West Ham - v - Leeds United ***Matchday Thread***

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Hmmmn not saying he was brilliant WTF but you can see he is a quality player and will only get better for us.

The biggest issue is the overall quality of the squad. If you read some of the sport meets economic/statistical analysis like soccernomics it is clear from the data that they have crunched that having one poor player etc will dramatically affect the performance of the team - we have a few weak links when we are not fully fit or have a few who are massively inconsistent.

We probably have 6 or 7 prem good quality players

Phillips Koch Meslier Rapha Llorente Rodrigo and Bambi (bambi is arguable)

Below that there are few who can perform to that level but not all the time

Dallas Klich Ayling Harrison and maybe Cooper

Beyond that either players who are not good enough or too inconsistent

I have left most of the kids out of it as we either haven’t seen them play at this level or they need time but Struijk looks like he will go into the first category.

Great as this season has been realistically to get to a decent 1st team squad of 18 or so players will take another 2 to 3 years through buying and developing and growing youngsters:

[ozleeds]

So apart from gifting them a goal, Llorente was fine? Bit like Ayling was ok apart from sticking his foot out.

We competed quite well against the likes of Liverpool and City (admittedly not coming away with wins, but that early in the season, just having gained promotion? Seems like we have gone backwards not forwards). We made Leicester look ordinary (and were shy of Roberts and Costa and their "contribution"!), gave a good account of ourselves against Everton, and have the same players available now as then, we just didn't have them on the park to start with.

Not sure why we performed as we did yesterday, lack of sharpness, poor passing, (playing with nine men (or perhaps 8.5 if you take Klich into account) for 45 minutes didn't help of course), poor defending (especially 1st half, second there was nowhere near the same pressuring going on), gifting two goals in first 30 minutes. We seem to revel in making the job harder (the aforementioned selections, tippy tappy in the 18yd area nearly cost us another goal, when will that stop?).

If it wasn't for that great start we had WTF we would be talking about life in the championship again. Take the first 10 games out and we would be screwed. It's not the first time we went on a bad run is it 4 losses from 5 games something similar happen earlier.
Selections are baffling mind you Harrison didn't do any better coming on.

[ozleeds]

Don't be getting excited about him playing gelhart, dramah etc.
He will play Costa and Roberts first.

Exactly right Billy we are more likely to see Berardi rather than them.

[WTF11]

If it wasn't for that great start we had WTF we would be talking about life in the championship again. Take the first 10 games out and we would be screwed. It's not the first time we went on a bad run is it 4 losses from 5 games something similar happen earlier.
Selections are baffling mind you Harrison didn't do any better coming on.

Agreed, but that's not where we are is it? We played both Roberts and costa in those first few games and they were almost always subbed, so "lessons learned" and then forgotten?

As for Harrison coming on and not doing much better, well we didn't concede in the second half, and their right back was having a good old time keeping Harrison quiet, whereas with Costa it was easy street, and of course were two down by the time he came on.

Just hope neither Roberts nor Costa start, need the strongest side to start, and they aren't that.

[ozleeds]

Agreed, but that's not where we are is it? We played both Roberts and costa in those first few games and they were almost always subbed, so "lessons learned" and then forgotten?

As for Harrison coming on and not doing much better, well we didn't concede in the second half, and their right back was having a good old time keeping Harrison quiet, whereas with Costa it was easy street, and of course were two down by the time he came on.

Just hope neither Roberts nor Costa start, need the strongest side to start, and they aren't that.

Quite true but you watch MB give you another surprise and start Kiko.

[WTF11]

Quite true but you watch MB give you another surprise and start Kiko.

Please god no.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Against Hammers Kiko wasn’t even on the bench and not injured - when asked MB said Caprille was in the squad for tactical reasons.

[asturianblanco]

If it wasn't for that great start we had WTF we would be talking about life in the championship again. Take the first 10 games out and we would be screwed. It's not the first time we went on a bad run is it 4 losses from 5 games something similar happen earlier.
Selections are baffling mind you Harrison didn't do any better coming on.

But why would you take those 10 games out? we played em, did the business, so? whats the point exactly?

[WTF11]

But why would you take those 10 games out? we played em, did the business, so? whats the point exactly?

I think it was agreement regarding the selections, and puzzlement as to why Roberts and Costa appear to have resurfaced having been selected then sidelined after the first three or four matches.

[norfolk white]

Beggers belief why Roberts is ahead of anyone, and stuns me why Costa gets in ahead of Harrison, but who am I to judge and question bielsa, he obviously has his reasons.