Ratings vs West Ham

[UpTownSpur]

I kind of think you just have to say fair play to Bilic and West Ham this time - they played in a way we weren't expecting and beat us at our own game. I think the only teams left for us to face who could do that again are Bournemouth and Liverpool, the latter is gonna be a difficult game we'll do well to get anything from and you'd hope we'd have too much for the former.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Spot on about Lamela and Chadli. Ridiculous by Poch. I think you tend to underrate the importance to us of Dembele who consistently provides us the midfield muscle that nobody else does. I really hope he is fit for the weekend and that Alli starts too. Mason is much more easily brushed aside than Dembele .

Dier was brushed aside easier than Mason tonight.

 

[fortworthspur]

team looked tired. its not easy to play at your best twice a week. if we were going to lose one this wasnt a bad one to lose - midweek at WHAM with Leicester drawing and Arsenal losing.

anyway, its a marathon not a sprint.

 

[DaleMurphy]

EXCELLENT

VERY GOOD

GOOD Eriksen Lamela Toby

FAIR Wimmer Mason Dier Alli Lloris

POOR Trippier Davies Chadli Kane Son Carroll

spot on

 

[Singayid]

Not at all. We struggled to create chances but we weren't that bad. We can't win them all. Beat Arsenal on Saturday and we're back on our way.

No sorry Lufti, we were bad with very little fight. Extremely disappointing & I hope the lads are re-energised for Scum come Saturday.

 

[glospur]

In a poor performance Lamela and Eriksen were the only two from our side that looked like they had anything resembling quality on the ball and Lamela was up for the fight at the very least. Chadli was awful. If he doesn't make those two unforgivable mistakes then we probably walk out of this with an undeserved point or maybe more if the course of the game had of been changed.

In saying that, it was a poor performance but not the end of the world. With Cech and Koscielny out for Woolwich and Leicester playing Watford away there's still a fair chance we could be top by the end of the weekend. While we missed a massive opportunity, when you consider the results of the other teams in the top 4 we didn't really lose any ground; it's pretty much as you were.

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

I thought Dier was supposed to be that ? It's not like Mason isn't tenacious is it ?

Mason, 8 tackles, 2 interceptions tonight, by a long distance our best. Dier 1 tackle, 3 interceptions.

Lets not pretend Dembele would have enjoyed being outnumbered and pressed to buggery any more than Mason did.

We got done. Not Mason got done.

I don't know if he would of enjoyed it but he would of been far, far better. Dembele can handle being outnumbered and pressed better than anyone in our team. He can actually absorb the ball and look after it.

It wasn't really about number of tackles. A lot of them tackles I seem to remember were last ditch stuff for throw ins etc. we never disposed them effectively all over the pitch, Dier and Mason included. With the ball it was like ping ball everyone looked scared and no one could actually look after it.

 

[EastLondonYid]

We've been truly amazing this season, what a journey, a pleasure....so i can let this one go...

But we all knew West Ham were going to be right on it....starting with Chadli in such a game felt wrong and it was.

 

[penfold_99]

All we can take from this game is the silver linings.

• No major injuries
• Everyone had a bad game, rather that than half the team being bad in 2 games
• better this result now then with 2/3 games to go
• Other results went our way.

 

[THOWIG]

I'll say this quietly, but I don't have much hatred towards Arsenal. Growing up in Finsbury Park I have many Arsenal mates. I love it when we beat them though don't get me wrong, but I detest West Ham. I can't say what my Grandad used to say about them, but it's a hatred that's been built into me from a young age. Last night was difficult. It was their cup final and they were on it and fully deserved the win.

We will move on and will do quickly. I still find it assuring that we're no where near the finished article and you can see our glaring weaknesses in the squad and despite the feel good factor that is there you can't keep players on that basis alone.

 

[stevenqoz]

Something missing throughout. A lack of sharpness, touch and heart. Fortunately it rare that we have said that this season. Felt that we had no one willing to be a risk taker around the box and this meant that moves petered out with no shot or header. Only when we saw Alli at 80% in the second half, did we start to camp in their half....we had no one willing to follow his lead. Kane had one of those days when nothing went right....but no criticism here. We have got off lightly...no real damage done other than to our egos and this can be put right at the weekend

 

[Japhet]

Fair play to Bilic. He clogged up the midfield with bodies which rattled Dier and Mason and nullified our fullbacks getting forward. We couldn't pass our way through it and didn't have the pace to hurt them behind their back 4. The early goal was the icing on the cake for them but they deserved the win. Move on.

 

[jonnyp]

Lloris - 5, Should've done better for their goal. Some really weird decisions and bad distribution with ball at his feet too.
Davies - 5, Seemed off the pace
Wimmer - 6, Did alright
Alderweireld - 7, Was good
Trippier - 6 Alright
Dier - 5 Couldn't control midfield. Probably a lot to do with Dembele not being with him.
Mason - 5, Didn't get going at all
Chadli - 3, Best to forget this performance
Eriksen - 6, Couldn't make things happen
Lamela - 7 Thought he was good and should've stayed on
Kane - 4, He needs to stop being so selfish and he really should've scored on his second big chance.

Son - 4 Did pretty much nothing
Alli - 6 Didn't look his best.
Carroll - 4, see Son.

 

[Lamelad]

Hugo - 5 Probably the best keeper on his line but boy hes poor with his feet, why we kept passing it back to him on that pitch is a mystery

Trippier 4 Poor on the ball, really struggled

Wimmer 4 Struggled. Slow and sloppy. On another day that was a red card

Toby 5 Best of the back four

Davies 4 Kept giving the ball away

Dier 3 Lost the midfield, and every aerial challenge

Mason 4 Not at the races, his first challenge was after 45 minutes..

Eriksen 6 Tried

Lamela 5 Not the worst but didnt impact on the game enough

Chadli 4 Pooor

Kane 4 Looks very very tired

 

[Neon_Knight_]

I think it was a bad idea. One game at a time. Play your best available now. Saturday against Arsenal is another day. I honestly believe that had Walker and Rose had started we would have won. Although Chadli was at fault, it was Davies's hesitancy that led to the corner in the first place. If were now to lose to the Arse, sparing Walker and Rose against West Ham would have been in vain.

Poch did stick to his standard rotation policy with the fullbacks though. Alli and Dembele weren't fully fit, but possibly would have started anyway had we been playing Arsenal last night.

If we beat Arsenal, we'll be in a strong position. I'm confident that Leicester will drop points, so we just need to make sure we drop fewer.

 

[CockFlavour]

I still fail to see what a Mason adds to anything but that's probably just me..

 

[JonnySpurs]

There's very little point in individually rating performances after a game like that. As BC has said, tactically we were out-done last night and the 1st half was a prime example of how we wanted to play our normal game, which has been so good to us this season, but we simply weren't allowed to so you have to credit West Ham in that respect.

The way I see it is that every manager, each week, has to decide whether to play the way he wants his team to play or to set his team up in an attempt to negate what he knows to be the opposition's gameplan will be. Poch did the former, rightly so, and Bilic did the latter. The trick with the latter is that it won't always work, yet on this occasion it worked perfectly.

It also struck me that whilst Poch could have reacted by totally changing our gameplan on the night, that in itself is a risk and wouldn't necessarily have worked any better for us. In the end we grew into the game and Kane, slightly worryingly, spurned 2 good chances to draw level. I'm convinced that in the end it was just a perfect storm of crappy weather, crappy pitch and nailed on tactics by West Ham.

Not one to be over-analysed considering that it was only our 4th defeat of the season in the league and we have responded well each time we've suffered defeat previously. If anything it may have given us the kick we needed going into the NLD on Saturday. Reminds us of our own mortality so to speak.

 

[degoose]

Fair play to Bilic. He clogged up the midfield with bodies which rattled Dier and Mason and nullified our fullbacks getting forward. We couldn't pass our way through it and didn't have the pace to hurt them behind their back 4. The early goal was the icing on the cake for them but they deserved the win. Move on.

i quite agree, lots of people saying we weren't on it but you can't get past a team that sits so deep so you either go wide (which was blocked) or take long shots. They setup to defend and due to the early goal they were well prepared. This isn't the first game we have had this because just look at the Leicester game. It's something the team have to learn to deal with and in future take on and beat.

 

[wishkah]

this performance had to happen. Happy it happened this week as we can rebound against les arse and other teams dropped points.

 

[ecce_tottenham]

Whoever prepped the pitch for the Spammers. Awful, awful surface nullified our attacking threat.