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Match Centre: 


 Odds: 
WHU: 5/2
Draw: 14/5
Brighton: 11/10

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Well, it's the last game of 2025 in a year that few will look back on with favour or fondness.  Wrapping it up are bogey-side Brighton, who after a last minute outrageous goal in the away fixture cost us a vital victory, will fancy themselves (doesn't everyone) heading to the London Stadium.

It's another of those must win games for West Ham, and if the recovery doesn't actually commence at some point, we're fucked.  

There's been no press conference for this game, so not much to report on player availability wise.  Fullkrug is training with Milan already so he's not available.  Guilherme seems to have been ostracised for some reason despite a moderatly promising last cameo against Liverpool.  And Igor it would appear it's been decided isn't up to task.   Diouf and Wan Bissaka remain at the AFCON tournament.

Predicted Line Up:

Brighton play with a large number of overloads on the ball, and last time out we shifted to a back three quite successfully, so I'd expect to see something similar again in this game (just to get the natives uber-restless when the defensive looking lineup is announced):Subs: Hermansen, Myers, Golambeckis, Kante, Rodriguez, Magassa, Earthy, Soucek, Wilson

Predicted Result:

It is all starting to feel a bit last chance saloon for West Ham, despite the season still having over half left to run!  Lose this game and all hope will feel lost.  Brighton though seem to be missing some key players, and this presents us a chance at least.  Brighton created almost nothing against us in the first game so I expect that gameplan and pattern to largely repeat...with the outcome to be decided on the basis of how well our Maginot Line holds up to late pressure when Brighton come on strong.

Score: West Ham 1 - 0 Brighton (Bowen)

COYI

Metroplex wrote: ↑31 Dec 2025, 07:55 Where has this myth that Wilson can only last an hour piped up from?

 

Another dismal display but grateful for the point even though it is not going to help much, Its so frustrating watching us week in week out. Trying to play out from  Areola, backwards and sideways and every opposing team doe's the same thing, push up on us and inevitably we play a hasty long ball forward which is comfortably dealt with by the opposition. Our team are like strangers to each other, it  makes you  wonder what the hell they do all  week during training?

I thought we worked hard and looked the better team first half and Wilson was a good outlet when clearing out lines although often had two players around him when back to goal.

Paqueta for me a liability these days and gave away the second penalty for holding.

His negatives are greater than the positives and have been for some time.

The second half after Wilson went off we were all at sea.
Summerville is tricky but ultimately there is no end product 
He will run with the ball and make good yardage if used correctly but is too lightweight and can't finish.

I would rather of seen Soucek struck up front if Wilson had to be replaced when he was.
.
We looked clueless at times second half and didn't have the nous or movement to penetrate.

No plan B

Clueless Nuno seems to be sleepwalking us into relegation.

 

Magassa is young and has a great attitude and never sulks or complains. Often seen players suffer for it down the years esp in lower level football.  

He was our best player against Fulham imo but less effective against a Brighton team that is one of the best sides at keeping possession. Him and Fernandes did a lot of running / pressing without touching the ball. But Paqueta had become invisible much earlier and then bringing on Soucek will make us weaker in terms of pressing and we just went into a desperate “hanging on for a point” mode after that. The bench is a disgrace in terms of quality and we gave to rely on youngsters but in midfield give Earthy minutes. He works hard, not too slow and creates and scores. Was very effective at Bristol City towards the end of last season. Kante and Earthy coming on last 15 for Paqueta and Fernandes or Magassa makes more sense logically?  Wilson just didnt have a replacement so should have stayed on longer. Just for hus ability to rough up the CBs.

Losing Todibo was as big a negative as only drawing. Kilman is shot, done and needs benching full time. His lack of physicality and aerial strength allied to his lack of agility and speed makes him a huge liability unless played in a back 5. 

Nothing has changed. We are odds on for relegation because we need a “miracle” level Jan transfer window of 4 players who instantly inprove us up top, in central defence and midfield for creativity and goals. And it all needs to be done first 2 weeks of January and will cost a lot in loans and fees.  Absolutely no chance of it happening under Sullivan

Summerville is another Benrahma
Some nice tricks but no finish
Wilson as our only striker can’t play 90 mins
Bowen is our only goal threat so gets double marked
Far too easy to defend against & then the ball gets up the other end towards the timid indecisive Kilman & we are in big trouble 
The only time Kilman is decisive is when he hacks down someone for a stonewall penalty.
Unless a recruiting miracle happens in the next few days we look cooked 

Also there was that one chance where Summerville decides to lay it off when he had a clear shot on goal. Bowen would never do that. Nor Wilson. 
This guys confidence must be so fucked right now. see. He needs a psychologist!
 

"From what I saw we battled hard to stay in the match. We pretty much had our “1st team” (I.e. with Wilson) and still couldn’t batter them which is what seems to be suggested"

suggested where? the current cսnt in charge couldn't batter a piece of fish, he is fucking useless

Saw the second half. I thought Kante looked good. Maybe not as good defensively but wide right he did some good bits. Something we can use going forward. 

From what I saw we battled hard to stay in the match. We pretty much had our “1st team” (I.e. with Wilson) and still couldn’t batter them which is what seems to be suggested. We never beat Brighton, even with better players so getting a draw is probably what we would have wanted if we had won Fulham as well. 

Todibo going off is a big blow. We also need to work out how to deal with these inswinging corners. What is the answer? Feels like areola doesn’t judge trajectory very well. It makes us very nervous. 

mitoma coming on made everything twice as hard. He is really good. Something that summerville needs to do for us. We really need a player like that on the left. If we can find one in Jan I would keep Summerville on the bench mostly. 

What I did notice late in the game is that we left Bowen and Summerville up when defending deep which gave us an outlet when we won the ball back. We need to do more of that. Sometimes we defend with too many players behind the ball and it creates more problems than it solves. 

We have conceded 38 goals in 19 games which is obviously 2 per game. This suggests that there will be occasions when we have to score 3 to win and for the life of me, I can't see where these goals come from. As it stands, it'll be a bigger shock if we stay up rather than get relegated.

Our defensive resiliance and composure is non existent at the moment

Last night was a real chalk and cheese, with Brighton happy to play out from the back, and doing so very comfortably. Even willing to go all the way back to the keeper, playing to feet before coming forward again

Where as Kilman couldnt make a 20 yard pass, and looked to hoof the ball when ever he could

as soon as the ball went back to Areola, he just put his foot straight through the ball to pump back down the pitch

this became a huge problem when we took Wilson off, as the ball then just came straight back at us as Paq isn't a hold up player 

Summerville's energy could have changed the game for us, but without anyone through the middle its almost pointless having decent wing play 

For me the obvious change at 60 mins was Paq off for Summerville, but Wilson must have done something real bad to upset Nuno this much! 

need some serious defensive reinforcements ASAP, otherwise Kilman is going to cost us dearly 

Mex Martillo" wrote: ↑31 Dec 2025, 07:40

Where has this myth that Wilson can only last an hour piped up from?

Vexed,
Like I said you daft cսnt.
Can you say Summerville was the best option,he's way off form. Earthy has more about him,scores and creates. Not having Marshall as an option is ridiculous. Nuno made 3 subs on 83 minutes.
Fernandes was half the player that he was in the first half and so was Bowen,obviuosly both told to calm it down,this had a huge effect on the performance. If this was the case then you take one of them off,not Magassa.
Summerville sub could have waited to the 70th minute for Fernandes.
We needed to win not draw. Yet again it's pathectic from Nuno.

So
Earthy for Wilson 63
Summerville for Fernandes 75
Soucek for Paqueta 75
Myers for Scarles 75


 

It was a disappointing point, but quite an entertaining game. Team were fighting and pushing to win. Lots of closing down high up the field. Crowd were load really pushing for the win towards the end. Fernandes and Magassa made Milner look the old man he is. Surely we do not go down playing like that. Well at least we get a bit of entertainment going down.
MASSIVE game on Saturday.

We won’t cause any team in the league serious problems while we continue with playing 4 cms and no wingers.

Ok he finally started Wilson but he was starved of service due to not having any wingers on the pitch.

we need to focus more on scoring goals as our defence is not going to improve for the remainder of the season.



 

Alfs wrote: ↑31 Dec 2025, 00:07 Massively disappointed with the result.  Both of their goals were down to our errors, which has been the story of the season.

I like Summerville, and believe that he needs to get his goal scoring drought off his shoulders.  Once he scores 2 or 3 I can see the floodgates opening.  IIR, it took Bowen a season or two to find his scoring boots.

I give our signings patience, but fuck me, Killman is poor, and as mentioned, seems terrified of heading the ball.  My guess is that he's paranoid about getting dementia,

Atmosphere was much better in our last two games, probably because we're all angry.

Having Wilson on at the end of last week and the start of tonight makes Bowen and Paqueta much, much more useful players simply because they have an outlet in the right place.

Summerville doesn't fit. He's Benrahma. Soucek is missing match fitness because he's playing so few minutes, but he's an impact sub so now he's of little use. At least Kanté keeps his sharpness by playing U21 matches. But if we're building for next season in The Championship, Soucek would be a starter so not sure what to do with him right now.

That second half was dreadful to watch

Massively disappointed with the result.  Both of their goals were down to our errors, which has been the story of the season.

I like Summerville, and believe that he needs to get his goal scoring drought off his shoulders.  Once he scores 2 or 3 I can see the floodgates opening.  IIR, it took Bowen a season or two to find his scoring boots.

I give our signings patience, but fuck me, Killman is poor, and as mentioned, seems terrified of heading the ball.  My guess is that he's paranoid about getting dementia,

Dunk and van hecke are painfully slow. Once Wilson came off the obvious thing to do was play Bowen through the middle. Paqueta will never be a striker and is our best through ball passer to pace in Bowen and Summerville. Idiotic from the manager 

Brighton will be more disappointed not to take 3 points 
We faded as usual in the second half and were hanging on once Mitoma came on and we took off our only striker
Sad to say we looked like a soon to be relegated side.
Wolves only lost 2-1 at Anfield & got a point at Old Trafford tonight
We MUST win there & v Forest
No more excuses

Yet Brighton can still manage to keep a near 40 year old Midfielder, 35 year old Striker and two almost 34 year old Defenders on the pitch till late in the game. 4 old codger players older than Wilson that's almost half an outfield Team.

Unless Wilson came off due to injury which I doubt, he should not have come off when he did as their Defence struggled to deal with him. 

All this wrapping him up in cotton wool for fearing what might or might not happen is costing us the chance to win games and score more. He's a big boy who can last games and hasn't come off injured in games. 

On top of that the January window is just about to open so it's not like we cannot now get in Strikers should he get injured.

Massive Attack" wrote: ↑30 Dec 2025, 22:37 We were once told Wilson has to come off the bench because he cannot last more than half an hour. He starts this game and makes a right nuisance of himself all half and was a big part of the reason why we took the lead with his goal bound effort saved by Dunk that gave away the penalty in the 49th minute of extra time 1st half. He wasn't spent after just another 15 minutes run out 2nd half. Once he went off, our focal point went to ratshit as we dicked about with Paqueta and anyone else who fancied a go lurking around the final third. Stupid move to take him off.

 

southbankbornnbred wrote: ↑30 Dec 2025, 22:09

Vexed wrote: ↑30 Dec 2025, 22:07 Another victory successfully prevented by Max Kilman. cսnt is useless. 

Draw aint good enough, we look unfit and clueless. I dont see us beating Wolves.

Summerville is a complete fucking waste of space, I cannot see what all you pricks see in him. Zero output from him again.

Great to see Scarles put in good performance though. He'll be useful in the Championship.




 

 

Gotta say I agree with Vexed about Summerville. He’s all fart and no shit at the moment. Rapid - but absolutely no idea what he’s doing.

fraser wrote: ↑30 Dec 2025, 22:48 I understand the Wilson sub, its out of necessity. 

I'm more perplexed with why he keeps taking Magassa off when we're hanging on.