Comments on: Man City Match Report

By: Gill

Gill — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:57:18 +0000

Matthew Upson – 7 Composed and solid

Sorry I must of been watching a different player. Matthew Upson looked slow and out of it, especially for the Man City first goal when he was left for dead by the speed of their attack.

By: John Simkin

John Simkin — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:28:07 +0000

Football fans have an opinion on every player. As the various football forums show, fans disagree with great intensity about individual performances. This is reflected when people pick their team for the next match.

Is it possible to rate players in an objective way? I don’t think so. Judgement on players is emotional as well as intellectual. I know that I give some players the benefit of the doubt whereas others find it difficult to convince me of their merits. This is partly because of the way they play the game. I have always liked players who give their all in games. Another important factor concerns individual skill. I always favour players who look up and make accurate passes. This is why I always had difficulty giving Reo-Coker the benefit of the doubt.

I believe it is impossible for any one individual to assess players completely objectively. However, it is possible to get a fair estimation of someone’s performance by taking into account a reasonable number of assessments. Therefore, this season, I will be collecting together comments and rankings of every player’s performance in every match. This will enable people to use this data to make judgements on the performance of individual players.

Currently I am using the assessment of 12 different websites and newspapers. This includes Iain Dale’s Hammers Diary. If you watch every West Ham game and are willing to join in this experiment, contact me via the forum.

There is no doubt that there was general agreement about individual performances against Man City. Green was rated as the top performer with an average of 7.1. It was also clear who had the two worse ratings: Boa Morte (4.1) and Bowyer (4.4).

Some players had a wide variety of different ratings. For example, Anton Ferdinand obtained scores that went from 3 to 7. Zamora also divided the commentators with a range from 3 to 6. Anyway, you can see the full list here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2007WHsquad.htm

By: jon l.colney

jon l.colney — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:56:06 +0000

keep the faith boys.1 game dont make a season.
i do believe that now thats gone we will see a lot better attitude against brum.
mullins 4 me was exactly what we need in midfield sometimes,no fancy pants stuff just simple get it then give n go.noble lost it more than he ever had it.ide like to see gabbs and collins in the back 2.a lot more knowledge about eachothers play an all that.
ferdy just aint his brother.time to go i think.bowyer just shows no class on the ball and boy it shows when hes in front ov goal,well he cant see hes in front of the damm thing!!!matty came on and did well.ashton and zamora up front with bellamy down the right chanell.
can someone explain why curbs put matty in the back 4 ? decisions like that will cost us if he cant see it then read these bloggs !!!!!your guvna does.

By: Danny

Danny — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:23:07 +0000

I rather have KATAN back than watching Zamora again, what a waste of space he is.

By: Mr Ed

Mr Ed — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:27:08 +0000

Ashton’s chance which he blazed over, if it had gone in would have been ruled out because he was offside. Apart from a couple of half chances WHU only created one clear cut chance but the old fella with his legs well and truely gone could not make it, whereas virtually the same chance had a 22 year old arriving with enough time to make a pizza before putting it in. Difference is Sven has said City will not pay big money for has beens (6.5million by the time your finished boys for Freddie) but is on;y interested in players that can do a job now and in years to come. For an away side to boss the game for a good hour of a match says it all really. Many thanks to the WHU fans who applauded at the end nice one, and I hope things go well for the rest of the season. Like us you have to endure living under the shadows and having to put up with their success. Think what it was like for us boys when the rags won the treble I had to live under my bed for three months!! Cheers

By: Brooking knows best

Brooking knows best — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 20:05:12 +0000

I could not help myself, I tried to refrain from commenting on those who are knocking Curbishley. But I’m only a poor little Hammer, who loves the claret and blue of West Ham. Why are we knocking our manager so quickly? Why are some calling him tactically inept? Was it not his genius that kept Chalton up for so long? Who else could have kept us up after taking over our club last season. He inherited a total shamples, an accident scene.
Next time, lets have a “Curbishleys claret and blue army!” I guess he still has some more to do to win alot of hammers over, but lets give him the chance before making judgement!
Lets hope he proves to be the best English manager and takes our club to a new level and give him all the support he should be getting.

By: Brooking knows best

Brooking knows best — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:47:15 +0000

I was gutted, it looked as bad as it did at any time last year when we were at our worst. Teves although not the sole reason we stayed up was a very big factor has gone. so who do we look to now? Ashton, Bellamy or Lungberg. All good but certainly not Teves….
HANG ON A MINUTE! Doom and gloom after the first game, support like ours, I though we was supposed to be some of the best fans in England!
We was poor! We showed little passion. We was over ran. WE WILL GET BETTER! As for Man C, every player had a point to prove, every player ran their socks off. Every player played to his full potential. It knocked us and i reckon it was a wake up call. We will not get caught cold like that to many more times this season. I hope this game serves the purpose of reminding all out players of not taking any more games so lightly! We wont win the league, but I still think top ten is on and i hope for a top 8 finish.

By: E1

E1 — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:26:21 +0000

I’M Sorry to say but I think we need another manager sooner rather than later one who can change tactics and one that players want to play for I wonder if we could ever get Harry back he gave us our best prem years and had no money and look what he’s done at pompey !! I was really looking forward to this season but if he can’t motivate a team to win on the first game of the season at home then I don’t see much change from last year . Curbs stop blaming the players past present and injured take a good long look at yourself. YESTERDAY WAS A DISGRACE !!!

By: E1

E1 — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:01:16 +0000

Curbs is to negative he says he wants to see attacking football well we aint madrid, to be able to play that open and still win we need to spend BIG BIG MONEY. Or we could go back to basics and play the west ham way but we need to build from the back Neil and Upson are not going to save us on there own Deano will come good AND PARKER WILL DO OK ALONG WITH GREEN so I make that 5 players that look like top 7 potential freddie,mullins,zamora,ferdinand,matty, boa are squad players we are still 6 short of a quality starting 11 in my opinion just look at the yids,blackburn,Everton etc they a top draw 11 and very good cover. GET A PLAY MAKER !!!!!!

By: Hammerithome

Hammerithome — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:11:42 +0000

I was a bit upset to read the comments of former player Paul Konchesky. He said players were and still are unhappy at West Ham(no names). this is due to the manager as he (Curbs)doesn’t have any banter/chat with the players,and he is always serious and never shows any feelings towards players. Curbs is very hard to get on with apparently.
Tevez left because of the manager,and Bent never signed for the same reason,yes the manager again!
I think it’s a shame that a former player and fan has to go on the attack like this once he has left.
What are other fans comments on this?