Sunday 7 August 2011

Same old. Same old. No lessons learned!

I am not going to take the high ground here, I accept that others are just as aware as I am of why this team is so poor. The trouble is, 95% of the fans don't get it for some reason and the bloody owners seem to have no idea either.

Let's state it once again therefore and HOPE that somebody takes notice. This team has not been able to win games for two years now because:

1) Our full backs are crap and cannot block crosses into the box. Once again today, a BASIC error from a player in the left back berth cost us the game. We've had Spector, Ilunga, Ben Haim, Gabbidon and Bridge and, to be honest, they have all been shit. It's been no better at right back and, whilst O'Brien was impressive going forward today, he didn't look so hot when called upon defensively. We HAVE to sign a quality left back and a viable option for right back. It is absolute folly that we have not done so already. Three points flushed down the toilet. A depression settling upon Upton park already. And why? Because yet again we have prevaricated rather than doing our transfer business early.

2) Green is a liability. Add up on your own hands how many saves of note he made last season. Then borrow a few hands from your family and friends to add up the number of mistakes he made: poor clearances, dropped crosses, dreadful positioning, poor handling. The guy is ordinary at best and is certainly not the best keeper in this division as somebody claimed on the match report thread.  Today, he made two saves you would expect any keeper to make and was hopelessly at fault for the goal.

3) Parker is not as good as his admirers seem to think he is. He lacks vision, awareness of others, the ability to weight a pass and an end product. He is the classic "tunnel vision" player, seeing a narrow section of the pitch at any given time. There were loads of examples today but the worst was when we were breaking four on 4 and he carried the ball and carried the ball and carried the ball and then, looking straight ahead as usual, he tried to thread the ball through a gap that did not exist instead of moving the ball to the right. Look at that overhit pass to Noble! Look at that pass into touch! Look at the overhit pass to Nolan! Look at how he stood in an offside position out on the touchline! Time and again, Parker gave the ball away - he was truly dire.

4) We do not have a striker worthy of the name in the squad. Cole is a presence but can't score. Piquionne is a lazy arse. Sears, on that showing, is an embarrassment. Carew has to be better than Piquionne but he will not score 20 + goals over the season.

5) There is no pace and no flair in our midfield. It is so so rare to see a player break beyond the target man. Taylor and O'Brien showed what can be done if you attack down the flanks but how often do we get the ball wide? Hardly ever. When we do, the first thought is to come back inside rather than get down the outside and knock in a cross that players can attack. Is Barrera the answer? Or Stanislas on the right? Or Faubert? Somebody HAS to do it!

We are a million miles away from having a decent team. I warned before kick off that we could lose this and that if we did, the best we could hope for is the play offs. On that showing, we may struggle to finish in the top half of the table - we were THAT bad!

Yesterday I called this a "must win game" and people scoffed. Anybody betting on us to win the division now must be either blind, stupid, drunk or insanely optimistic.

13 comments:

hjl6162 said...

I believe we'll win the Championship with a record points and goals...I'm just off to visit the fairies at the bottom of my garden.

Anonymous said...

I´d pick anyone of those rather than take your cynical view point, You don't really support Westham at all. I think you just like the sound of your own keyboard.

Anonymous said...

kevin in manchester writes..

i duuno HF you make some fair points about parker and green but the overarching problem today seemed to me to be a chronic case of nerves- from Sam's strangely hestitant pre match interview to his and the crowd's mute performance once the game kicked off. For a good ten minutes west ham were all shins and ankles and balls played a yard or two from where they should have been. In the end we were undone by a classic on the break away performance. we had loads of chances and but for Marshall could have won this by two; in fact if one one had gone in early it would have been a very different game. as I predicted the championship will be a grind. sure a good start is a hellava a help but a loss on day one is no disaster either give it a bit of perspective , say ten games, there's still so much uncertainty what with the transfer window yet to play out its full story. Good points..taylor o'brien and nolan.. and actually our back four- until Ilunga's last minute slip he'd been pretty solid, especially going forward.I was impressed by Winston's composure, tackling and fittness.. don't worry HF we'll thump Doncaster !

Sav said...

After Sears, who was clearly not up to it (and I really can't understand why it took Sam 80 minutes to realise this), Noble was the most pathetic player today. He couldn't put a ball right and he was slow and tentative. Parker was not at his best clearly but he is not the problem. Matt Taylor is a real plus and I was also impressed by O'Brien's performance. Green could have saved the goal but other than that he did nothing else wrong and he saved us twice. So, it's back to the drawing board. Stanislas should be given a chance and Barrera should be given more minutes. We seem to lack pace up front and we are too square and predicable in everything we do. It is not the end of the world, not yet, but we should learn from our mistakes. We just can't be losing games like these and expect to bounce right back.

Camziron said...

This article smacks of home truths. Green can happily leave as I have more confidence in Boffin. the centre halves are getting better by the game, full backs have not stopped or closed down crosses since the days of Dicks, Winterburn, even Breaker. Wide men have consisted of flat footed central midfielders like Noble and Collison. Parker is a hindrance to Nolan as Nolan needs to get forward but Parker feels he is better suited. Again, a few 3 yard passes, a few side ways runs, a lack of awareness and a few trade mark pirouttes was the contribution again today from Mr West Ham! Finally, how do you win games, let alone go straight back up when you have not a single striker capable of taking an opportunist strike. Then throwin the added measure of having just 1 solitary shit striker up front. I dont mean to bolt the stable, but we are in big trouble again. Others would have seen this today and their ears would have pricked up...!!

tommy said...

I'll keep reading for these pictures fanno! lol, we can blame Illunga, Green and Nolan for the defeat.

Dave said...

You just need the one word to sum us up FanMan - CHEAP!

The same word to describe the two ageing self-acclaimed fans with a combined personal fortune of £1,015,000,000 (according to wiki) - CHEAP!

This is why the spuds are linked with 20mil+ players and challenge for Europe while we get landed with the PL rejects! - CHEAP!

That's it! And that's all! - CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP!

Stani said...

I agree with Sav. The key now is that where Grant just carried on blindly the same way, will Sam notice and make the changes

AJ said...

what amazed me was how many of you tits put west ham players in your fantasy teams!

TurdsOut! said...

19:40 Dave - they are cheap - you only have to look at the tie Gold wears (looks like a Marks and Sparks job and the same one week in week out) to know he's cheap and as for Sullivan's coats - need I say more

US HF said...

Spot on article, cole can't do anything and piq has been soo lazy for such a long time, Parker has NO vision whatsoever. He's a joke, I wish we could just piss the man away. The man just runs in circles w the ball then turns it over. I've been saying for sometime now, give stech a chance in goal cause greens god awful. Only time I love green in goal is at the world cup. Hopefully Parker, green, and cole are gone by months end but I think they won't cause other clubs know how to actually look at talent.

Dave you have a point in being cheap but when your in debt you have to be cheap.

M2C said...

I said at the end of last season we'd do well to avoid a relegation scrap this season. Almost fell asleep watching us yesterday.

Dave said...

US HF (23:10) - Being in debt has nothing to do with it! Almost every club is in debt. A lot of that debt is manageable and the rest of it should have been cleared as part of their original investment into OUR club! So YES West Ham IS in debt but NO the owners are NOT

"we're fans"
"the club's in debt"
"we've saved West Ham from certain annihilation"...

Do us a favour..They've spewed that same ol' crap out ever since they first got here and it's just plain ol' bullshit! It might fool some of you but it doesn't fool me!

You're a fan, I presume? So I'll ask you a question from one fan to another: If you had a personal fortune of £1,015,000,000 and you had a chance to buy our beloved club what would you have done?

Would you have put in 100 mil to own it outright; another 100 mil to clear all the debts and another 50 mil to invest into the team and the facilities?

OR

Would you have bought half the club for 50 mil; kept the crippling debt on and invested FCUK ALL into the team and the facilities?

The truth is THEY ARE NOT FANS! They have NEVER been fans! And they NEVER will be fans! The ONLY reason they bought us was to make themselves even more money, just like they did with Birmingham. And had they lost out on the OS then we wouldn't have seen their arses for dust! They have invested NOTHING into our club! They've acquired us on the CHEAP, stripped us down and stuffed us full of knackered-out, second hand players who were unwanted by other shit teams, They've left us with a team that will only be able to, at best, hold it's own in a 2nd-tier-football-league! SO GOD HELP US IF WE EVER DO GET PROMOTED!

I will never get the 2 hours back that I wasted enduring that crap on TV yesterday! And the only consolation I can claw back, is that that pair of iniquitous bastards had to suffer it too! Needless to say, as it stands - I won't be watching any more of it for a good, long while - EVEN IF IT IS FREE! And on that note - I'M OUT!