I actually can't BELEIVE some of the ratings for Lamela..... He was appalling. Townsend had far more impact on the game - how lamela keeps starting recently is beyond me when Chadli is spending time on the bench.
He is a hard working youngster.The thing with Lamela is it very very rarely comes off for him. I would much rather have a hard working youngster in his place and cut our losses.
Walker looks exhausted to me, and I really think he needs a break against Fiorentina. He's one of our best players, but after a long time out, he's barely had a game off. We also don't really have a replacement. Vlad at RB?
Sorry a hard working youngster that does not dwell on the ball.He is a hard working youngster.
But then a team in a much better match position than the other with less than 10 minutes to go ended up drawing. I'd say Poch earned his bacon today. You can't as a manager help it if your set-up first team play under par. What you can do is make changes to turn around a bad position and instill a never give up mentality.
however the manager's role is to ensure that you set up the first team especially the starting eleven as best you can. leaving out eriksen was always going to be a big risk.
He is a hard working youngster.
Are you joking, Chiriches is definitely a better option at RB than Dier...Stick Dier out there, at least he won't be able to cost us anymore goals at CB for the moment.
The kid is a good prospect but Balotelli and then one today were down to him getting the fundamentals wrong. He needs a break from this, and chance to reflect. If he stays there, and keeps doing the same thing again and again he will be assumed to be a crap centre half, which he's not.
Yedlin is not eligible for EL, right?
If I were Poch I'd be putting a reserve side together ready for the mission to Italy, and have a first team spending all week getting ready for the Chelski cup final.
Dembele due a bad game? that's all right then !lorris7 good save to keep it at 2 0
walker 5 hes usual brain fart plus hes crossing was poor
verts 7 decent game apart from the goal
dier 7 see above
rose 8 one of the few that kept going and new what this game meant, i cant belive im saying this but hes playing better then davies
bentleb 7 slow start but got better
mason 5 poor today
dembele 4 was annnoymus but hes been playing well lately so he due a bad game
lamela 8 he was everywhere and helped get the ball forward quickly and hes movement took west ham defenders out of poistion
towsend 3 utter rubbish and did nothing again rightly subbed
kane 7 worked hes socks off but got lucky with the pen
Thing is I will criticise Lamela when he does have a stinker...I do feel like he is an easy target round here for criticism though. It is my opinion that he can do so much more, he should be scoring more and effecting games more.
However if anyone can convince me that he was worse than Moose or Townsend today then I am all ears. In fact he was the only one behind Kane who I could see making himself available for the ball, finding dangerous areas to run into and pressing effectivly. I also noticed today his passing was much quicker today though I accept it was not always accurate.
None of the team played particulary well but I would pick Eric out as one of the better peformers....no way he should have been hooked at ht.
I would like to see Holtby come back, I would rather see him in cm than say Aunty Pauline. would like to see him and Nabil fight it out for the lcm spot....though I think Bentaleb is and will grow to be far superior to Holtby.
Stick to the task? Lamela was nowhere near Creswell for the cross that led to their second goal. Walked ended up having to defend both their LM and LB. Lamela bears more blame for their second goal than Rose and the lineman combined.
That's true, but we've seen time and again that plan A does not always work in football. We did not have a lot of time to prepare for this game, whereas West Ham had clearly got a strategy to deal with our threats and weaknesses.
Ultimately, plan A nose-dived quite badly during the match, but plan B clawed back a desperate situation in order to salvage a point from a poor performance and terrible situation.
My point to the poster was that its not quite as simple as saying Allardyce is an 8 and Poch is a 4 from the match. Allardyce's team lost a ridiculously good situation to Poch's team. I'd say both managers were about a 6 from the match.
I didn't agree with Eriksen being left out, but it was an understandable call. The XI on the pitch should have been good enough to perform better than they did. It's not Poch's fault that the ability to pass to a team-mate appeared to dissapear from much of the team for various periods of the first half. Second half was a lot better, their goal aside and we rescued the situation in the end.
agree with what you said but it comes down to expecting that first XI to just keep on playing good flowing football regardless of personnel changes. my personal experience is that its always so much easier playing with friends than strangers; also the possibility of completing that 50:50 through pass is so much higher, compared to playing with acquaintances. and i'd rather take eriksen off while we're leading than introduce him while we're trailing.
Sorry a hard working youngster that does not dwell on the ball.
He doesn't dwell on the ball that much though does he? You've stated you prefer Townsend. THERE'S a player who 'dwells on the ball'
I'd say he often thinks he has time to dwell on the ball. I'm not sure if I've seen a player dispossessed so much from a player coming from behind when he's about to try to take someone on, very frustrating.