West Ham Online

"Team, for me: Areola Wan-Bissaka Todibo Kilman Emerson Paqueta Rodriquez Kudus Summerville Antonio Bowen Score prediction: 0-2 Villa."

"Fullkrug is a good player, but doubt he's a good fit and I reckon will prove more expensive than the extra that Villa wanted for Duran by quite a distance in performance and bank balance"

He does it regularly on the international stage as well But again he’s surrounded by pace and class Not fucking Soucek

"mav - A good player in Germany, maybe."

That’s the worry We’ve got another manager on our hands who doesn’t understand that Taking off Bowen and shuffling the midfield so Soucek plays as a 10 just behind him is gonna get you exactly what it got yesterday Not a single chance created for him

"""But he needs players with pace around him to create chances"" See Haller, Scamacca and Ings!"

Fullkrug’s a good player But he needs players with pace around him to create chances

"It's early and hope I'm wrong, but I'm not convinced with Fullkrug, never played outside of German before, over 30 and slow. Sure, he will get a few now and then but think we needed a lot better. The modern day Jimmy Quinn."

"It was so predictable Duran coming on and scoring, just our luck and was the perfect outcome for Villa. I fear that Fullkrug will be our new Yarmalenko"

"Agreed. The Fullkrug signing was just bizarre and of smacked of desperation. The transfer window has been a total disaster. Cheers TIM. Some ""guru""."

"I'm sure I read somewhere Lop picked 7 new players for Seville in his first game. There's a reason we've had to sign so many new players and it's because the old ones aren't good enough kr are past their best.. We know it everyone knows it, not sure why we have to give away 3 points in our first league game to prove it."

"I read that AWB was carrying a small niggly injury so wasn't risked. Think we will regret not getting Duran done, he's exactly what we've needed for at least 3 seasons, he was desperate to join as well. It's very early days but when Fullkrug came on he contributed absolutely nothing, which leaves us Antonio... Which would make this window for all it's positively a fucking failure. I really hope I'm wrong but Fullkrug always felt like the wrong signing. Saying that we created 4 very good chances yesterday all from crosses, you'd expect him to take them better than Soucek Antonio and Ings did."

"As normal with me a long diatribe / verbal outpouring so apologies but these forums I use for “healing” after disappointments :-). Dont pretend Im all knowing and may well be wrong on some things but interested in same or different views because currently Imo we are a mess or in transition or both? (1) So, I hope too that playing Coufal, Soucek and Antonio and bringing on JWP is about squad harmony. If not, Loppy is a slow learner. A nights sleep and hopefully more objective but a blind man could see the issues that still remain. The reality is we should have lost by 3 or 4 based on gilt edged chances Villa missed. (2) Central midfield was soft. In fact the midfield as a whole lacked pace ( the recurring theme for years ) and could not press or keep the ball well enough. Soucek, Rodriguez, Paqueta combo and JWP made it worse replacing Paqueta. (3) Paqueta has to play deeper with Rodriguez while Alvarez is out but I thought Potts was better ( albeit pre season ) than Guido for energy, and ability to press. But also understand Rodriguez needs a few games to adjust to Premiership intensity and pace. He was great on the ball, is brave and makes challenges but lacked pace if played as a single holding midfielder. Hence needs Alvarez or Paq alongside. (4) Coufal too slow, technically wanting needs benching. Lopetegui has given him a go and must surely know he aint up to it. I would get rid and get another RB understudy to AWB. Ideally a youngster from development team but if not a “pearl dive” young player that Steidten digs up. Coufal is not up to it imho even as back up (5) Mavropanas did pretty well tbh and certainly no worse than Kilman. He like Kilman saved us with some last ditch tackles, and is quicker than Kilman. They had little protection from midfield ( second goal an example although Coufal also out of position slightly). On that performance, he’s worth persisting with as one of the 3 CBs in the squad because Kilman was no better on the day. (6) Bowen was off the pace and totally ineffective but probably down to fitness having, like Watkins, just returned to club duties. (7) Kudus is a star and although needs to improve end product a little more was our only real attacking threat. If we dont make Europe this season he’s gone. Well he might be gone anyway but definitely if we dont make top 7. Kudus should be given a free role and tried centrally at times too imo. (8) Antonio never was a central striker and definitely struggling now and at 34 needs to be used only in a wide role as an impact sub late on in games. He was embarassingly bad technically yesterday , and as has been the case several times in the past under previous managers, lost his man completely for the first goal. It was a mismatch but he did nothing to impede the run of Onana. He was asleep completely. (9) We need a pacey option with good movement up front. The German is an option and probably effective if we are dominating the games but against better teams we need to be able to counter quickly, as we wont have so much of the ball, and FullKrug is no help with that style. The ability to counter quickly also harks back to the main issue of the central midfield. We were cut thru easily many times and unable to move the ball thru there press at all. That led to many long diagonals Moyesball style which only Kudus could do something with. (10) Summerville? Lively but not a 90 min man yet as he looks a tad lightweight and in games against better teams will offer little defensively and in today’s game you got to do the lot imo (11) Back to the German, as mentioned needs us to dominate the ball or better possession to get in games as he is very slow but needs players alongside. (12) Ings? Finished at the very top level imo. If you read all that you deserve a medal. Hopefully you closed upstairs windows, and didnt have access to sharp objects ;-). The only way is up and get Soler in or another energetic, creative midfielder asap"

gilmore - Bang on. What CHL wrote is some of the worst shit I've ever seen. Write games off while we all wait for the old players to confirm to the new manager that they ain't good enough? You couldn't make it up. Loppy fucked up yesterday. Simple as that.

gilmore - Bang on. What CHL wrote is some of the worst shit I've ever seen. Write games off while we all wait for the old players to confirm to the new manager that they ain't good enough? You couldn't make it up. Loppy fucked up yesterday. Simple as that.

"Tiresome the excuse Lop needs to thread gently with some egos. No, show a pair of balls. Start the new players bought and put it up to the dropped players to show on the training ground why they should be picked. I missed a lot of the second half. Is it true he switched Kudus from the left where he was destroying Cash to the right side?"

The new players Kids at a new school... So they play crap. Did I just read that. Moyes in- he wins

Have we won a cup yet?

Have we won a cup yet?

Where was Guilherme?

COOL HAND LUKE 8:42 Sun Aug 18 Exactly this. It would be suicidal for a manager to immediately alienate all the older guard - it very rarely happens which is why its comical to think he should have thrown all his new signings in yesterday and expect some sort of instant change

"I think Lop was giving the old school (Soucek, Coufal, JWP) a chance to show what they could do, They didn't ""do"" and it now gives him justification to drop them or even sell them. I'm sure it will be a different set up against Palace - It better be. As for Bowen and Paquta being subbed, Paqueta was on a yellow and Bowen was not match fit after coming back late from Euro. Villa took off Watkins for the same reason, much to our cost. Dissappointing after all the hype but we have to give it time. Lets see after 5 games or so."

"I think Lop was giving the old school (Soucek, Coufal, JWP) a chance to show what they could do, They didn't ""do"" and it now gives him justification to drop them or even sell them. I'm sure it will be a different set up against Palace - It better be. As for Bowen and Paquta being subbed, Paqueta was on a yellow and Bowen was not match fit after coming back late from Euro. Villa took off Watkins for the same reason, much to our cost. Dissappointing after all the hype but we have to give it time. Lets see after 5 games or so."

"I think... ...we need to think a bit more about 'human nature' here. Loppy is maybe having to tread very carefully because a) he needs ALL the players onside, and ditching half the old guard 'instantly' without being seen to give them a chance could create bad blood and negativity in the dressing room, and b) he will know some of those old guard need moving on, and that will be so much harder if they are seen to be 'discarded' right off first base. So... softly softly catchy monkey - pick them, and allow THEM to play themselves out of a starting berth. After which they have no excuses for any childish sulking. In addition, some of those who lose their place can stay as subs off the bench, and some need to be sold away from the club. I'm sure Loppy and his crew will have already decided the eventual ideal outcome for each player, BUT we have to try and achieve that without too much further turmoil. Don't forget - the players are ordinary humans just like the rest of us - they have now seen massive change in a short space of time, they have been tipped out of their comfort zones, they've seen some of their colleagues / buddies leave or retire, and most will have GFs or wives and even kids at school in a familiar, settled environment. All of that before they even kick a ball. The situation is potentially volatile and it has to be managed carefully if we want to step out into the sunshine any time soon. PATIENCE!!"

"I think... ...we need to think a bit more about 'human nature' here. Loppy is maybe having to tread very carefully because a) he needs ALL the players onside, and ditching half the old guard 'instantly' without being seen to give them a chance could create bad blood and negativity in the dressing room, and b) he will know some of those old guard need moving on, and that will be so much harder if they are seen to be 'discarded' right off first base. So... softly softly catchy monkey - pick them, and allow THEM to play themselves out of a starting berth. After which they have no excuses for any childish sulking. In addition, some of those who lose their place can stay as subs off the bench, and some need to be sold away from the club. I'm sure Loppy and his crew will have already decided the eventual ideal outcome for each player, BUT we have to try and achieve that without too much further turmoil. Don't forget - the players are ordinary humans just like the rest of us - they have now seen massive change in a short space of time, they have been tipped out of their comfort zones, they've seen some of their colleagues / buddies leave or retire, and most will have GFs or wives and even kids at school in a familiar, settled environment. All of that before they even kick a ball. The situation is potentially volatile and it has to be managed carefully if we want to step out into the sunshine any time soon. PATIENCE!!"

"I think you have to be careful with this ''it will take time'' concept that people chuck around 'coz it seems to be the right thing to say, and it may well be true as we saw it with the Palace and Bournemouth managers last season, although each case is different of course. But every game is important, he's a football manager, he's not trying to reinvent the wheel here, he's had what three friendlies with most of the players and yesterday. Does he 'need time' to see that Soucek is crap? We don't. And where was AVB? No rhyme or reason why he couldn't have played. Why not Todibo? Why no subs at half time? We have Man City after Palace, so if we don't get something at Palace, which is likely, we are very likely to then be going into the break on zero points, but it would be OK 'coz he needs time?? The wish for cunts won't be spinning that, that's for sure."