IntenseDebate - Danny

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - Match Preview: West Ha... · 0 replies · +1 points

I would mostly agree with that team but have changed my mind about Morrison. I would go with:

Green
O'Brien, Faye, Collins, McCartney
Lansbury, Noble, Nolan, Taylor
Cole, Maynard

Subs: Henderson, O'Neil, Morrison, Baldock, Carew.

I would go 4-4-2 with the idea of getting the crowd onside and attacking from the off. 4-3-3 will not work at home without the pace of Faubert or Vaz Te down the flanks. I would leave out Collison completely as O'Neil may get the chance to come off the bench against his old club which is always an incentive for any player. I would also have Carew on the bench to mix it up a bit if necessary in the latter stages or if anything happened to Cole (Carew was in the 18 for Leeds).

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - Purge Your Negative Th... · 0 replies · +1 points

What us fans need to consider is: can we affect the style of football we play? Answer = no.

Can we affect the atmosphere and therefore, in turn, the players who are playing that style? Answer = yes, get behind them, don't let them get their heads down, create a cauldron of positive noise and don't give the opposition the chance to get our crowd on our own players' backs and grow in confidence as the away team.

We can only affect the atmosphere - we can't affect the team selection or style of play. Let's live with it for ten games and pick the bones out of it after we've, hopefully, got promotion. Where is moaning going to get us? Play-offs, disappointment and an even more negative Upton Park for 2012/13.

And you never know, maybe if we all got behind the players they might actually show enough confidence themselves to take a risk and play some football and maybe even show a bit of flair too. If you're a nervous player in a nervous stadium and sections of your own crowd are having a go at you, you're only going to want to get rid of the ball as quick as you can.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - Purge Your Negative Th... · 0 replies · +1 points

Well said Paul Walker and Iain, couldn't agree more.

On a slightly different note, can we remove Blair Turgott from the twitter widget? I believe the modern vernacular would be '#irritating'..?!

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - Results: Player Perfor... · 0 replies · +1 points

Well said.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - Results: Player Perfor... · 2 replies · +1 points

Interestingly I was talking to a Leeds fan before the game - he was shocked when I told him we have been playing Vaz Te on the wing. He said he's the best attacking player they've seen at Elland Road this year and he scored 4 goals in 2 games against them when playing up front, down the middle. For us, he's stuck out on the touchline. He has scored 2 goals in 4 starts (should be 3 after his excellent finish against Doncaster) and could be the nippy type of player we need down the middle who can come short and play in the hole, off of a striker. Maynard and Baldock are way too similar to play together in my opinion, like playing Michael Owen and Tony Cottee in the same team, both want to be on the last shoulder.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - Results: Player Perfor... · 3 replies · +1 points

I was at Elland Road on Saturday and, just like at Hull and Coventry, we did not look an attacking threat until Cole came on. The types of passes we play are not conducive to playing Maynard or Baldock on their own up front and we tend to look poor when we play 4-4-2. All of which points to Cole being a key man between now and the season's end.

The main problem on Saturday was the total lack of creativity. I don't think we had a single clear-cut chance from open play in the entire game. I am not an advocate of throwing in the untried and the untested at the business end of a season but Collison has been so poor of late, I think it is time to start Morrison on Tuesday. Young Jack looked jaded during the highlights I saw later, and that clip was during the first half!

We also desperately lacked pace. Faubert has been missed in recent games and I hope he's fit for Tuesday. I see where Nolan's detractors are coming from but his goals have been worth 20 points to us this season - when we don't create many chances, you'd want him on the end of the few we do.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - Twelve Things We Learn... · 0 replies · +1 points

Finally, a post with sense. Well done mate.

The posts on here are kneejerk and sum up the atmosphere at Upton Park and why the players struggle to perform. This is the time to be getting behind the manager and the team, not ludicrously suggesting we move him aside and bring in Tony Carr as someone suggested earlier - laughable!

I'm so glad I go to away games so I can remember what it was like to have supporters that support a team. The expectation that we'll blow teams away is killing our promotion chances. It IS a tough league. We had to fight our way out of it in 2005 and then played football with good results the following season. I don't think this team will struggle next year if we go up as teams won't put 10 men behind the ball and we'll have the underdog atmosphere back at UP, as we did in 2005/06 before the expectation level went up again.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - Home Form: Are We to B... · 0 replies · +1 points

The home crowd is disappointing at best, and a disgrace at worst. In a 5-row radius in the West Stand, right in the South corner, I'm the only person who sings Bubbles when the teams come out, and I sit in an area filled with fellow season-ticket holders. There's only 'noise' briefly in the stadium when we're winning and boos if we're not, even though we're at the top end of the league!

I attend the vast majority of away games too and it is clear that the support we take on our travels is so much better, in every conceivable way. If 35,000 West Ham fans got behind the team at Upton Park the way 2/3,000 do away, the place would be the intimidating fortress it once was, rather than the snipey, negative, needlessly mildly aggressive place it currently is.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - Match Preview: West Ha... · 1 reply · +1 points

I agree with you Iain. We looked much more potent and dangerous with a 4-4-2 in the second half in our last home game against Crystal Palace, when Cole came on. I like Collison but he has been poor in our last two fixtures and maybe needs a rest. I am also a Baldock fan but playing a short'un up front led to no chances at all in the first half against Palace so I can't see him starting with Maynard. I'd start with the following team, in a 4-4-2:

Green
O'Brien, Faye, Tomkins, McCartney
Lansbury, Noble, Nolan, Taylor
Cole, Maynard

Subs: Boffin, Collison, O'Neil, Vaz Te, Baldock.

It switches the team round, which we must do this month, but, in my opinion, does not weaken it. I fancy us for a 3-0 win tomorrow night.

14 years ago @ West Ham Till I Die - Vote: Player Performan... · 4 replies · +1 points

I can't see Boffin starting on Saturday - since his costly error against Sheffield Wednesday, he's been out in the cold, to the extent that even Lansbury is preferred on the bench - it's Peter Kurucz who's on loan at Rochdale. With it being a professional foul, Green will only be suspended for one game so I can't see us getting anyone in on loan, which leaves Stech as the likely starter and we still won't have to pay the add-on fee as he'll still have one game to go before that comes into action.

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