West Ham Preview

[The1mattjansen]

Pederson was simply abysmal today, he wasn't the only one, but given his previous performances this season i don't think he's been used as a scapegoat, he's just doesn't deserve to be on the pitch. He put one relatively decent ball in all game and had an effort on goal saved, he went missed consistently when we were trying to attack down there left hand side during the first half and his lacklustre challenges had no chance of winning the ball back.

Mokoena found himself in the right place at the right time to break up much of there play, but i counted 8 occasions were he gave possesion back to West Ham immediately. He simply does not have the footballing brain or footwork to make it in the premier league and possibly not even at championship level.

Dunny tried hard again for me but was below par once again, he often tried to redeem his passing errors but he is a yard off the pace which is something i fear he will never get back.

The rest of the side looked disinterested with the exception of Tugay. I wouldn't say Hughes has lost the dressing room but we've definately come off the rails in recent weeks and we need a shake-up of sorts. Reidy has to start at Wigan, as does Savage and possibly even Roberts and Derbyshire (whom I am very grateful is Blackburn boy otherwise he may also start stamping his feet shortly).

[den]

No Benni on the poll?

Some people just can't wait to blame it on him, can they

How did that happen?

Sorted now.

[LeChuck]

Mokoena found himself in the right place at the right time to break up much of there play, but i counted 8 occasions were he gave possesion back to West Ham immediately. He simply does not have the footballing brain or footwork to make it in the premier league and possibly not even at championship level.

I really don't understand what he's doing on the pitch at the moment.

People have defended him the past, and it's easy to do so when you're justifying his place in the squad as the 5th choice midfielder (behind Tugay, Dunn, Reid and Savage), because he is a useful player to come in when those are unavailable, like the back-end of last season. But to try and justify him starting week-in, week-out is impossible, he simply has far too many flaws to be a regular Premiership player. His performances range from abysmal to acceptable, he never excels...and that's not good enough if we're supposedly chasing European finishes. At least our other central players are capable of match-winning performances, even if they don't do it often enough. By playing Mokoena we're simply accepting mediocrity from the start, and it really does baffle me why Hughes continues to play him unless there are issues with other players that we don't know about.

[brfcshabba]

I would start McCarthy and Roberts up front for the Wigan match.

[des]

for methe main differnce was in midfield, there had players who can attack and defend, we have players who can only do one or the other.

The axe he can break up play, but does not know how to pass or what to do with the ball when he has it. tuguy, great with the ball, but can he defend well ? I think not.

now the team that we have is fine for say top ten to seventh, but to go top four/five then majior work needs to be done in midfield, and that take big bucks.

[John]

now the team that we have is fine for say top ten to seventh, but to go top four/five then majior work needs to be done in midfield, and that take big bucks.

Agree. My comments are based on a team aiming to be top six and upwards.

[Sandiway Blue]

I would start McCarthy and Roberts up front for the Wigan match.

I`m glad you said that because it thought it was only me thinking exactly that.

And this is no bad reflection on Roque`s performance,because i thought he had a decent game considering as soon as he got the ball,there were at least 2 or 3 whammers closing him down all the time.I thought we needed somebody with a bit more pace and strength to try and maybe bully their way through their defence.

For me we got knocked off the ball too many times today and that is very unlike us.

[Roar of the Rover]

I've never like Mokoena, I still don't know how he became a pro footballer, ok he breaks up play but Savage wins more tackles than he does. Whenever he gets the ball he panics and always plays it back and when he tries playing it forward he ends up losing it.

We were the only Home team this weekend not to score, very dissapointing.

[Guest fernhurstblue]

the simple facts are that last week against newcastle the middle didnt provide much service to the front two, until bentley pulled them out the ###### ...... today there was no bentley and as a result the midfield once again provided nothing to the front two, although RSC should have scored with his chance.

just one question to come from today's match - WHAT DOES SAVAGE ADD TO THE TEAM?

[Exiled_Rover]

the simple facts are that last week against newcastle the middle didnt provide much service to the front two, until bentley pulled them out the ###### ...... today there was no bentley and as a result the midfield once again provided nothing to the front two, although RSC should have scored with his chance.

just one question to come from today's match - WHAT DOES SAVAGE ADD TO THE TEAM?

He adds a player that pressures the opposition all over the field. Without him we just sit back and let them pass the ball around. Obviously you'd prefer a player with his workrate and the ability to pick a pass, but unfortunately we don't have such a player.

[John]

Savage creates some urgency through his style of play, and this inspires the rest of the team in this respect.

I am pretty sure some of our decent performaces this season, have been with Sav in the team.

[LeChuck]

And this is no bad reflection on Roque`s performance,because i thought he had a decent game considering as soon as he got the ball,there were at least 2 or 3 whammers closing him down all the time.I thought we needed somebody with a bit more pace and strength to try and maybe bully their way through their defence.

Hardly a tactic for European qualification. We need to get quality service from the midfield, which we simply don't have when Bentley isn't playing. The quality of balls coming in from wide positions is poor and the central players are always too far away from the front men to contribute effectively.

Santa Cruz is strong enough and quick enough and he certainly isn't the problem in the team at the minute, if anything he's one of the most positive points at the moment (despite his poor finishing today). Roberts' finishing is no better, in fact it's probably worse, so I don't see what we'd gain by switching those two.

[DP]

You mean a fully fit Robbie Saveage Fernhurst Blue? He closing down the opostion, doesn't stop running and creates space for Tugay (or Dunn) to play in. The trouble is he either isn't fully fit or has lost a yard since his injuries, otherwise he would have started.

Too much blame placed on individual players here. They're the same players who worked so well the end of last season and the beginning of this one. Something's not working right at the moment from a team perspective.

West Ham looked nothing special, they worked hard as a team and generally passed the ball as badly as we did. But as the away side and looking just to take a point the pressure was off them really.

Time for Hughes to take a look at his team selection and start thinking about what his best team is. It's always a worry when you don't know.

[Jan]

Actually it says it all about the standard of play that Pedersen looked average today (And he hadn't improved one jot from the rest of his "performances"). At half time I was screaming to bring Savage and Reid on- I didn't honestly care who went off- except I would have been a little perturbed if it had been Brad. We were truly devoid of any ideas. I texted my friend that we were dire punctuated with dreadful, and I think that was actually a little kind.

Oh, and I'll say it one more time to the moronic, cretinous simple-minded idiots that boo members of the opposing team. LEAVE THE CRUEL TAUNTING UNTIL WE'RE WINNING 3-0. All of you who booed Lucas today just looked foolish when YET AGAIN his team took home the spoils. When you boo the oopposing team, it just unites them. Every time we've done it we've lost. I think of Robbie Blake (when he played for Birmingham)- who stuffed your boos right where the sun didn't shine and Lucas for two years who could have the last laugh.

[Sandiway Blue]

Actually it says it all about the standard of play that Pedersen looked average today (And he hadn't improved one jot from the rest of his "performances"). At half time I was screaming to bring Savage and Reid on- I didn't honestly care who went off- except I would have been a little perturbed if it had been Brad. We were truly devoid of any ideas. I texted my friend that we were dire punctuated with dreadful, and I think that was actually a little kind.

Oh, and I'll say it one more time to the moronic, cretinous simple-minded idiots that boo members of the opposing team. LEAVE THE CRUEL TAUNTING UNTIL WE'RE WINNING 3-0. All of you who booed Lucas today just looked foolish when YET AGAIN his team took home the spoils. When you boo the oopposing team, it just unites them. Every time we've done it we've lost. I think of Robbie Blake (when he played for Birmingham)- who stuffed your boos right where the sun didn't shine and Lucas for two years who could have the last laugh.

Today i was more bothered with so called Rovers fans booing our own players than booing the opposition,although it was a minority it doesn`t exactly encourage players who have been off form.

I thought that whilst Pedersen was certainly not brilliant he was by no means any worse than the rest of our attacking players and if anything he had improved compared to recent performances.The ironic cheers when he was substituted really was uncalled for and not helpful to a player who is clearly suffering from a lack of confidence.

[philipl]

Oh dear that was bad.

The key to West Ham's success was their mobility and the way they got in amongst us totally disrupting our passing play. Every Rovers player in posession usually had about 4 WHammers in sight cutting down passing options and upping the pressure on the pass. Couple that with no effective wide play until Benni reminded us how it should be done after Roberts replaced MGP and Rovers' natural game subsided then fell apart. West Ham didn't need to tackle much- we gifted them the ball.

One or two observations: Roberts, Savage and Reid were all ineffectual subs today.

Mokoena (groin strain injury reported at HT) was played a game too far; at the start I thought Hughes had his selection wrong as having seen West Ham in live televised games recently, we needed Sav's all action disruption from the start. When he came on the die was already set.

Dunn/Emo combo doesn't work- no instinctive interplay between them.

30 minutes in, Alan Parry asked Robbie Earl "where's Pedersen?"- cue discussion of MGP's confidence crisis. MGP did a few things right- his corners were better for a start BUT there were howler misplaced passes not even the Axe could be guilty of, arriving in the right place at the wrong time and his reinstatement coincided with Stephen Warnock's worst game in yonks (connected?)

Finally worrying signs that Roque's confidence is slipping. He does all the difficult staff, harrying, chasing, winning, controlling but when he needs the out ball to his colleagues, we just so SLOW at getting up and around him. His self-belief ebbed through that first half as he lost posession having to play hospital balls because the midfield was anywhere except arriving where it should have been supporting the lead front man.

Roque (and Benni) then had to endure the lousiest of service for 70-odd minutes so it is disappointing but nonetheless not surprising when he fluffed his two chances in two minutes. Incidentally what a gem of a ball from Benni to set-up the second of Roque's two quickfire chances.

[Jan]

Today i was more bothered with so called Rovers fans booing our own players than booing the opposition,although it was a minority it doesn`t exactly encourage players who have been off form.

I thought that whilst Pedersen was certainly not brilliant he was by no means any worse than the rest of our attacking players and if anything he had improved compared to recent performances.The ironic cheers when he was substituted really was uncalled for and not helpful to a player who is clearly suffering from a lack of confidence.

I neither booed nor cheered him, just groaned when I saw he'd been selected. The fact that he was no worse than the rest of our attacking players shows how far their standards have fallen in this match, nothing else.

[G Somerset Rover]

Richard Keys asked Bentley about MGP's slump in form and he said that he just needs a goal or two to boost his confidence and that he realises that people are getting on his back. As I kind of implied earlier, I think it may be best for both parties if he does leave.

One thing that suprises me about our side is that Hughes is always talking about the opposition being so dangerous because they have "so much pace", and yet we have none which is why we are so poor on the break. We need genuine investment in January if our season isn't going to fizzle out into mid-table mediocrity.

[eddiewac]

for everyone giving pedersen abuse, savage was absolutely awful, i thought mokoena was playing badly n was thinking savage needed to come on but woah he did nothing, except give away the ball and a stupid free kick on parker, our defending was shocking again, messing about with the damn thing in our own area!

[ABBEY]

as bad as it was what a ball from tugs to father crimbo

[USABlue]

Don't know what to say, sorely disappointed too many poor performances. MGP, that seems to go wothout saying anymore, how pepole still defend him I don't know. I thought Benni was good today he certainley put in the effort.

Again stupid defending has cost us, some poor finishing. I can't put my finger on it, we just don't seem direct enough going forward, we take far too much time tippy tapiing around between midfield and up front without actually threatening.

Bad weekend for Sports, Stanley got battered, Hatton likewise, Rovers lost and the Dingles had two scabby goals to win again.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

as bad as it was what a ball from tugs to father crimbo

That lovely little dinked ball from Tugay to Santa Cruz was one of the very few moments of quality in an otherwise dreadful match. At times it was downright embarrassing.

I think David Bentley has had a mixed season so far, but without him we were absolutely awful today. Quality crosses from the flanks were non-existent. The number of times we gave the ball away was shocking. Our general lack of creativity and guile was painful to watch.

I was pleased that Mark Hughes was honest afterwards and said that the performace was nowhere near good enough. If Hughes had tried to pull the wool over the fans eyes and had claimed that we were okay today, then it would have been silly. A blind man on a galloping horse could have seen that we were awful today.

I hope that today's shambles of a performance finally puts an end to some of the ridiculous suggestions that we are good enough to squeeze into a Champions League spot this season. It hasn't just been one or two of the players, like Jason Roberts, who have claimed that we can finish 4th. Some pundits in the media have suggested that we can break the monopoly of the Big Four and finish 4th this year. Such talk is frankly ludicrous on this performance. Our squad lacks both depth and quality. We give the ball away with alarming regularity.

In Europe our sloppiness in possession was exposed during the shambles against Larissa. In the Premiership we have sometimes got away with poor passing against other teams who are equally poor at keeping hold of the ball. We didn't get away with it during this match.

Missing the services of Bentley through suspension, we lacked the players and the speed to get behind the opposition defence to create enough chances. I'd like to see Rovers try to play quality pass and move football, but what we saw in this match was shocking and embarrassing.

[ABBEY]

Bad weekend for Sports, Stanley got battered, Hatton likewise, Rovers lost and the Dingles had two scabby goals to win again.

but the broncos are stuffing the chefs oh yesssssssssssssssssssssss

[ABBEY]

anyone hear the pr1ck on 5 live saying how ###### our fns are and how luca$$$$$ joined one of the biggest clubs in the world......and yesterday a knob from bumley was on saying how the scum is a bigger football town than us

[Ben-2000]

and yesterday a knob from bumley was on saying how the scum is a bigger football town than us

Very true ... Thats why they get 10,000 on't Turf and we get 20,000... they really are brain dead scumbags arn't they