West Ham 2 - 0 Newcastle United - 02/03/19 - Post-match reaction from page 18

Hope he was pelted with Mbeju when he left the field, worst signing since Fatem.

A game too far I think today, given our recent run. Extra quality for them told in the end.

Was sat in the home end for this, thought we were really poor.

Another two goals given away defending set pieces. Not sure what Antia does with set pieces but we're pretty bad at defending them

Attacking ones are hopeless, too. One goal all season by my reckoning; pretty rubbish. Felt like West Ham countered dangerously from the majority of ours yesterday, really frustrating.

Wonder if the players mentally switched off a bit after the results midweek and seeing Cardiff has already lost. Lacked intensity and never seemed to get going.

Perez scores that chance and it’s a different game though.

Wonder if the players mentally switched off a bit after the results midweek and seeing Cardiff has already lost. Lacked intensity and never seemed to get going.

 

Perez scores that chance and it’s a different game though.

I agree with this. It seemed we were just not on today, mentally and physically. Had we gone into the half at 1-0 I think we’d  have played far better to get a draw. But seriously not a single a bounce or was going our way yesterday.

Hadn't had a rancid performance for a while tbf, was bound to happen at one point or another. Just need them to dust themselves down for Everton.

Let's face it, West Ham have some very good players when firing. I thought we were okay and they didn't really look like scoring other than from our mistakes. However, that's football, they forced the mistakes from us and we couldn't really break them down. They did a number on us basically. They should be doing a lot better than they are given the players they have (although I think their midfield is shite)

Hadn't had a rancid performance for a while tbf, was bound to happen at one point or another. Just need them to dust themselves down for Everton.

We weren't rancid, we were second best to a better team.

Was raging during the commentary when at one point they claimed Ashley had put his hand in his pocket to buy Almiron.

Does that happen at any other club? Where the owner gets all the credit for a player purchase.

For the 17/18 season 8. Newcastle – Total payment: £123,018,207

Figure taken from https://talksport.com/football/376346/how-much-money-each-premier-league-club-earned-tv-and-their-final-position-180518283150/

Hadn't had a rancid performance for a while tbf, was bound to happen at one point or another. Just need them to dust themselves down for Everton.

 

We weren't rancid, we were second best to a better team.

First half was. Better second half but nothing went our way, which is fair enough. It happens.

Does anyone know what the xG stats were? Missed it on MoTD and a quick google search hasn't helped.

West Ham 2.01, NUFC 1.08

West Ham 2.01, NUFC 1.08

Ultimately they weren't that much better in most areas of the pitch, but they definitely defended better. We gave away a couple of weak goals and they always managed to get a body in the way.

Almiron had a decent second half I thought, but no one else was really on the same wavelength. Don't know where all the twitter criticism comes from but then every knob has a phone these days so I suppose that answers the question.

We were much better in the second half and I thought we lost the game to them rather than they beat us, thanks largely because of the way we were set up at the start and how we then proceeded to sit so deep and drop off them. 4-4-2 suited us better against West Ham and that was evident after 10 minutes.

One thing games like this shows us is that we are in desperate need of some creativity in midfield and I’m not so sure Almiron is that playmaker or 10, mind he can’t pull the strings in such a way when out wide even if he is that player.

My own opinion is that he’d struggle playing that kind of position and role.

That’s the least of our worries regarding Almiron though, Ritchie’s inability to see a pass and further play a quality pass hurts us much more regardless of where he plays which right now is left and behind Almiron. Dummet is even poorer at passing and the new guy signed on loan seems a pointless signing if he can’t even make the bench.

If we are to play wing backs, I’d play Kennedy there instead of Ritchie, at least he possesses some passing quality.

If Diame is fit he needs to partner Longstaff because he gave us a lot more when he come on, at both ends, he and Longstaff both can do what Hayden can defensively and better too, but both are much more better on the ball and driving forward in Diame’s case.

As poor as we were in the first half and as disappointing as it is to lose after a run of good for,, West Ham are a much better side and with more quality and better options. As things stand just to have a chance to beat them we have to be tactically at our best, defensively strong and take our chances when we get them.

Our good run of form as a team and the form of others like Tondon, Perez, Longstaff and the introduction of Almiron doesn’t disguise the fact we are severely lacking real quality and options to be able to compete with the likes of West Ham in a footballing sense, especially at full-back and creatively from midfield.

We still only lost by set pieces though. Again had we started out at 4-4-2 and been more on the ball from the off, I think we would have given them a tougher game which they certainly found after the break and the final score not as predictable.

There is nothing to be massively concerned about our defeat or performance though, anyone who is concerned are either hyper critical or have been getting carried away by wins over the likes of Huddersfield and Burnley, teams we are much closer to.

We all know the underlying issues at play which we can only paper over so much with tactical tinkering and defensive steel. It’s quality we lack and need in order to emerge as a good team in our own right rather than a team with a good manager. West Ham have both and as long as we don’t, we will always struggle to compete for points against them, home or away.

Was sat in the home end for this, thought we were really poor.

 

Another two goals given away defending set pieces. Not sure what Antia does with set pieces but we're pretty bad at defending them

Aye. Don't get it because we were brilliant at them last season, defensively and offensively.

Stadium is awful as well isn’t it, first time I’ve been, was in the upper tier but moved to the lower during the first half, that in itself is weird that there’s no checks or anything, the gap between uppper and lower is ridiculous and the whole middle bit just doesn’t look finished. Trying to get back to Stratford International after the match is a joke as well. Definitely won’t be going again unless it’s a massive game for us there for whatever reason

Was raging during the commentary when at one point they claimed Ashley had put his hand in his pocket to buy Almiron.

Does that happen at any other club? Where the owner gets all the credit for a player purchase.

 

For the 17/18 season 8. Newcastle – Total payment: £123,018,207

 

Figure taken from https://talksport.com/football/376346/how-much-money-each-premier-league-club-earned-tv-and-their-final-position-180518283150/

Depends upon the level of control I guess. I think Levy gets stick/praise if we spend/don’t spend, for example. Abramovich used to, when he gave a fuck.

West Ham 2.01, NUFC 1.08

Site I checked said 1.95-1.16?

Was sat in the home end for this, thought we were really poor.

 

Another two goals given away defending set pieces. Not sure what Antia does with set pieces but we're pretty bad at defending them

He was furious after their first mind.

Well I didn't think he was going to look ecstatic

West Ham 2.01, NUFC 1.08

 

Site I checked said 1.95-1.16?

I saw 1.4-0.9. Which tallies with how I saw the game - the idea we were outclassed just doesn't ring true.

 

We still only lost by set pieces though. Again had we started out at 4-4-2 and been more on the ball from the off, I think we would have given them a tougher game which they certainly found after the break and the final score not as predictable.

 

For the home match, we'd been playing 5 at the back for a few weeks and reverted to 4 and got smashed. I can see why Rafa would be wary of doing the same thing again.

And I'm loathe to be deliberately contrary, but for the love-in we've had about our defenders (50m Lejeune?) - whilst they have been very effective ball-players, that has covered up some of their deficiencies as defenders. Their actual job. Both Schar and Lejeune made mistakes of the type they have made before - consider some of the criticism Schar received earlier in the year before he became Ping Ben Scharfa, while Lejeune and Lascelles have always had defensive ricks in them. Our defensive set pieces are a vulnerability that well-coached teams will exploit and is a surprising deficiency in a Benitez-coached team.

We still only lost by set pieces though. Again had we started out at 4-4-2 and been more on the ball from the off, I think we would have given them a tougher game.

Lost via set pieces yet it was the “formations fault”

“Should have played 4-4-1-1” even though we played that formation at home against them and got absolutely slaughtered in play 0 v 3 via IN PLAY GOALS

Yesterday they couldn’t score any in play goals and we had our most amount of shots in an away game all season

Only Man City and Chelsea had more attempts at goal than us this weekend.

We just had a massive off day with our shooting 17 shots and no goals that was the issue.