Villa vs West Ham | PL | 25.1.24 | Predictions and Match Thread

[stubbo-admin]

Match Centre:

Odds:
West Ham: 11/2
Draw: 7/2
Aston Villa: 4/7

Pre-Match Press Conference:
Official Press Conference

Tactical Preview: 
Babbling Irons

Watch-along:
Hammers Chat Watchalong

Streams:

SportHD 

(With all live streams be mindful they can carry viruses etc.  Don't click on any ads and use a VPN).
  

[SurfaceAgentX2Zero]

So many of the squad need to get moved on though, watching Cresswell, Coufal, Soucek, Ings is painful at times......doubt many of them would make the bench at most clubs yet they start for us. 


 

Only Soucek is a regular starter - and him not every match. Coufal and especially Cresswell came in and did a good job. Ings didn't even start with all our other forwards out. He did a decent job, too.

I'm not really sure what happened yesterday to provoke your post. If anything a valid conclusion would be that under a new coach our bench is a bit better than we thought it was.

[Massive Attack]

Something I've liked that Potter did when he came in was to set us up with 3 at the back and flood the midfield for the opposition to get through. It plays more to our strengths and helps hide some of our deficiencies. Lopetegui struggled to settle on 1 formation that worked and it's a welcome change that I think suits this group of players more. Well it certainly worked against Villa twice, if not against Palace where he went far too defensive with 8 defensive players. Not yesterday, the balance was more right between defence and attack.

I agree. Although of course the only difference yesterday was Coufal for Mavropanos (defender for defender) and Soler (who was injured for Palace and not fit to start) for Guido...so a very small adjustment.  

But I guess we have to stop thinking of Emerson and Wan Bissaka in this structure as 'defensive' players...they may have been considered defenders, but their role in the team is not defensive.  It's very much a case of defend as a team and attack as a team, and much less about your attacking players attack and your defensive players defend.

The stats compared between both games proves the balance was overly defensive with 0 goals, 0 on target with just 7 shots at home whereas yesterday we scored 1, 14 shots, 4 on target. That extra non defensive minded player made a difference to our side starting Soler instead of Rodriguez. Much better balance and it showed.

[Rossal]

Problem with Paqueta is he goes down far too easily usually when he has the option to run and get the ball back. 

He also dives and rolls around far too much then when he does actually get fouled, the ref thinks he is diving again. 

Its not shithousery for me, its just shit 

[Russ of the BML]

A long way to go but this was a performance and result to give us a huge lift. 

The players look more committed, organised and are doing the basics. They also look like they all know the plan and strategy and have bought into it. That should all be par for the course for a top level PL team, but from the depths of where we came from under Lope, this is a huge achievement. 

[stubbo]

Something I've liked that Potter did when he came in was to set us up with 3 at the back and flood the midfield for the opposition to get through. It plays more to our strengths and helps hide some of our deficiencies. Lopetegui struggled to settle on 1 formation that worked and it's a welcome change that I think suits this group of players more. Well it certainly worked against Villa twice, if not against Palace where he went far too defensive with 8 defensive players. Not yesterday, the balance was more right between defence and attack.

I agree. Although of course the only difference yesterday was Coufal for Mavropanos (defender for defender) and Soler (who was injured for Palace and not fit to start) for Guido...so a very small adjustment.  

But I guess we have to stop thinking of Emerson and Wan Bissaka in this structure as 'defensive' players...they may have been considered defenders, but their role in the team is not defensive.  It's very much a case of defend as a team and attack as a team, and much less about your attacking players attack and your defensive players defend.

[Massive Attack]

Something I've liked that Potter did when he came in was to set us up with 3 at the back and flood the midfield for the opposition to get through. It plays more to our strengths and helps hide some of our deficiencies. Lopetegui struggled to settle on 1 formation that worked and it's a welcome change that I think suits this group of players more. Well it certainly worked against Villa twice, if not against Palace where he went far too defensive with 8 defensive players. Not yesterday, the balance was more right between defence and attack.

[Ron Eff]

Are we still saying Paqueta was pathetic for going down for the Digne incident, and not calling Digne pathetic for clearly trying to elbow him in the stomach/ribs like a snidey wanker, but was unable to execute it properly?

How else can Paqueta make sure the ref and VAR are aware of what the gimp tried to do? I’m all for it. 

[,]

Kilman had an improved performance for sure and a lot to do with this was the way the midfield dug in to protect our back line. After the first fifteen minutes our defending as a team was the best I have seen for a long time.

Even though our defensive resources are stretched I never thought that Potter would put out a starting back three that included both Coufal and Cresswell. He clearly chose experience over youth there but I wonder, if we’d played that game at home, would he have started Scarles?

[stubbo]

A good and well earned point in the end. Nice to see the team not regress towards the end either. A good response from Potter after the shambles that was Palace. 

So many of the squad need to get moved on though, watching Cresswell, Coufal, Soucek, Ings is painful at times......doubt many of them would make the bench at most clubs yet they start for us. 

Thought Scarles looked good yet again. Alvarez has been much improved under Potter but he just doesn't seem to play without getting booked. Paqueta is the same, twice he done a pathetic dive yesterday.....shame as he played well for the majority......just stop being a poof and diving at every opportunity 

Paqueta is just into Shithousery.  My Villa mate was messaging me yesterday during the game, saying "Paqueta is such a prick.  Wish he played for us".  And it's true....he's a wind up, play acting dickhead who engages in the dark arts.  But it's about time we had one of those really.

[Massive Attack]

Interesting that Kilman had his best game for ages without having to play alongside that disastrous bubble Mavropanos 




 

 

 

100%. Having to babysit the Greek disaster this season had badly effected his game. He looked more like the way he can play yesterday. 

[Rossal]

A good and well earned point in the end. Nice to see the team not regress towards the end either. A good response from Potter after the shambles that was Palace. 

So many of the squad need to get moved on though, watching Cresswell, Coufal, Soucek, Ings is painful at times......doubt many of them would make the bench at most clubs yet they start for us. 

Thought Scarles looked good yet again. Alvarez has been much improved under Potter but he just doesn't seem to play without getting booked. Paqueta is the same, twice he done a pathetic dive yesterday.....shame as he played well for the majority......just stop being a poof and diving at every opportunity 

[Far Cough UKunt]

Spitagher.

Yeah Tyrone Minge did milk it didn't he?

[goose]

it's a very strange feeling to see our manager make tactical changes mid game and them actually work.

we didn't fold at 0-1 which was encouraging to see.

when is Tyrone Mings' funeral scheduled for?

[gpike]

Interesting that Kilman had his best game for ages without having to play alongside that disastrous bubble Mavropanos 

 

[El Scorchio]

Kilman looked better last night. Then again it wouldn’t have been difficult to do that from the Palace game. 

[SurfaceAgentX2Zero]

Carragher had it right after the game I thought, if we can see the 2nd half more often than not then we'll be very happy with what we're seeing going forward. Hopefully with more of our better players coming back in to the side we should be able to maintain that level of performance and keep picking up more of the right results. 

 

 

 

 

I was literally trying to work out who the summariser was and was trying to identify the Brummie accent that must surely be the case in someone so blatantly biased towards Villa.

It was only when I spotted the barely intelligible cսnt was a scouser that I realised it was Carragher. It's a mark of his one-sidedness that it should have taken me so long. He has one of the most irritating and obviously identifiable accents around.

By the time they had dragged him off the gantry into the studio, he seemed to have had some sort of neurological episode, because he was talking complete sense in contrast to the utter bilge he had been spewing for the previous two hours.

[BerlingtonBertie]

Really enjoyed that after the first appalling 20 minutes.
They gave 100% after that and got stuck in. A proper performance, thats all you can ask for after a shocking season. Shameful we still haven't made a signing but no surprise with the spivs at the helm. A great point.
 

[Lee Trundle]

I didn't pay enough attention to know if Potter made any tactical changes after the first 15 mins, but it was nice to see us respond so well and get into the game, rather than try and hold on and make 3 substitutions at half time only to still be as bad,.

We thoroughly deserved that point.

[Massive Attack]

Carragher had it right after the game I thought, if we can see the 2nd half more often than not then we'll be very happy with what we're seeing going forward. Hopefully with more of our better players coming back in to the side we should be able to maintain that level of performance and keep picking up more of the right results. 

[Massive Attack]

StubboAs fans we need to focus on the real issues at the Club (the Sullivan ownership) and allow ourselves a bit of a pass in areas that are very hard to fix whilst the root issue at the top of the Club remains in power.

 

 

You keep saying this and yet at every turn I've always demanded GSB need to sell up and fuck off for what they've done and always will do since the days they made us move, when so many fell for their bullshit. Been at every demo going including front and centre of their Directors box giving it to the cunts at the Burnley match.

[THUNDERCLINT]

stubbo

MA...you seem to have a chip on your shoulder about the Club in general, and unable to enjoy it when things go relatively well, as well as needing to play some kind of contrarian view. Why is that?

- non-stop parroting of the Sullivan Steidten narrative, instead of actually seeing he never had much power across transfers or the Club at all...certainly not enough to truly judge his competence
- relentless backing of Lopetegui despite all evidence to the contrary
- unable to enjoy a clear improvement in the team's performances in recent games

It all feels a bit sad really.  As fans we need to focus on the real issues at the Club (the Sullivan ownership) and allow ourselves a bit of a pass in areas that are very hard to fix whilst the root issue at the top of the Club remains in power.

I assume you're looking for any answer more complicated than he's a tragically lonely incel with no joy in his life who knows fuck all about football?

[Massive Attack]

I call it how I see it, nothing I said was wide of the mark and a fair assessment on what happened. 

[stubbo]

As for Alvarez, it was a fantastic cross for the goal but he was lucky to stay on the pitch again with the way he goes about it. We should never have spent £35.4M and big wages (£100k) on him with his chequered disciplinary past, but then Steidten clearly doesn't do proper due diligence on players, so no surprise there. 

He flies in to far too many reckless last ditch challenges that will more often than not get punished in this fast paced League and he's also too trappy spoiling for a fight with either opposition or officials. I'd sell him and try to recoup as much of the big outlay we can as he just isn't learning or adapting with yet another booking and it could have been a lot worse again.

He had a massive 17 bookings last season for us and he had 16 and a sending off for Ajax the season before Steidten signed him, 9 cards before that season and 6 yellows and 2 red cards before that in Holland. Nice fella off the pitch but he's a Disciplinary nightmare.








 

Signed during the Moyes period. Identified by Mark Noble. Finances signed off by Sullivan, player signings signed off by Moyes (per his contract) and the fêted Moyes 'MOT'....but yes...this one is all Steidten. Behave!

He was the Technical Director at the time, he was the one front and centre of the signing, even if Noble originally scouted him Steidten could still veto the signing if he thought he was too much of an expensive risk. Instead he absolutely milked the signing crowing about him and posing in his leer jet like a Cheshire cat.

https://www.hammers.news/news/tim-steid ... ey-player/

- Steidten could have vetoed it (well he couldn't frankly if Sullivan and Moyes decided to do it anyway)

The actual true veto powers on that transfer were Sullivan (finances) and Moyes (playing squad). They were the only ones who had actual veto powers.

You're right he did milk the good feeling behind the acquisition, and he was way to visible in his role...but I also suspect he had to try and garner some kind of fan backing in order to address the Sullivan power balance.  I'm not saying he was perfect or even good. I just don't think he can really be effectively judged, and the 'crimes' being layed at his door are largely overstated or false.

[stubbo]

We did well in the end, liked a lot of the 2nd half where we could have snuck it at the death, but the opposite can be said about a poor 1st half with 0 efforts on target and fortunate that Villa's 2nd goal was also rightly ruled out for offside. Had that gone in after 10 minutes I would have feared the worst. However the players stuck in there and deserved a hard fought point which was the right result. Potter made the right changes 2nd half and did well with bare bones at the back. 7/10 all round performance. 

 

 

If you play the offside trap, and you catch an opponent offside is it then fortunate when a goal is ruled out as a result of the trap you were employing?

From about 20 mins on we were their equal, and we were the best team in the second half.

MA...you seem to have a chip on your shoulder about the Club in general, and unable to enjoy it when things go relatively well, as well as needing to play some kind of contrarian view. Why is that?

- non-stop parroting of the Sullivan Steidten narrative, instead of actually seeing he never had much power across transfers or the Club at all...certainly not enough to truly judge his competence
- relentless backing of Lopetegui despite all evidence to the contrary
- unable to enjoy a clear improvement in the team's performances in recent games

It all feels a bit sad really.  As fans we need to focus on the real issues at the Club (the Sullivan ownership) and allow ourselves a bit of a pass in areas that are very hard to fix whilst the root issue at the top of the Club remains in power.

[Massive Attack]

As for Alvarez, it was a fantastic cross for the goal but he was lucky to stay on the pitch again with the way he goes about it. We should never have spent £35.4M and big wages (£100k) on him with his chequered disciplinary past, but then Steidten clearly doesn't do proper due diligence on players, so no surprise there. 

He flies in to far too many reckless last ditch challenges that will more often than not get punished in this fast paced League and he's also too trappy spoiling for a fight with either opposition or officials. I'd sell him and try to recoup as much of the big outlay we can as he just isn't learning or adapting with yet another booking and it could have been a lot worse again.

He had a massive 17 bookings last season for us and he had 16 and a sending off for Ajax the season before Steidten signed him, 9 cards before that season and 6 yellows and 2 red cards before that in Holland. Nice fella off the pitch but he's a Disciplinary nightmare.







 

Signed during the Moyes period. Identified by Mark Noble. Finances signed off by Sullivan, player signings signed off by Moyes (per his contract) and the fêted Moyes 'MOT'....but yes...this one is all Steidten. Behave!

He was the Technical Director at the time, he was the one front and centre of the signing, even if Noble originally scouted him Steidten could still veto the signing if he thought he was too much of an expensive risk. Instead he absolutely milked the signing crowing about him and posing in his leer jet like a Cheshire cat.

https://www.hammers.news/news/tim-steid ... ey-player/