West Ham United 2-4 Watford FC - 10/09/2016

They highlighted West Ham defence mix up before mentioning the great finish from troy. If Payet had chipped that in where would the focus be?

They mentioned twice Watford played well but prefixed it with "give Watford credit though" meaning they were moving into that from highlighting West ham = poor. After a statement saying we deserve credit we then got the usual moment of awkward silence before they moved on.

No more than expected, they were not expecting it to be match 2 at 4pm.

 

Just watched MOTD, and I started off listening out for how many "Credit to Man City, but" or similar phrases there were.

Zero, despite the panel agreeing wholeheartedly that Man Utd were pi$$ poor defensively.

Next up West Ham v Watford, and I count two "Credit to Watford, but"s and one "Take nothing away from Watford, but", plus an assortment of vigorous agreement noises from the rest of the panel following said phrases. Oh, and an apology from one of their players to all their fans, like they'd just lost to a Steel Worker's XI in the cup.

I think it's safe to say we upset expectations and are very much viewed as whipping boys. I don't think there's anything malicious going on, but we simply aren't going to alter people's perceptions of the club overnight, if ever.

Bottom line, you can let it irritate you, or you can enjoy the constant egg on the faces of the experts that keep banging on about the player/manager turnover at Watford, and how it doesn't work .

 

Ighalo's 'miss' was actually a good blocking tackle. Should've been a corner

 

Nice thing I noted yesterday was how much Pereyra cares. No Billy big Bollox from despite a lot talk of him being the messiah. He celebrated both goals in the second half almost like a fan. Add this to the fact he looks one hell of a player I think we've done pretty well getting him. Compare him to Zaza who we were linked with as well but was pretty poor yesterday.
Happy days

 

Lively and tidy.

 

Looked like Deeney on MOTD.

 

How much do think Capoue is currently worth now he has become a goal scoring midfielder?

With regards to MOTD I think some of our fans are always looking to be the victim, I thought it was fair and they gave us credit where credit was due. West Ham were at home and were 2-0 up, it was always going to be just as much if not more about them as it was us.

 

Seemed fair comments to me on motd. As for the match I was following on bbc updates - turned it on just in time for 2.1 so you can thank me for the come back made the end to my holiday that little bit sweeter

 

Did we not ditch out on the 2nd half to great effect?

 

great result, didn't see that coming at 2-0 down. We had had our chances but didn't look like we were going to dominate the 2nd half.

Nice to see that WM is prepared to change to formation and his tactics when necessary, something that we lacked last year.

I thought that Valon Behrami didn't get to grips with thier runners in the first half but was was fantastic in the 2nd.

Plus 4 really good goals

Always happy with 3 points away

 

Weren't all subs like for like? Unless we moved a CB to full back I guess.

 

Would need to watch the full replay but I think we went to 4 with Britos left back and a midfield 5 (so 451?) then reverted to 352 again later in the half


Also I like the white kit a lot

 

Wouldn't it be amazing if Capoue just scored the SAME goal every game. He loves a sliced volley.

 

Difficult to tell from the stream but the commentators seemed to think we pushed janmaat up into midfield and Cathcart filled in at right back.

It's nice that Walter has got us playing a flexible formation and is clearly happy to adjust it when needed.

This could be a really really good season if we keep improving as we currently are.

 

West Ham 2-4 Watford FC - 10/09/2016

https://vimeo.com/182271784

My view from the corporate section

 

I think what I loved more about yesterday was Capoue and Holebas running straight to the fans after scoring....at the other end I was so jealous - more so Holebas as he seemed quite cold to the fans.

One thing I noticed about Capoue...very John Eustace like in milking the adulation and enjoying every second of it.

He hasn't quite reached the Rick Holden level of milking as he used to do a lap of honour.

 

I notice the people around you trying to ignore it

 

Yes, our cup runneth over. We made loads of chances involving multiple players and we have good options to come. I think we will find more solidity as Walter gets to get the team playing as he wishes. I think our centre backs can be commanding. Pereyra and Janmaat great additions, Capoue looking a potent midfield threat now.
V happy clapper today.

 

The couple of West Ham fans we were there with were pissed off! Particularly with my muted but obvious celebrations for each goal

 

I'm giving an honest opinion, but if it upsets you I cannot do too much about that.

The 3-5-2 does give us something going forward, especially away from home, and it was the same in the Championship under Zola. We scored a sack load of goals away, but struggled to break teams down at home.

In the Premier League, against much better players, it allows teams too much space, especially on the flanks, to get in behind us.

In virtually every match we've played this season, Mazzarri has had to change the system to four at the back and it instantly improves us.

The Deeney inspired fight back was extraordinary yesterday, but you rarely win games from a goal down in the Prem, let alone two.

We always look far better with 4 at the back and the evidence of my own eyes has confirmed this, but then that's just my opinion.

 

I agree, very smart, thought it looked great on our players.

 

It's not so much what they say, it's the focus they give. They always look at how our opponents play, but rarely on Watford. It would have been an ideal opportunity to look at Watford's amazing fight back, focusing on the quality of our forward play, but no it was all about West Ham's failings, then the Kleanex was out for Payet's rabona.

I don't think much of MotD's patronising punditry, but I love the hart they have on the starting credits. I only just noticed that last night......very smart and I doubt anyone, apart from Watford fans, would know what that's all about.

 

I just remembered it took us about 6 games to score a goal last season. We've netted in each one so far this time.

 

Great comeback yesterday, unbelievable in fact. But we can't overlook how poor we were as a defensive unit in the first half hour. Holebas is by far and away the weak link. He has such little positional discipline it kept leaving Britos in trouble. Their second goal was heavily influenced by the fact that he got himself stuck out on the far right after a West Ham set piece (corner?) which we broke upfield from. When we lost possession and they came back at us he was loitering somewhere around the middle of the pitch and hardly busting a bollack to get back. That and his constant giving away of needless free kicks in attacking positions, thereby releasing pressure on the opposition defence, was really frustrating yesterday. I can't deny that his tackle and shot for his goal were top notch but I'd still be looking to replace him in January.

Oh and the stadium is a joke and not fit to be a football venue. Have to say I liked the thrones Brady, Sullivan and Gold have had put in for themselves however. Demonstrates clearly their stranglehold on that once proud club.

 

It took us 13 minutes to score last season. But yeah, good to see we're getting goals from all over this season.

 

Lol I meant to say at home!!

 

Some very complimentary comments about Troy on the Kumb site. A few would love to see Deeney as their captain but also take the **** with his weight!

 

We remain unbeaten in the PL away from home under Mazzarri

We've not conceeded a second half goal for 2 matches now, which hopefully hints at our fitness levels improving.

I find it quite difficult to discuss formations from yesterday as we seemed to be constantly changing it during the match! I'm certainly not going to tell the Head Coach what he should do, but so far this season we haven't keep a clean sheet but we have scored ourselves in every game! We've conceeded some sloppy goals, but are scoring some crackers too. Capoue is re-born, and we've had our first goal of the campaign from a wing-back too!

I'm a big believer in turning points. I still maintain that a huge one (to our detriment) last season was Watson's 'goal that nearly was' v Spurs. From almost being 2-1 up, we lost that match and never looked quite the same again.

Hopefully, after a poor start to the season points wise, and at 0-2 down and facing a thrashing ahead of a match with Man Utd, Ighalo's strike will signal a positive turning point in the Mazzarri era, the Mark Robbins moment..one we can all look back on in a few month's time and say to ourselves 'that was the crucial moment, things had to be bad before they became good, and we never looked back from that moment'!

Suddenly Ighalo doesn't seem quite so selfish, Deeney doesn't look quite so overweight and cumbersome, our defence doesn't look quite so brittle, Gomes doesn't look a liability etc etc..in fact nearly every criticism levelled at the Head Coach and some of the key members of the team over the opening 3 matches (a few with justification, but not all) don't seem quite so relevant or pertinent today.

The team may have worn white yesterday, but it was not the white of surrender.

It was more like the bright yellow of a bright new dawn.

 

I agree, surely 3-5-2 can work and work well but it's down to the quality of the wing backs and how well they can defend? Teams only get in behind easily of the wing backs aren't defending properly and I feel the same about Holebas, defensively he has always been very very suspect. He's ok going forward but that's only half the job. Switching to 4 at the back is bound to seem to work better if you've got weak link like Holebas in a 3-5-2.

 

Disappointed really. At 2-0 down, I predicted we'd win 5-2.

But I'll take the positives. The result should mean that heads are less likely to drop should we go 2-0 down again. It's a massive psychological boost to take forwards into the rest of the season.

 

Last season although we had quite a few very good away results our best " highlight " win was home to Liverpool 3-0, that made the football world sit up and take notice of us.

Winning away 4-2 after being 2-0 down at West Ham will take some beating, certainly one to live long in the memory!

Bring on the next 34 games!

 

My theory is that after that Liverpool game, rather than look to kick on from where we'd raised the bar to, Flores boIIocked the players for being too positive for his liking, told them they weren't good enough to play like that, and hauled them all back into a ten man defence for the rest of the season.

 

I suddenly feel an overwhelming sense of pride. Fair choked, I am.

;D

 

Wow, you were so far away from the pitch. I hope you brought your binoculars!