Comments on: Chelsea Afterthoughts

By: American Hammer

American Hammer — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:26:28 +0000

i dont see why curbs played the same sturggling squad that played fulham, agaisnt chelsea.

By: crazyhorse

crazyhorse — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:44:59 +0000

If we sack curbs in the summer we will be know different to those other clubs who offload their managers like its no tomorrow.I agree the football hasnt been how we would like it to be,but curbs has had to chop n change the team because of injuries.Give the guy a chance,we cant just give him the thumbs just like that,I think next season will define where he stands as a mananger for west ham.Lets get behind the manager and the team,and keep the ship steady

By: Stuart

Stuart — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:45:54 +0000

How can you say LBM was toally ineffective – he got lampard send off.

By: DevoDevo

DevoDevo — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:02:57 +0000

Very good post by Darwin.

I think Curbishley has achieved all he is capable of at the club and that it making us hardworking and difficult to beat (aside from saturday) – where have we seen that before?

If BG is serious about building a club to challenge for Europe, he has to get rid of Curbishley and bring Bilic in after the Euros.

How any team that has a strike force of LBM and Cole can claim to be top 6 material is beyond me. Yes, we miss Bellamy, Parker and Dyer, but all of them have injury ravaged careers, so to pin all our hopes on them lasting a full season is wishful thinking.

All season Neill has been a liabilty. I haven’t seen Faubert play at RB, but if he can, he has to be worth a pop. He has pace and is a decent tackler.

I agree with another poster, most of the goals were down to the midfield not doing their job. We have nothing to play for this season, let’s give Collison and Sears a run in the side. Personally, I think Deano is a pale shadow of his former self and would much rather see Zamora upsides Sears. Someone mentioned that Deano will be off in the summer if he doesn’t figure for the rest of the season, but who is going to buy him on this season’s evidence?

Our best and most inventful player at Fulham last week was Solano and he didn’t even start. That tells you all you need to know about Curbishley.

By: IRHammer

IRHammer — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:18:06 +0000

If you look at the stats on Sky we had 7 shots on target to Chelskis 9 – had 51% of tehe play and majority of teh game was soent in Chelsea half of the field – what we lacked was the abiliy to DO anything with the ball – Scot Parker would have made a big difference. BUT, the writing was on the wall for teh last 5-10 mins after we scored against Fulham – we were like rabbits in the headlights and could NOT keep the ball to save our lives. WE need some players to come back, and if Deano doesn’t get a run in the side he will be off in the close season mark my words – he looks disgruntled, despite the fact we’ve paid his salary all last year !!
Having said that – I would have taken 40 points at this stage no problem – tricky run of games coming up so we need no worse than a draw at Anfield this week. COYI

By: chris

chris — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:00:55 +0000

Come on guys! we did’nt play 4 5 1 we played 4 4 1 1, with boa morte roaming around,christ knows why! Cant believe some of you still think playing an extra striker means more goals,if we play 4 in midfield im sorry but we wont get a grip of the game,not with these players,mullins is quite good but only when he sits right on top of his centre backs,in a 4 you have to be more dynamic,parkers more dynamic but always injured shame,,so until everyones fit lets be difficult to beat….remember 4 4 2 against arsenal,,,4 4 2 switch against liverpool,even this chelsea game i would say we were more 4 4 2..

By: ironsmith

ironsmith — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:20:14 +0000

I agree with the excellent post by hammer in total, Chelsea had too much class for us all over the pitch and this team is the result of many seasons of building starting back in the rainierie days and before and curbs has only had one year and what a year!We have to be patient. I was saddened by two things in this game. Firstly the result and secondly how on earth did the appalling relationship between some of our fans and frank lampard deteriorate to this level he is an ex hammer for gods sake? I know I may become unpopular by saying this but you have to speak what you feel, Frank Lampard is one of the best midfielders in the world scoring between 15 and 20 goals every season for his time at chelsea and at the top of the tree in my opinion. I have a certain level of respect for the man which is not shared by some of my fellow fans and in itself that is fine as we all have different opinions of players which is natural. However in my view the abuse which some fans hurl at one or two of our ex-players serves only to demean the fans and the club . Whatever they have done wrong, whether it is sign for spurs following our relegation or kiss the shirt of their new club or whatever -so what? If you are upset by this then get a life, keep it to yourself, and save your vocal energy to get behind the lads which is what we are really famous for. We are not alone of course in this situation it happens at other clubs too but I only care about west ham!Thats enough of that asI know it will not make a blind bit of difference and it is time to move on to beat the scouse gits in a west ham backlash!

By: PeteH

PeteH — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:08:57 +0000

I think I knew we were in for a long afternoon as soon as I was told we were matching Chelsea with 4-5-1 and Cole was alone upfront. I know Cole works his socks off but for me he doesn’t add anything at all. First touch is poor and seems to find himself anywhere but in the box. We lack any invention in midfield and looked scared when they run at us with pace.

I’m looking forward to next season once we get Bellamy, Ashton, Parker, Faubert, Dyer through a very hard pre-season. We also need lean the squad and add some real quality. We seem to have alot of players probably on a good wage that are not good enough to take us to the next level. Cole, Gabbidon, Paintsil, Spector, Quashie, Davenport, Boa Morte, Camara definately need to go and we need 3/4 players in certain positions with some either potential or quality.

Another left back, attacking midfielder and another centre forward. But before we look else where lets see what these kids can do coming through. Get Sears in and play him alongside Ashton against Spurs. Lets see what this kid can do, he got another one on Saturday and having seen him at the Spurs Reserves game alongside Deano they make a very good pair, might save us £10m.

Also, open that cheque book and get Joe Cole back to the club. He was awesome on Sat and took his goal well. I can see him giving license to roam and hurting teams.

Come on you irons.

By: Darwinhammer

Darwinhammer — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:52:22 +0000

Agree totally with chris …. for months now been saying the same thing Neil just doesn’t cut …. he’s slow, always out of position, and just a terrible defender … I’ve lost count of the number of goals that have come from down our right side …. don’t know about the rest but I’m in a malaise about us at the moment … we seem to be in our own twilight league (win,lose, draw … we remain 10th) … and yet nothing changes – FFS mix it up abit … give faubert a trot at fullback for the 2nd half …. and put Sears on the bench and give him a run for the 2nd 45 also … Coles form may well be good – but how can he be given a pass mark when he’s not performing one of his major tasks as a striker …. why would you play 4-5-1 – when you’re 1 can’t score …

By: vdm

vdm — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:43:20 +0000

When you think how we played against them at SB – it was as if we didn’t think we needed to get into them because we were at home. Always thought there’d be a bit of a backlash after all the media stuff about them through the week – the writing was on the wall very early on with the disallowed goal.
Thought in partricular McCartney was really poor yesterday.

We can only hope that over 2/3 seasons we’ll make steady progress and become an Everton / Villa – it’s a slow burner and petience is required.
The real trick is making progress while being ‘entertaining’ at the same time. In today’s game this is a major challenge and lets face it no one really knows if Curbishley is capable of achieving that.