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Rossal wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 09:16
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. 


 

stubbo wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 09:54

Massive Attack" wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 09:38 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" wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 09:38 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.

Rossal wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 09:16 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 

gpike wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 09:09 Interesting that Kilman had his best game for ages without having to play alongside that disastrous bubble Mavropanos 




 

Massive Attack" wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 08:18 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. 

stubbo wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 07:26

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.

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.

Massive Attack" wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 07:20

stubbo wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 07:18

Massive Attack" wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 07:01 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/

Massive Attack" wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 06:34 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. 

stubbo wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 07:18

Massive Attack" wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 07:01 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!