West Ham Online

"Posted the same last year. Nothing has changed, except win don't win matches anymore. I'm fed up, we can do much better"

Brighton have 76% possession and are 3-0 down. Possession stats are bollocks.

So when was you last happy with our style of play ?

The question is who is going to own the club and be making the decisions. Once tgat is known we could continue as we are or it will be anyones guess what happens.

"Jonny V, I want the team to play like they have two crossed hammers on their chest not like they often play with two white crossed feathers""¶.you obviously want to crack on with the latter""¶.as not having the ball is that""¶..but you don't lose by too many goals""¶..yay""¶."

"If there is in fact a long-term football plan at the club, this season Moyes must have demonstrated he is not interested. Neither the first team squad has been used properly, nor has its potential been exploited. Instead, we set up like a newly-promoted club on a shoe-string budget while it is assumed we don't have the players with the ability to dominate most games. Also, the Academy seems to be enjoying an especially good crop, and Moyes behaves like it isn't even there. I think I recall that on his return, Moyes expressed surprise at how much Rice had progressed. If so, it is now clear he wasn't being complementary; rather he was making it plain that he felt Rice had developed too much and had now risen above his station. If there is football life at the club, Moyes is out at the end of the season while players like Rice and Paqueta take us the proper level with a proper manager."

"Nagel 7:03 Mon May 8 Excellent summary. It's looked that way all season. Well worse really as, until recently, we were neither one thing or the other. A half baked mess of players in a system set out for sitting deep and countering but trying to play out and keep the ball and rely far less on set pieces. Seems Moyes fully reverted to the only system he knows from the recent Fulham game and we got results? Owners have a choice: Get a new manager who can get tge team and last summer signings playing a press / possession game or Keep Moyes, look to sell some of the new recruits and go back to what we used to do but do it better by buying players that are suited to more direct, counter attack football. This would mean Moyes not choosing who would buy to make it work as he still does not concede he is one dimensional ( dinosaur ) I would prefer a new manager and coaches but the risk is you get second raters or over the bill types who seem the only people who will work for a small man who has a hooker/tranny for a wife and dresses up as Stalin"

"JOHNNY V 6:10 Mon May 8 There is some value in your defence of Moyes. Klopp has experienced some difficulties this season too. The big difference is that Klopp does actually have a better record of winning trophies and awards. Him your defence works for. Moyes has managed without winning anything really. His success is staying in PL based on solid defensive tactics. He has shown his inadequacies by trying to make WH more of a possession team. This is where it has fallen down. Moyes signed 3 ball playing defenders - Aguerd, Kehrer, Emerson. 2 attack minded midfielders - Cornet and Paqueta, 2 central forwards - Scamacca and Ings, and a back-up keeper and DM - Areola & Downes. None of those players has fitted into the new possession based team without massive problems made of confusion and lack of purpose. Mainly because Moyes can't let go his regular players even when they are playing badly. I doubt that our coaching staff know how to coach possession based tactics and it has taken the players to start a high press seemingly without being coached to play that way. Now we are safe with another season of PL football but most of the last close season signings are still not integrated as regulars and some with big question marks on their ability to play without making fuck ups or getting serious injuries. Some players positively will not ever become regulars under Moyes so will be wanting out. Then there's the older players that will be another year older like Fabianski, Cresswell, Ogbonna, Antonio, and Rice will presumably be off too. We need a manager that knows how to integrate new players and to do it quick too. Someone that knows their way around the markets and can spot players that fit into how they want to play. Moyes will never be that man. Moyes doesn't know anything except defend deep and attack on transition. That's all he knows and why he cannot work with top class players."

"Personally I don't necessarily have a problem with low possession direct football and it can be a lot more fun to watch than a load of tippy tappy shit. Thing is though, if you want to play a certain style and you've got 150m to spend then you need to buy the players who fit with your tactics, which Moyes sure as shit didn't do, mainly because he apparently wanted to play a different way, but didn't know how to. It was a lot easier being a counter attacking team in the lockdown period because there was no home advantage and the opposition weren't counter pressing as soon as they lost the ball. Presumably this was because a) there were no supporters geeing players on to win back possession and b) the truncated schedule and danger of squad shortages through quarantine meant that players were trying to contain their energy levels more than usual. We started the next season brightly, with our front 3 brimming with confidence after the previous season, but that only lasted the first 2-3 months. In the last 27 games of the season we won only 8 of them, which is the same sort of form we've had all this season. So Moyes acknowledged that he had to change things up and play a more possession based football and the players that were bought in reflected that. Unfortunately the style of football didn't really change so now we had players who didn't fit and despite all the money spent we actually got worse."

"JOHNNY V 6:10 Mon May 8 I think Pellegrini was a different side of the same problem. He had his system and was going to play that, come hell or high water. Even though we not good enough at that point to do it. He also had players that he would keep playing no matter how bad their form. Sitting behind him in the home end at Oxford United I saw Roberto pull off the worst professional goalkeeping performance I have ever seen, live or otherwise. (And I am not one for exageration or try not to be) Yet he was our Premier League keeper for 8 games, none of which we won. I am not pretending Soucek was that bad but there were some dark days. We need a manager that can adjust. We need to dominate possesion against some teams and we need to play the best of Moyes-ball against others. Moyes hasn't shown he can do that, with all respect to some of the things he has and might achieve."

"We were a possession based team under Pellegrini and it was shit, Rodgers was possession based as was Bielsa they are both now out of work. Bilic was similar again other than one season shit again. Let's get someone in who gives us 60% possession but we can't defend for toffee again and our players are blowing out their arse on 60 minutes."

"He hasn't changed anything though has he and that's why we've struggled he's also admitted he can't... Oh and I don't know any of those clubs whose playing style got sussed and needed to play another way, not one so no it's not the same at all."

"All these clubs you keep putting up as the same ALWAYS like to have possession of the ball""¶.our set up is to let those teams have it""¶.you support this""¶..great""¶."

"The same thing as Liverpool, Chelsea and anyone else that's tried to change things up. We brought in 5 new first team players, it'.takes time to bed in, we are seeing now what the potential of this team could be. Arsenal recruited heavily the past two years and were inconsistent, they stuck with Arteta and now there seeing the rewards. Liverpool will he a different animal next season and I believe we will be as well."

"Well that's irrelevant his tactics got found out and by his own admission he needed to find another way to play, he's also admitted he has failed to do so. Nowhere to go from there."

So what's happened this season? Is it our way of playing and scoring has been found out?

"Not this season Fraser, just pointing out our out of date manager managed to get 60 + premier league goals the previous two seasons."

FMOB Is someone suggesting we haven't been dull to watch this season..

"Of course they did they are clubs set up to play football with attacking intent""¶.."

"14 of our 60 goals came from set peices,. Brentford, Liverpool, Arsenal and City scored more. Better count them as dull to watch as well."

"Branded , he certainly likes working with 30 year old + grown ups . Whilst last night was a fantastic performance and result - it does not take from 18 months of turgid , passive , cowardly football . Teams who get 60 ,000 plus gates should not have to tolerate 35% and lower possession against virtually every opponent. And whilst he put in a shift last night - I don't want to see Antonio as first choice striker next season , and that's very likely if Moyes remains ."

"Someone needs to introduce themselves to the term""¶""¶scored in open play""¶..if this is mixed in proportionately with the other ways to score you may get to watch a bit of football""¶"

If we win tinpot cup and stay up the board will keep him. Should he start weak next season he'll be gone by October. it's the west ham way.

"We scored 60+ goals the past two season, hardly a dull team to watch. People trying to rewrite history on here."

"Yawn""¶.."

Three obvs