves. Not sure why he doesn't play every week

Silva was motm in my opinion, they couldn't get near him. Good to see Stones score, it was only a matter of time because he clearly is a threat, he's had one disallowed and missed a couple of sitters

 

[1961_vintage]

I really enjoyed that tonight, but a tiny piece of me wishes it hadn't been against the Hammers, I like their fans (the owners on the other hand).

Completely agree. Wonderful to see us destroy the opposition like we did, but boy have we been there ourselves down the years in terms of being on the receiving end.

 

[BlueAnorak]

The diamond with pushed up full backs worked well for us. Yaya as a DM was imperious. Silva became absolutely lethal. Aguero is far better with a partner, in this case Sterling. Second ball losses virtually non existent. Totally domininant. The confidence came rushing back.

 

[adeinchessy]

Great boost for the confidence and it was badly needed. However, you mentioned Steaua an early season attacking fluid performance. The problem is that few if any teams will
allow us the freedom and space to tear them to shreds that Steaua and West Ham did. So really we are back to seeing if we are capable of putting those kind of performances together against tougher opposition. The next 2 games will tell us most of what we need to know.

This

 

[meeesh]

Fantastic night

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Agree about Stones seems he trying to show how calm he is under pressure to an extent he to passive! His backing of at one point nearly cost us a goal, he is still learning and young but he needs to come out of his malaise.

I think Stones' problem is Pep! I think Stones sees Pep as his mentor and is falling over backwards to please him every time he touches the ball and in everything he does. That's great, but at some point, you just have to PLAY FOOTBALL.

Pep is always calling him over, they have a discussion, and then he goes back on to let everyone know the new plan! He is a young lad with the whole world (and a big transfer fee!) on his shoulders. Pep should be RELIEVING that pressure (which I think is why he rotates him out of the firing line so often) by praising him to high heaven for the good things he does...all while helping mould him into the kind of CH he wants him to be.

For me, so far, I feel there has been some mismanagement of Stones, which has led to some hesitation on his part. Let him play his game and mould it as you go, because you can't push him in and yank him out constantly. That isn't good for the player or the team. Let him grow IN the team, not INTO the team. Hell, United won the League with the likes of Evans at the back, ffs!

 

[adeinchessy]

Biggest single takeaway from that, for me, as several others have said, is Zab in that position. He looked comfortable, sharp and fast. Sagna, meanwhile, was doing everything that could possibly be expected of him in the right back position (and then some). So I'd definitely stay with that while Ferny's out. Stones needs to wake up – it's one thing to be calm on the ball, it's another to be downright negligent. And it's not just his inexplicable stand-off from the Hammers player. His passing was poor in the first half. Raheem is absolutely coming into his own, and is a huge prospect for years to come. Finally, I found KDB pretty quiet, and I really wonder if he's most effective playing in that position.
What more can be said about Silva that hasn't already been said? I've noticed it before – when other players who've move on from City, or those who've just arrived, are asked to mention another player that they're in awe of, it's Merlin, almost every single time. Dzeko recently talked about him as being the best player he's ever played with, and Sané said much the same thing. I had hoped that Gundogan's arrival meant that he wouldn't be overplayed, as he certainly has been these last few seasons. Well, that's gone out the window. But I still think that Pep should find a way of playing him only once a week, if he possibly can.
Yaya – don't you just love seeing him smack those penalties into the corner of the net again?
Oh, one other thing: away support, take a bow. You were really, really noisy and it came over loud and clear on the telly.

Well said mate

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

The most "Bluemoon" comment in history. Confirmation bias at its most rabid.

3 of them said it was and one said it wasn't. Then they all concluded that, given that 3-1, it would have had to be given even by video technology.

Sometimes you hear what you want to hear to fit your own narrative!

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Just to get folk down to earth a little, Wiiiiiiiist Hiiiiiiiim were shite. They allowed us to play the imperious game. Haringey won't be so generous, and it'll be games like the upcoming one which will hallmark the season.

But it was certainly glorious to watch. Would be interesting to have seen how it would have unfolded had The Hammers closed us down a little more and pressed where we had the space. Thing is, doesn't matter how good the pressing, if the pace and movement are right the best team wins. I suppose we will just have to wait and see if Dion Dublin, Danny Murphy or the Creosote Geordie can enlighten us on MBUBTCv this afternoon!