West Ham v Newcastle - 10th March (Official Match & Predictions Thread)

[honky cat]

I dont want to create a scene, but this has been the longest time without a match since forever, and i cant keep reading about politics, millwall, drivel for the rest of the weekend.

Nailed on win for our massive bastards.

Feel free to delete when someone who knows what they're doing comes along.
Irons.

Since you made the first move let's keep this one.

I'll update with all the usual match thread content in the next day or so.

Stubbo

 

Match Centre:

Odds:
West Ham: 23/10
Draw: 13/5
Newcastle: 5/4

Pre-Match Press Conference:
Official Press Conference

Tactical Preview: 
Babbling Irons

Watch-along:
Hammers Chat

Streams:

SportHD 

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

[kylay]

I really don't know what some of you expect which doesn't mean I thought we played well, but compared to the ABSOLUTE shit served up the first half of this season and obvious rancor in the dressing room, this isn't as awful as some are making it out to be.  I can forgive Potter for sticking with the team that got him back-to-back wins and clean sheets and wanting to build consistency. We all know that Bowen or Kudus up top doesn't work, but we do not have strikers who bring anything to the table which is not Potter's fault. He also cannot coach speed.  Newcastle are not in the carabao cup final for lack of being a very good side. They have a very good manager, competent owners that don't hamstring their DOF even if they are reprehensible, and a DOF with a coherent strategy. We might have a good manager and none of those other things.

[Lee Trundle]

Outstanding?

hahaha, yeah ok.

[Rossal]

Kilman was outstanding for me, kept Isak quiet. Won plenty of duels with him and was decent on the ball. Was really impressed, oh and I think he was fouled for the goal. 

If that was Danny Ings doing that to Saliba it would be a foul. 

[Sir Alf]

For the early Potter doubters and those that want him gone asap, who do we need to get in assuming we will not be investing much?  Personally, I just dont know if Potter will brimg back European football ( assuming thats the aim).  Seen some improvements albeit by playing more conservatively and especially defensively but as an attacking outfit no real change and that is the case more at home. Kudus like Bowen like to run into space which is why Moyes liw blick fast countering suited them. 

I am happy to wait, accept some more underwhelming  games this season. We’ve been doing mostly that since Feb 2022 anyway in the league. Lets hope Macaulay and Potter ( get out the way Sullivan ) can bring in the midfielders, a goalkeeper who is comfortable using his feet and a central striker ( might be Fullkrug although not gone well so far) to solve the attacking limitations we have.  

So about Oct-Dec if things have not improved in terms of home form and ability to play thru teams, I suspect the manager search will start reving up again.  We have to be operating in the top half ( 11th - 6th  ) for Potter to be deemed a success.  Msny eont want to wait even this long but that seems to be a reasonable amount of time to see progression? 

[BRANDED]

Potter's a fucking fraud cսnt

[Lee Trundle]

Kilman did some decent defending

Did we watch the same game?

He was crap.  Was powder puff for their goal and tried his best to score an own goal.

[easthammer]

Last night was a bit disappointing. Antonio's prematch welcome was about as loud as it got. I thought for the first 15 minutes, we looked the sharpest we have been for any game this season, and if Soucek had not missed that sitter, it might have been a much different story. It would have got the crowd up for sure. Instead, the game slipped into what looked to be one where a draw was the best we could expect. Areola kept us in it with at least two decent saves and Kilman did some decent defending. I think we do look generally better at the back. But I see little difference in our midfield and forward play. There is a lack of both power and pace when you have a starting midfield of Alvarez, Ward-Prowse and Soucek. Kudus and Bowen are really both right wingers trying their best to be a complete forward line but are invariably double marked and having a lot asked of them when up against good premiership sides, which Newcastle are.  Having gone one up, Newcastle killed off the game most efficiently and our substitutes added nothing. 

[Maverick180180]

I wouldn't waste your breath. 

What would you know

I know that you're just going to shit on Potter regardless for one thing of another regardless of results or performance, so it's fairly pointless debating.

regardless of performance? 
I haven’t seen any of this attacking football he spoke of when he came in 
if I saw that in a performance then I’d be a lot happier 

I personally don’t think there’s going to be many new players coming in, in the summer, therefore this is gonna pretty much be his squad for next season, and setting us up defensively all the time is not what he promised
so I think I’ve got every right to complain 

[Billy Blagg]

Agree with El Scorchio. It looked a draw for most of the time, even though Newcastle were obviously a superior side with more confidence, but once we went a goal down and Potter brought on players to chase the game, it died! OK you can argue that our attackers aren't any good, but what the hell did we sign Ferguson for? Is he really that unfit and lacking in confidence? There's a lot of stuff (inevitably) about the lack of atmosphere at the London Stadium, but generate some excitement and get the crowd behind you and it might lift. People were leaving with 10 to play because we just weren't creating anything. No urgency, no looking for a forward pass, no crossing, no nothing.  

I didn't want Lopertegui but I didn't want Potter either. I'm very concerned. I know we have to give him the summer etc. but next season is going to be very difficult with Leeds, prob Sheffield and poss Burnley coming up. Ironically, we haven't even got Loppy's luck (11 points we probably didn't deserve?) that has likely kept us afloat this season. 

[El Scorchio]

Mav 

Danny Murphy was on talksport moaning that with 10 mins to go we had everyone back for a corner.  Ferguson when he ran on ran straight into the back line to defend a free kick. 

I get he wanted to stem the leaks at the back but it seems like now we have lost our ability to attack or cause problems as a result. Our attacking play at home all season has been abysmal and is the main thing he needs to fix for next season. 

Murphy is a whinging monotone cսnt most of the time but he was right. We really didn't commit enough forward until it was virtually the 90th minute and too late. No urgency or directness in the last quarter of the game despite being a goal down was a big disappointment. The position we're in where we are safe, a 0-1 or 0-2 makes no odds whatsoever. Just gamble and go for it and if you get done on the break then so be it.

[El Scorchio]

I get the point Maverick and some of it is Potter and coaches not getting the players to do things they should in some games. Btw, Newcastle have stuck with Howe when things have dipped a few times but you can see he has the benefit of 4 or 5 seasons and transfer windows giving him a well organised team with pace and quality.  So losing to them narrowly not the end of the world. Not being able to impose our game on them though? Thats where its part coaching but partially down to physical attributes or the profile of players available.  Impossible to make Soucek, Alvarez, Paqueta, Soler and JWP to run faster. JWP is small and will always be limited physically in duels against teams with real units in midfield. I noticed Alvarez several times jumping out to press high as coached but simply lacking the speed to cause a turnover, Soucek just cannot get near. “Chicken and egg” thing, you can only coach to a point and are limited by player types in the squad.  So I do not think its really so much as the coaching but the player profiles in the squad.  At Brighton, they had Bissouma and others able to cover the turf very quickly. Their movement as a team 

I wouldn't waste your breath. 

What would you know

I know that you're just going to shit on Potter regardless for one thing of another regardless of results or performance, so it's fairly pointless debating.

[Eerie Decent]

Not my bag. 

I agree, football is definitely not your bag.

[Maverick180180]

I get the point Maverick and some of it is Potter and coaches not getting the players to do things they should in some games. Btw, Newcastle have stuck with Howe when things have dipped a few times but you can see he has the benefit of 4 or 5 seasons and transfer windows giving him a well organised team with pace and quality.  So losing to them narrowly not the end of the world. Not being able to impose our game on them though? Thats where its part coaching but partially down to physical attributes or the profile of players available.  Impossible to make Soucek, Alvarez, Paqueta, Soler and JWP to run faster. JWP is small and will always be limited physically in duels against teams with real units in midfield. I noticed Alvarez several times jumping out to press high as coached but simply lacking the speed to cause a turnover, Soucek just cannot get near. “Chicken and egg” thing, you can only coach to a point and are limited by player types in the squad.  So I do not think its really so much as the coaching but the player profiles in the squad.  At Brighton, they had Bissouma and others able to cover the turf very quickly. Their movement as a team 

I wouldn't waste your breath. 

What would you know

[Rossal]

Mav 

Danny Murphy was on talksport moaning that with 10 mins to go we had everyone back for a corner.  Ferguson when he ran on ran straight into the back line to defend a free kick. 

I get he wanted to stem the leaks at the back but it seems like now we have lost our ability to attack or cause problems as a result. Our attacking play at home all season has been abysmal and is the main thing he needs to fix for next season. 

[El Scorchio]

I get the point Maverick and some of it is Potter and coaches not getting the players to do things they should in some games. Btw, Newcastle have stuck with Howe when things have dipped a few times but you can see he has the benefit of 4 or 5 seasons and transfer windows giving him a well organised team with pace and quality.  So losing to them narrowly not the end of the world. Not being able to impose our game on them though? Thats where its part coaching but partially down to physical attributes or the profile of players available.  Impossible to make Soucek, Alvarez, Paqueta, Soler and JWP to run faster. JWP is small and will always be limited physically in duels against teams with real units in midfield. I noticed Alvarez several times jumping out to press high as coached but simply lacking the speed to cause a turnover, Soucek just cannot get near. “Chicken and egg” thing, you can only coach to a point and are limited by player types in the squad.  So I do not think its really so much as the coaching but the player profiles in the squad.  At Brighton, they had Bissouma and others able to cover the turf very quickly. Their movement as a team 

I wouldn't waste your breath. 

[Rossal]

Since Potter joined we have the least shots per game in the whole league and least on target. Below the likes of Soton and Leicester etc.... 

For me that's mainly due to our midfield. It lacks legs and creativity.  It also contains Soucek who is too scared to get on the ball, Alvarez who struggles to attack and JWP who struggles to pass it forwards. 

Teams watch us the instruction must be 'double up in the wide areas as they don't have any threat down the middle'.  Our lack of threat through the middle also means Kudus and Bowen out wide who are arguably our most dangerous players have less room and space to work with. We need a top ball carrier to replace when Rice used to do it then we need an out and out number 10 who will get shots off and score goals. Paqueta does not shoot much for a supossed number 10. 

[Maverick180180]

I think when we had Zola that was a genuine case of we haven’t got the right players for what he wants 
you could see we were trying to play decent football it just wasn’t working out cos we had some proper crap players that would cock it up 
all I’m seeing under Potter is 9 men behind the ball at all times, I don’t think we’re playing shit cos of the standard of players we have, I think we’re playing shit cos the players are doing exactly what Potters telling them to do 

All this nonsense talk of a transitional period is crazy. If there is to be a transitional period where it takes us a while to start playing good attacking football then at some point we’ve got to try and play attacking football.

I genuinely cannot stand this bearded Celine Dion looking cսnt, he’s walked into this club bum licking the fans about how knowledgable we are and people have fallen for it. He’s actually had the nerve to say we deserved something from yesterdays performance, he’s setting the standard of how good he’s doing at his job and he’s telling himself hes doing just fine 
 

[Sir Alf]

Hit submit too quick

Potter at Brighton also had Caicedo, Mccalister, Triossard, Veltman, Estupian and Welbeck up top etc.  Collectively far more mobile and arguably after a few seasons of coaching able to play and pass at pace.  

We dont have that in centre mid as a collective. Fix it, we progress imho. Time will tell though 

[Sir Alf]

I get the point Maverick and some of it is Potter and coaches not getting the players to do things they should in some games. Btw, Newcastle have stuck with Howe when things have dipped a few times but you can see he has the benefit of 4 or 5 seasons and transfer windows giving him a well organised team with pace and quality.  So losing to them narrowly not the end of the world. Not being able to impose our game on them though? Thats where its part coaching but partially down to physical attributes or the profile of players available.  Impossible to make Soucek, Alvarez, Paqueta, Soler and JWP to run faster. JWP is small and will always be limited physically in duels against teams with real units in midfield. I noticed Alvarez several times jumping out to press high as coached but simply lacking the speed to cause a turnover, Soucek just cannot get near. “Chicken and egg” thing, you can only coach to a point and are limited by player types in the squad.  So I do not think its really so much as the coaching but the player profiles in the squad.  At Brighton, they had Bissouma and others able to cover the turf very quickly. Their movement as a team 

[Maverick180180]

I think people really overcomplicate this game and give managers a free pass that players don’t get 

if you watch some of our training videos, in particular the drills where you’ve got one team trying to get the ball off the other and it’s about quick first time passing, all these players are capable of it but we choose not to implement that in an actual game 

pressing another team in their own half doesn’t require fantastic gifted footballers, just a good level of fitness and knowing where to be positioned if someone else goes out of position, but again we don’t do it 
it was hard work getting the ball out of our own half last night due to Newcastle’s pressure but when they were in possession we just let them run out of their own half 

These things are down to Potter to sort out and he’s not doing it, I’ve no interest in seeing the bloke binned off cos Sullivan would only go and bring in someone even worse, but can we please stop making excuses for the bloke and give him reason to actually up his game cos this isn’t good enough 

[nychammer]

We started to get results with Moyes for 2 seasons ( well 18 months ) so fans were prepared to ignore the style or tactics which saw us havung little of the ball. Then the results stopped coming ( in the league) and style and tactics became the problem. We are still struggling with that transition 3 or 4 seasons later.  

Moyes himself tried to get us to keep possession more but it failed as it just wasnt his thing and didnt have the players for it and actually seemed to run the squad into the ground. Lop came in and tried to implement a more entertaining, pressing style without getting the recruitment right to do it. It saw us look a disjointed mess shipping goals every week.  

Potter has implemented a more pragmatic system of play with the priority being improved defence.  He is seeing it being more effective results wise on the road but no improvement at home other than not conceding 3s and 4s.    

We have to do a lot better with our transfer business this summer or Potter will be toast by xmas is provably the harsh truth? 

 

 

its a results business as they say, but we have to put these bad results and performances aside and understand we are trying to transition away from the Moyes / Loppy set ups and its going to take (a long) time, some patience and the right signings. The signs have been more good than bad. We've not regressed and the away performances give hope. This summer will be crucial. For once, I hope we are doing our homework on scouting out the right players and do our business quietly and diligently without the wheeler dealer public dramas and last minute expensive panic buys

[El Scorchio]

We started to get results with Moyes for 2 seasons ( well 18 months ) so fans were prepared to ignore the style or tactics which saw us havung little of the ball. Then the results stopped coming ( in the league) and style and tactics became the problem. We are still struggling with that transition 3 or 4 seasons later.  

Moyes himself tried to get us to keep possession more but it failed as it just wasnt his thing and didnt have the players for it and actually seemed to run the squad into the ground. Lop came in and tried to implement a more entertaining, pressing style without getting the recruitment right to do it. It saw us look a disjointed mess shipping goals every week.  

Potter has implemented a more pragmatic system of play with the priority being improved defence.  He is seeing it being more effective results wise on the road but no improvement at home other than not conceding 3s and 4s.    

We have to do a lot better with our transfer business this summer or Potter will be toast by xmas is provably the harsh truth? 

Sullivan has to avoid his worst intentions and not get his finger on the trigger. There's a clear foundation here to build on and the evidence is there that GP will get a team playing good attacking football if he's got the resource to. I hope this is regarded as a long term project rather than a quick fix as it all to often seems to be.

[David El]

Only two weeks ago after Leicester it was super Tom this, Legend that, love the guy to death bollocks, etc, when really he's been utter shit in doing the job he's supposed to do for over three years. He needs to be first out the door this summer. 

[Sir Alf]

We started to get results with Moyes for 2 seasons ( well 18 months ) so fans were prepared to ignore the style or tactics which saw us havung little of the ball. Then the results stopped coming ( in the league) and style and tactics became the problem. We are still struggling with that transition 3 or 4 seasons later.  

Moyes himself tried to get us to keep possession more but it failed as it just wasnt his thing and didnt have the players for it and actually seemed to run the squad into the ground. Lop came in and tried to implement a more entertaining, pressing style without getting the recruitment right to do it. It saw us look a disjointed mess shipping goals every week.  

Potter has implemented a more pragmatic system of play with the priority being improved defence.  He is seeing it being more effective results wise on the road but no improvement at home other than not conceding 3s and 4s.    

We have to do a lot better with our transfer business this summer or Potter will be toast by xmas is provably the harsh truth? 

[El Scorchio]

We were fairly crap again last night, I thought.

The only positive so far about Potter is that we don't look like we're a team that will regularly get tonked 5-0.  However, we have no attacking intent.

I don't know how he fixes that when we only have 1 centre back that's capable of playing Premier League football, and it appears he can only play less than 70 minutes due to a financial clause in his contract (I reckon), which forces you playing 3/5 at the back.

 

 

I was thinking that about Todibo- there's no way after weeks of training he can only go for precisely 60 mins per game and no longer, especially with the drop off between him and Mav. There's clearly something at play here. Classic Sullivan with his silly clauses in deals and trying to penny pinch around them which directly impact how we can play the game on the pitch. I'm starting to think Ferguson has something similar in his contract as well to be quite honest. It made no sense waiting so long to bring him on yesterday. Why isn't he starting games? He can't be that unfit. Then again he's been really poor so far, so it could just be that.