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During last night's game, West Ham covered 120.7 kilometres in distance against Newcastle.That distance is the longest of any side in a single Premier League match this season.Their previous best was the 113 kilometres they ran against Manchester United, which ranked 43rd of all clubs on this season's list.
Was chatting with a mate and missed the first goal - my expectations going into this were that low. Anyway, today I'm delighted,
The Score - very chuffed and relieved. Coming away from there with three points, two goals to the good and a clean sheet is easily the performance of what has been a dire season so far.
The Performance - effort and commitment was at last there and was, for me, the decisive factor, especially in the second half. It's almost as if the players had decided it was time to show up. Soucek actually showed the technique to play the CM holding role and while Paqueta kept it simple, he was at least mostly in the deep position he needs to be in to dictate terms ahead of him. That is how the second was scored after fine work from Bowen to set OW-B free to score from the right. There is still a lot to do in terms of controlling the final third out wide, but defensively we were far, far better in this respect. Bowen was everywhere and my MoM by a long way.
The Manager - I'm beginning to accept we can still get a performance out of Antonio, though I'm not sure it's going to happen two games in a row. Defensively, he's finally getting it right now he seems to have worked out that, in this League, you cannot afford to cede any space. Still concerned about OW-B getting caught way too far up the pitch.
Lessons Learnt - we've got the players; all we need is for them to get the chance to show it being played in position. No more silly 30-yard airy passes from ten yards into their half unless their defence is really all at sea, please.
Next Game - I'm still not convinced Antonio still has two games in a row at this level in him. Ings really needs to start and we need Tobido fit.
A much better result and performance. We rode our luck a bit at times but after we all expected a comfortable defeat the win feels extra sweet.
Our counter attacking default worked perfectly. Soler made a big difference in terms of keeping hold of the ball and linking up well with Paqueta who until the last 20 mins was much improved.
The front 3 all worked hard, Mickey I would like to see work from the front a lot more though, the difference between him and Isak in terms of putting defenders under pressure when on the ball was huge.
AWB was much better, he cleared up lots of through balls and nice of him to get a goal. Todibo looked a bit shaky, very lucky Gordon didnt score and got caught wrong side of Isak a couple of times.
Off the ball would still like to see us be much quicker and aggresive in the press. At times when they break lines we jockey and jockey and jockey without engaging allwoing them to thread a ball through or progress up the pitch. Engage them, tackle them, dont just jockey and watch. Soucek was guilty of it a couple of times. But the midfield 3 seemed to hunt as a pack the best so far this season.
We rode our luck with the offside goal and the Mavro pen shout....also the Todibo slip.
Its a great result and a much improved performance but we are still a long way from what we are capable of. There is still plenty of work to do and more should be demanded form this group of players.
Well an unexpected result and performance. Though I never expected us to get a shellacking I thought that the geordies would outscore us ( as they did in March when we had the cheek to take the lead ).
Anyway I am not going to denigrate our performance rather I will pick up several important positives. We kept a clean sheet, we looked like we played to a plan and the players stuck to it. And in the last 30 minutes rather than defending desperately around our penalty box instead we played our best football, under jalopy this season, looking by far the better team against a frankly deflated Newcastle.
Hope for more of the same against Arsenal especially now we know the team has it within them.
VirginiaHam wrote: ↑26 Nov 2024, 01:57
I have no idea what a penalty is any more. Apparently you can throttle someone in your own box and the ref doesn't give a fuck. That's not a reference to Mav, but the current trend.
I wasn't surprised we won. With the amount of talent we have in that side we should be winning games like that, but God knows what they think before the game starts. Either way, big, supportive win for Lop.
Now what?
The best part about it was they didnt overturn the on field decision. Which is EXACTLY what VAR is meant for. If it’s subjective it’s up to the ref at the time to make the call, and we live with that. It’s a game for human beings refereed by human beings and humans see things differently from time to time. Thats how it should be.
VAR should only be called in when it’s so blatant that EVERYONE will agree it’s a foul. And that wasn’t it. Ask anyone now and the views on that pen are 50/50, which means its subjective.
There were many fouls on Antonio last night that we could have got free kicks for, but we didnt. Thats just how it is, and how it should be. The ref is part of the game.
If a ref on balance gets his subjective views mostly wrong over several matches then the FA needs to have a word.
But thats as far as it should go.
What a great show by the whole team. Terrific performance. And the mob who went up there. We bossed the singing as well as the game.
I’m sure we’ll carry it on now and turn the gooners over and ave Lego man crying in his paella and shut the bias Sky mob up, AGAIN.
Even Scott Tracey was mumbling at the end about how the Geordie maggits should ave won. Muppet.
Fabs game was a massive part of this for me. He literally became a sweeper keeper tonight which I’ve never seen from us before. It gives the defence more confidence and creates less confusion when you can trust your keeper is able to come out and control the ball. It’s like playing with an extra defender at times.
With out going too overboard that was one of the best performances I have seen from a West Ham team for a long, long time, possibly since Slav's first season. Each and everyone played well and it's difficult to pick out a man of the match. lmho though it would go to Soler for a great all round performance and he showed that he is that talented all round midfielder that we were promised.
A big pat on the back for those 3,200 brave, hardy souls who made that long journey for a Monday night match live on the telly, magnificent all of them and out sung the Geordies all night well done all. ⚒
Sir Alf" wrote: ↑26 Nov 2024, 07:04
Btw, did anyone else notice Fabianski dribbling his way thru their press 2 or 3 times last night? Perhaps you can teach an old dog new tricks?
And Lopetegui has clearly improved Souceks passing significantly as well this season. He's really playing well so far and on course for being a HotY contender. So important to the side all over the pitch.
Fabianski was passing it around successfully at times like peak Payet (tongue in cheek!). That calm close control play by the byline under pressure was outstanding to keep the ball moving in the 1st half.
Signs of quality coaching and a clear theme running throughout the Team playing this way from back to front.
It won't always come off but as long as the right intent and they get it right more often than not, then that's all we ask. Well for me, anyway at this high level of Football.
As well as the points and the way we played, another big positive from last night is the massive boost it should give everyone going into the Arsenal game. Confidence has been on the floor lately, hopefully,last night will lift everyone and we build on the 'feelgood' factor.
There was a determination right from the start which hasn't been there all season yeah Newcastle were terrible but let's not take anything away from our mob that was a gutsy performance when nobody gave them a chance.
Bowen was a proper captain laying it down at the group huddle just before kick off.
lowlife wrote: ↑26 Nov 2024, 05:10
Watched the Sky ‘highlights’ on YouTube. It was basically all Newcastle attacks, shots and the penalty shout. Only 2 bits of attacking action for us were the goals. Made it look like we were lucky to win - which is the absolute opposite from reading this thread.
Very odd as the live team said we deserved to win as we did. Yes we were under the cosh for the majority of the first half, we scored against the run of play but had a good ten minutes after. But the rest of the half was them and we hung on a bit to half time.
The second started with us under a bit of pressure without them troubling Fab too much but after we scored our second we controlled the match by keeping hold of the ball which was brilliant to see unlike last year when we retreated in a Cowardly fashion this time we gained confidence from being two ahead as we should and were the much better team.
Saturday will be tough and as others have said just be nice to see a display with some belief that we can get something even if we end up with nothing.
Forget the highlights, we were well deserved winners. The better team. Whole team defeneded well and passing and attack was solid. Soler and Paqueta had the midfiled and Antonio and Bowen had their defense under pressure. A 0-3 win looked much more like than any comeback. More of that on Saturday, please.
OLE
Watched the Sky ‘highlights’ on YouTube. It was basically all Newcastle attacks, shots and the penalty shout. Only 2 bits of attacking action for us were the goals. Made it look like we were lucky to win - which is the absolute opposite from reading this thread.
I've read the match reports on both the BBC and Independent website and each seem to have difficulty in reporting/commenting on the game.
It's almost as if they're saying "How dare oiky little old, 2 bob West Ham make our experts look any less that knowing it all when it comes to football?"!
If I can find the game on-line, I'll settle down and watch it this evening. Love a happy ending, me.
VirginiaHam wrote: ↑26 Nov 2024, 01:57
Either way, big, supportive win for Lop.
Now what?
Consistency.
That's what I want to see now. It doesn’t mean always getting a result but we do have to see us playing like that more often than not now we have proven we can play like that as a Team. Crack that, then fuck me we're on to something but there will still be teething issues yet as it's all still brand new to them. They really did "get it" tonight though and it finally clicked.
I have no idea what a penalty is any more. Apparently you can throttle someone in your own box and the ref doesn't give a fuck. That's not a reference to Mav, but the current trend.
I wasn't surprised we won. With the amount of talent we have in that side we should be winning games like that, but God knows what they think before the game starts. Either way, big, supportive win for Lop.
cholo wrote: ↑25 Nov 2024, 23:32
Not just our most impressive performance this season, but our best away performance against a decent team for a very long time. Lop's not turned the corner yet but it does give us (and him) a glimmer of hope and by fuck did we need it.
I agree that a corner's not been turned, but at least Lop's located the indicator switch...
Newcastle vs West Ham | PL | 25.11.2024 | Official Match Thread
