Apologies for not posting this on Monday evening.*
Anyway, here’s the Player Performance poll for the Manchester City game. Vote HERE.
*For those interested, my life at the moment is turned upside down as I have just been shortlisted to be the next Tory MP for Bracknell. Any of you live there, or in Sandhurst, Crowthorne or Finchampstead? I might need your support at the selection Open Primary on Saturday 17th! More details HERE, for anyone who’s interested. I have this image of me giving an answer about regenerating Bracknell Town Centre and someone shouting from the back: Come on You Irons!
i couldn't even count all the 13 players that played the other night. da costa isn't on there, but i must have missed someone else out – shows how well they played!
Tevez will always be a hero to us but his post match words on why he did not celebrate his goals as 'part of me will always be a Hammer' have raised his status even further. What a star!
As a Man City fan i have to say that all of us at City have got a soft spot for the Hammers, not just Tevez, but your right, he is a starman and good luck for the rest of the season.
Thanks Glyn. Our dream is that one day he will come back to us although in our hearts we know it will never happen. I loved the way Tevez said he would feel totally different if he scored against United! Lets just hope he does!
Feel a little light headed, have just voted Carlton Cole my man of the match from monday night. Suddenly nothing seems the same anymore! We are through the looking glass people!
what was it that won it? his back heel or just the general poor play of everyone else??
DJ I just felt that he finally put in the effort that I have wanted to see from him. He out muscled the Citeh defenders and showed intelligence in his hold up play.
I wouldnt agree that everyone else played poorly, I thought Parker and Diamanti were both good and that Faubert fought back well to contain Petrov. I also think a special mention is deserved for Tomkins and DaCosta who despite face one of the most expensive and pacey front lines in the league fought tooth and nail to hold the line. They may have been beated due to inexperience but they were not beaten for lack of effort. In fact in the second half I felt they got the better of Citeh's attack for the majority of the half. DaCosta will be a good player for us, big, strong, good in the air like Collins but he has bags of pace and is good at playing the ball out of defence.
Carlton Cole
Last 12 Premiership games 2008-2009 7 goals in 12 games
2009-10 3 goals (should be 4) in 6 games
Total – 10 in 18.
I'll say no more on the matter.
Cole definitely our best player and it makes you wonder what will happen if he gets injured.
Iain – I suggest you replace Savio, Collins and Ashton with da Costa & Franco.
Iain best of luck with the nomination for the Tory seat in Bracknell, it is good to see an intelligent, articulate and well balanced person entering politics. While I wish you luck and have no doubt that if selected you will win at the polls I only hope that any new parliamentary duties wont preclude you from running this site. Selfish I know but this is by far the best fan forum on the web and it would be a terrible shame if you were unable to keep it going.
However given the choice of seeing an honest intelligent man take a seat in parliament or keeping this site open I would still prefer to see you win at the election.
Good Luck
CelticHammer
Give him your last rollo while you are at it Celtic.
Celtic – do you want to post that again as I can't believe what I am reading! In all seriousness difficult to find a man of the match. The season really starts for us on Sunday as this is the first home game we should expect to win (although Fulham are a much improved side since Roy H took over). Anything less than max points and it could be a hard season especially as Arsenal the following home fixture. I must say I never went along with the top 6 expectations – I think we punched above our weight last season and realistically would be happy just to avoid the relegation scrap and play some decent football. Long term with an exciting crop of young players coming through I am hopefull – its all about surviving until then.
Stratford I can assure you that no one left Eastlands more surprised than I was on Mondya night, I initially put it down to over indulging in the free booze in the hospitality box but I even after I had sobered up I still felt Cole was our best player.
Celtic – glad your mate came up with the hoped for hospitality tickets! Although I only saw it on tv (I am ST holder and go to all home games) I felt performance better than many reports suggested. Realistically we were never going to win the game (hence your £200bet a tadge hopeful!) but in the main I thought we didn't disgrace ourselves and result could have been very different if the 'goal' had stood as it appeared perfectly legitimate. As I recall the free kick that Citeh scored from was also debateable – hopefully we will get rub of green soon.
Apart from the result it was a decent night out, top facilities to be fair although I doubt I will be asked back in a hurry as I has a difference of opinion with a rather portly suited and booted Citeh fan asked me what I expected when I supported a team like WestHam. I asked him to step outside so that I could explain it to him in detail but he declined. I did however offer him some health advice by suggesting he think about losing some weight and then suggested he may need to verify the legitimacy of his parents marriage.
Good to see your defamatory remarks were delivered politely!
I may have phrased it slightly different on the night!
I am sure you did West Ham fans proud Celtic!
The only surprise at seeing Celtic having Carlton as his MOTM was that I felt he had such fixed views about him that he couldn't ever see the good parts! It's good to see the light has been turned on.
OddJob the most defining point of my posts re Cole were me wanting him to prove me wrong, I have always said my wish to see WestHam do well is far more important to me than simply being right.
He didn't have to prove you wrong, celtic, that was the point. He was playing like this for the best part of a year. Good to see you've seen sense, though.
Tend to agree with Devo on this one CH. I used to berate Cole – and very publically too – but he certainly managed to shut me up a long long time ago and I find difficulty now recognising your description of him. Other than that, I think yer posts are top dollar bruv!
Cheers, I think thats the first time I got praised by a Headmaster in my life! If it wasnt for rugby I would have been shown the door at my old school on several occasions expecially considering I was only there on rugby scholarship in the first place as there was no way my parents could have afforded the fees! Although I was suspended for a week once but was still allowed to train and play in a match!
Have added in Franco & Da Costa now!
Good luck for Bracknell Iain. If you get in perhaps you could secure a bit of Govt funding for us – it would seem a much more worthwhile destination for taxpayers money than some of current causes!
Too late for me!
PS. How does somebody who lives in Tonbridge Wells represent people from another town entirely – or do you intend to move?
PPS. I'd stay where you are if I were you.
I saw the game Monday and was very poor to be fair. Citey were in bottom gear all night and just toyed with us.
A couple of fair performances, notably Parker and Cole. A few decent crosses from Del monte but not much more. Kovac and Jimi both pants
Good to see that Anthony Edgar is getting some experience by going out on loan to Bournemouth. Reserve football is all well and good but I think that players gain more from playing competitive football while on loan. Edgar certainly has potential as a goal scoring midfielder which is something we have not had for some time at the club.
I like the look of Edgar. Payne on the other hand….
Devo I saw a bit of Payne last year in the reserves and I liked him, I think he is having trouble taking his game which is based around being a tough tackling midfielder and translating it into the senior game. He would have been a seniour underage player (if that makes sense) and is now back to being a kid in the senior game.
If he concentrated on his passing game which is also good he would find it easier to make the step up.
I was feeling a bit generous so I gave Da Costa a 1 instead of 0. Is that unfair to the other players?
Oliver I was at the game and you are completely wrong about DaCosta he had an extremely diffcult game to make his debut in. He was up against one of the most potent strike forces in the league who had previously put 3 past ManU and 4 past Arsenal in recent weeks.
He was playing for is first time at this level in the most physical league in the world along side a centre half who was even younger than he was and had only played 12 games in the first team.
He may have been guilty of misreading the game on occasion or making the wrong decision but he never stopped trying and as the game wore on he grew in confidence. He looks like he is comfortable in posession and will be a good asset to the team.
It doesn't matter if this was his first game at this level, he was completely terrible regardless. Did you see his reaction whenever someone would run at him? It was like he had never seen someone do that before. He just flailed around and kept turning left to right. Tevez and Bellemy both should've scored after running at him but they fluffed their shots. Not to mention when he ran into Cole when Cole had a free header in the box and he lost concentration and let the ball roll out for a City corner.
I'm not saying he won't be good someday but his debut was pathetic.
It doesn't matter if this was his first game at this level, he was completely terrible regardless. Did you see his reaction whenever someone would run at him? It was like he had never seen someone do that before. He just flailed around and kept turning left to right. Tevez and Bellemy both should've scored after running at him but they fluffed their shots. Not to mention when he ran into Cole when Cole had a free header in the box and he lost concentration and let the ball roll out for a City corner.
I'm not saying he won't be good someday but his debut was pathetic. I felt bad for Illunga and Tomkins having to play next to him.
It doesn't matter if this was his first game at this level, he was completely terrible regardless.
Did you see his reaction whenever someone would run at him? It was like he had never seen someone do that before. He just flailed around and kept turning left to right. Tevez and Bellemy both should've scored after running at him but they fluffed their shots.
Not to mention when he ran into Cole when Cole had a free header in the box and later he lost concentration and let the ball roll out for a City corner.
I'm not saying he won't be good someday but his debut was pathetic. I felt bad for Illunga and Tomkins having to play next to him.
Like Celtic, I think you are a bit unfair on Costa. He was no worse than either Faubert or Ilunga.
with the exception of cole it would not bother me if they all went on the transfer list
the worst team performance I can remember in the 41 yrs as a west ham supporter . Changes need to be made.
What is this new look site all about why don't post go on straight away ????????
E-1 how can you consider Mondays game against a team worth around £250 mill, the worst team performance in 41 years?
Can i remind you of the three on-the-trot 4-0 losses last season? And if that isnt as bad in your eyes, the 6-0 thrashing we recieved from Reading the year before?
4 4 2 Cole and Hines up front the back 4 IF al fit picks itself midfield is a big ?
My choice would be berhami collison parker stanislas. At the moment Noble would'nt get on the bench
So you would leave Diamanti out of the game then would you? His delivery caused constant trouble for Citeh and he was unlucky not to score on more than one occasion. For his dead ball ability alone he deserves a place, oh and not to mention the fact that he worked his backside off for the team.
Agree – I like the look of Diamanti. Behrami and Collison would certainly be first choices but are currently on treatment table so GZ had to go with what he had got
Zola still has no legitimate excuse for benching Hines. He was the best player against Liverpool by MILES and he only got to play 10 minutes against city. That's disgraceful. And it's hard to believe that we are wasting money on Kovac when we have so little to begin with.
When all fit, our midfield should read Behrami Parker Collison and any one from Dyer/Diamanti/Jiminez in the hole. We should always have two up top; Hines and CC. 4-3-1-2
Nice to see that you agree with me Devo! Although I think that Diamanti is definitely the first choice to play in the hole, behind the front two of Cole and Hines.
I think that, as the season pans out, some things will change and others fall into place. At the moment it's difficult to be sure what our first choice midfield will look like if everyone is fit. There is also the issue of Jiminez and Diamanti acclimatising to both the team and the premier league. Zola obviously saw Jiminez as a first choice although, so far, he hasn't justified that. If – if, if, if – Dyer ever really gets fit and gets a regular run in the side he would become a first pick and Noble's poor form is surely only a temporary blip.
If anything we are overloaded in this area and, for me, with a fully fit and in form squad, only Parker and Behrami are shoo-ins.
Iain,
In your address to the good people of Bracknell you have left out the word BE in the sentence below.
A small point, I know, but there will be some picky people there who will try to be clever.
Good luck in your campaign.
COYI
Clearly, over the next three weeks I will learning a lot about the issues which are important to you locally.
Horters, thanks. Well spotted. Will get it changed.
Dimonto, I will have a home in Bracknell – at no cost to the taxpayer!!
That was me, Iain, unless Dimonto asked the same Q!
Good to hear and good luck!
If I can ask you one favour, please repeal the laws that are turning us into a mini-USA police state. A tall order I know, but we need to return to having real politicians fighting for real people rather than being the paid servants of the moneymen and corporations.
Yours in slavery etc etc.
Well, Iain, that will be nice! Make sure you don't live too near my ex-missus!
Ahhhhh wondered where you were Iain! You meant to be bloody meeting me! lol!
Hope it all goes well mate! Good luck
not bad performance should of been 2-2,think we gave up after goal was disallowed,parker best player on pitch for me,4 4 2 against fulham,franco to start.
Parker best player on the pitch???? Na! He did well for us! But best player on the pitch was Carlos!
Chris – you must be one hell of a Hammer if you seriously believe we deserved a 2-2 out of Monday night, mate. You gotta luv ya!
Why didn't Franco have a run in the reserves? Makes me think he's not ready. Couldn't have a niggle already could he?
E-1 I don't rate stanislas mate! He is ok but nothing wonderful!
I notice you haven't picked DIamanti????
Agree with Noble though!
Gave him a 4!
Do we have any buyer for the Hammers yet ? Would anyone at even money back us to beat Fulham with any confidence?
Beat them? YES!
Beath them convincingly. with confidence? NO, sorry!
I'm worried we have a shit record against them
I'm a bit worried too! I'm struggling to foresee a win on Sundayy unfortunately! My heart of hearts is telling me another long winded, boring draw!
Aussie even I wouldnt take that bet! I find it funny that we can go into monday nights game at 7-1 get beat 3 goals to 1 and then be evens for the next game! Just how bad to the reckon Fulham are?
Celtic – Fulham are nowhere near as good as Man City. They have only picked up 6 points this season, don't get much away and we are playing at home. Our record against them is good. That's what explains the odds.
I think we'll win convincingly Aussie. 3-1, something like that. It will be the match that turns the tide. I'm very confident.
Iain,
I’m in Maidenhead, Bracknell needs some regeneration.
Good luck.
Lost my 'vote' many years ago – & even assuming I could be bothered – I would NEVER ever vote tory
ooooohhhhh you are naughty. But I like you……
I'll second that! You get my vote mokumhammer.
Bracknell, Sandhurst, Crowthorne, Finchampstead – sounds like a 'safe' seat Iain
Sandhurst? Wasn't that twat on The Apprentice accepted in Sandhurst but turned it down?
Its apparent no-one wants to pay 100 mill for our club even though we have inherited 45 mill debt and a mill a month losses some where along the line something has to give for the sake of our great fans we are stuck with morons that cant manage themselves let alone us and it hurts to watch an ambitious boss like Zola everyday waking up to uncertain times because greedy sellers dont realise the market is heading down.We are gonna get caught in this trap for a long while and come january the vultures circle and the best bet is we will sell one of our stars and be plunged into a dogfight to stay up.It is depressing to have no cash to buy anyone but Ashton,dyer they are gone so it would be cheaper to settle early and retire them but no money yet again we are stuck in moving forward after many years of suffering there must be a way out but at the moment we could be like this for a very long time!HELP
Aussie those figures are a load of rubbish. We are not losing a million a month nor do we have £45M worth of debt. Our turnover is considerably higher than our expenses, our wage bill has been produced and we made a profit on transfers in the summer. Yes CB are being very tight with the purse strings but that is due in part to the fact that things are still being sorted out with Straumur.
As for Ashton and Dyer if we settle their contracts to get shot of them we cant claim the insurance, The players have to agree that they are unable to play again for medical reasons.
Can't quite go with E-1's 'worst performance in 41 yrs' line – wish I had a quid for every time I'd heard that coming out of the Boleyn under Roeder / Curbishley / Pardew!
Having said that, no one got more than a 7 for me on Monday and there are a proliferation of 5s
I think that 6 goal away defeats to Sunderland and Everton and 4 goal home reverses to the likes of QPR and Sheffield Wednesday, amongst others, would be on my short-list for our worst performances in the last 41 years. In comparison Tuesday’s defeat was quite close fought!
As I said on the other Man City thread, I would go with 4-3-1-2 against Fulham, with Berhami, Parker and Collison (if fit?)in midfield, Diamanti in the hole, ahead of Cole and Hines.
The potential danger with this formation is that we could lose control of midfield if the opposition put 4 or 5 in against our 3. However, I would go with it against a team like Fulham who do not usually pack the midfield and play with one up front!
We badly need Upson back. We have missed his experience and class at the back. At the moment there is too much pressure on young Tomkins to hold it together defensively. The boy is still learning his trade and needs experience alongside him.
Many have argued that we miss James Collin’s at the back. I think his greatest strength was ariel, Collins was good at attacking the ball at set peices. That is something that was woeful in the City game. Our central defenders did not come out and attack and clear the balls in to our box, therby causing ourselves problems. Upson and Tomkins need to put that right!
I endorse Zola’s call for ‘thunder’ against Fulham on Sunday. We need discipline at the back and a high tempo attacking performance that overwhelms Fulham. They are good opposition to face in the current circumstances and we need to make sure that we grab the three points, no excuses!
It’s important that we, the fans, play our part. Headmaster’s 32,000 ‘unsung’ need to make themselves heard to create an approximation of the Upton Park couldron of sound and passion that we all fondly remember from the past. We need to recreate ‘Fotress Upton Park’and make teams know that UP is a difficult place to get a result.
In conclusion, we can win on Sunday and win well. That victory should be a launch pad for a much improved run of results that turns around our season.
Well said, SJ.
I guess that anyone whom has followed the club for any number of years can point to possible hundreds of games where we performed worse than on Monday. Even those who are younger and newer to this self imposed torture would be able to pick worse performances than that in the past 2 or 3 years. The obvious recent one was the 6-0 at Reading on New Years Day under Curbishley.
that should be our wage bill has been reduced!
politics and football mmmmm,i remenber when football was the working mans game.like this blog it has now changed to a middle class politcally correct nightmare.maggie would be proud of you all turning our great game into a non swearing right on lets not upset anyone post.good luck to all you plastic tories who cannot remember when she ruined a nation,as for my beloved hammers they will be there long after all of us so a big thank you to bobby moore,frank mcavennie,the great paolo,i wish you all well hope we have some happy days.peace and love to the claret and blue
That's interesting danny but like football two people can often see totally different sides to an argument. Maggie inspired me to get off my backside and start my own business so I could never bad-mouth her despite growing up a staunch Labourite. She went a bit power crazy in the end but she presided over a period when it became obvious that much of Britain's manufacturing industries were no longer self-sustaining due to cheaper overseas labour and burning coal was never going to be a long-term option…
I gave Cole and Diamanti and 8! Purely for trying! I like the fact that Diamanti isn't afraid of the odd long range shot or 2! And he is a tryer! He will get used the the Prem and he will shine
Cole is always (well nearly always) runs his little socks off for us!
I suppose that means whatever state financial,playing side, management side who is actually responsible for trying to find a new owner because there never appears to be anyone genuine who fancies us,but I suppose if Duxberry,s statement about our accounts are in a right mess are not true whether that is a truth only the power,s that be who have overall control of that side will open them up when a due diligence is in place.I find it hard to see that we are not an attractive proposition but bias has never played a major part in any transaction .
Not impressed with Greens comment after the previous match, then he lets in the free kick…d'oh
But he did make a few good saves.
Kovac was awful and Jimi boy needs to speed up his game and run his nuts off.
Bracknell..hmmm is it in Scotland? B)
CC my MOM, with Parker a close 2nd.
As for your aspirations Iain, well good luck to you, but tend to agree with Danny. Perhaps it's my working class roots, but supporting West Ham & voting Tory seem to me to be two opposite sides of the coin.
Shropshire, I'm beginning to think that us West Ham supporters should be voting The Monster Raving Loony Party! lol
Hi Matt, perhaps we should set up our own party! I am sure we can come up with a few good analogies between WHU & Politicians. My one would be 'Promise much, but deliver sweet FA!!!'
Sounds like a plan mate! We could use campaign posters with Dux's face! He looks like a politician! You think we could win any seats? lol
Why not? First policy would be to limit admission fee to max 30 quid, that should win a few votes!
Just in answer to Aussie Graham's fears for Sunday, I'm going to stick my neck on the block and say I am very confident we will get a good result. I think it will be the match that turns our season around. Diamante, Jiminez, Cole, Hines, Parker, Ilunga, Tomkins, Faubert, Green are all up and playing better every game. If we can get Upson and Behrami or Collison into the starting team its looking good. It's a bad time for Fulham to play us and we'll be running at them from the word go. In saying this I do respect Fulham, they're a good side, sharp and very well drilled but we will be desperate and will attack relentlessly!
Broganq, I agree with your take on the Fulham match. We should win, and win well, to get lift off for the rest of our season!
The only good think about Fulham is teh fact they are playing on Thurs night!
Danny murphy has said that he would rather beat us on Sunday than win in Europe on Sun night!
Sory Dan! But we're gonna disappoint you! lol!
I hope!
The only good thing about Fulham is the fact they are playing on Thurs night!
Danny murphy has said that he would rather beat us on Sunday than win in Europe on Sun night!
Sorry Dan! But we're gonna disappoint you! lol!
I hope!
The first 30 mins will be so important to us on Sunday! We need to fire from the start!
We need a 4-4-2 and we can't be doing any of this lame crap we have done so much of against Liverpool and Citeh!
If we can get 2 against them in the first 30 minutes, Fulham are the kind of team that willl be very shell-shocked and we could end up knocking in 3 or 4!
My only concern is that Zola knows we are likely to tire early if we do that! As we have the last 4 games! (and more).
So I have a horrible feeling he will play a 4-5-1 and we will end up running out a boring 0-0 draw or even go down 1-0!
Matt
Let's hope your 1st scenario is right, with CC and Hines starting up front. I have a good feeling about Sunday's game, I go 3-1, think that was last seasons score as well? (Hopefully the luck starts on Saturday night at Monmore dogs!!!)
I hope so to mate! But you just KNOW that Zola is going to pick some obscure and stupid formation so we'll end up with 6 defenders, 4 midfileders and Green in goal AND up front! lol
Did anyone see the Hannu Tihinen goal for FC Zurich tonight?
I quite liked him in his handfull of games for us in the early 2000's!
I listed him as my favourite "cameo" signing in the last thread thought the guy was class, not sure why we never signed him full time. His debut against ManU was incredible.
If I remember correctly, we had him on a kind of short term loan/trial with a figure of a couple of million to pay if we wanted to make it permanent. When we tried to get the deal done the price was doubled to 4 or 5 million so we told them to shove it. At least that's what the club said in the papers at the time, \\I think…. It's been a few years and my night in the pub means I cuold be confusing it with another of Harry's deals, but I think it was Tihinen. was pissed off we never got him at the time, looked very promising.
I liked him too but I really didn't think he was quite a Prem centre back. Still he did well outside of the UK on the back of many good performances for Finland wasn't it? I think your memory of the situation is excellent Munky. It's amazing though but every time I watch a game I end up saying "That player used to play for West Ham" to my dissinterested wife. I suddenly realised the other night there are literally hundreds of players that used to play for West Ham still making a living out of the game.
There sure are! And a few of them, I wish we had fought harder to keep hold of!
Wasn't that the 1-0 win we had over Manu???
He was good, only played about 7 or 8 games for us though! Never really had time to settle down!
I think he moved on to Anderlecht!
I didn't even realise he was at Zurch now! lol
Good goal tonight though! Did you see it? Nice little back heel flick
missed it but you are right about the ManU game it was the FA cup when PDC scored that peach against Barthez in the cup if i remember correctly
Give Noble a break everyone!!!!!!!!!
This 4 3 3 does not suit him,he's a playmaker next to parker in a 4,I think he deserves another chance in his favored system,the guy is the best passer in our team he moves the ball well and scores goals,playing him on the right of a 3 is stupid.
we have many options for a 4 man midfield
a solid 4 with Collison parker noble Behrami
or one with a little flair on the wings Diamanti Parker Noble/collison/behrami Hines.
I'm sticking with what i said earlier,if Zola plays 4 3 3 against fulham I want him out, end of, the fella's an idiot,sorry.
The problem is that based on current form Noble isnt going to get picked to play in the middle of a 4 man midfield, Parker will always be the first name on the team sheet and Collison and Behrami are ahead of Noble in the pecking order.
Zola is playing a system that gets as many of our good players on the pitch at the one time and as we have a very strong midfield that means three in the middle with two attacking midfielders behind Cole.
Zola has faith in the players that they can adapt to the system and so do I. With a flat midfield 4 then you have to choose from Parker, Collison, Noble, Behrami, Diamanti, Jimmy, Stan and Dyer (when fit) and that means leaving 4 of them out of them team and not even all of them on the bench.
Noble is a talented footballer and has the ability to play in any midfield set up and his passing ability should stand to him anywhere on the pitch but his form lately has dipped. Personally I think the guy is jaded as he had no off season because of captaining the under 21's, I think all he needs is some rest to recharge his batteries. Watching him at Citeh he didnt cover half the ground he did last season.
Zola is very far from an idiot and if you think he is then it says a lot more about you than it does him!
Celtic me and you could argue all day long about this 4 3 3 4 4 2 thing,sorry mate I just don't don't see it working,Noble's form is based on playing a system that does not suit,that's not right,If we play 4 4 2 and he's still playing poor then he should be dropped.
As for getting as many good player's on the pitch as possible that does not mean your going to get a good team, it's all about balance,you should know that you seem to know your stuff.
As for Zola being an idiot (maybe a bit strong) I'm sorry the confidence will drain if the result's continue,he's being the architect of he's own downfall most of he's squad have been used to 4 4 2 all there lives, trying to get them to adapt to a new system during the season is stupid.
It seems that Toni has gone on strike at Munich and is refusing to play for their reserves, maybe he can get his contract cancelled and join us as a free agent. We could really use a striker with his goal scoring ability to take the pressure off Cole.
Im sick of this 4-3-3 rubbish. We dont have the wide players to use this formation.
Noble is not a winger..
Cole is so damm isolated, everytime he gets the ball he is surrounded by 3 players which means he cant really do much. If you look at his goals, all of them are of set peices beside the goal v spurs.
Jiminiez I dont think he is suited to a wide position on the left. He always tries to cut in field which shows this.
4-4-2 please zola.
Ineed to consult the Celtic,we both had 200 on the Hammers in the last 3 matches it looks like Hills are offering best odds of 23/20 or shall I just hope we win without further cursing the boys?
I think we will beat fulham. Basically we are due to win sinc we havent won in like 4games. And they have a cup game on the thursday so not much rest for their players.
And fulham isnt that strong on the road, with the crowd behind us should be easy win espically if we play like we did against liverpool.
5/4 available with Betfair, Aussie Graham.
We have a good record against Fulham and I was normally fancy us to win this one, especially with Fulham playing tonight. However, I wouldn't have counterfiet on us until I see Zola's team and formation.
Only one 7 for me, too Head – Cole.
I had a plethora of 5's rather than a proliferation and a couple of 4's & 6's. xD
Scott Parker reckons confidence is low just the pick-me-up we all needed.We badly need a man manager not someone who is making reactive statements that none of us will be inspired by gee give me sunshine!Zola please just smash Fulham or Stramur whoever stands in our way of achieving your goal set the bar higher cos it sounds like the players have a demoralised belief,sort em out and quickly!
In answer to your earlier post we have a good squad in place but due to a poor run we lack a bit of confidence. Fulham have got injury problems Duff will be out as well as a number of others so we should do well sunday. we will see a different team that played against city. I mean psychologically not necessarily players. See the Times article today on too good to go down.
GZ will turn things round but at least we can paqy our players albeit with our financial straights as aopposed to Portsmouth who apparently have a new owner but no money to pay wages.
Time will tell as to when we have new owners!!!
Anyone seen Harrys rant in the sun today, slating tevez?
Yeah I did! That bloke is a pathetic, 2-faced ugly tosser! I think Tevez did a great job on Monday night! After the lack of celebration for the first goal, I didn't even mind him scoring a second!
Who gives a monkey's what Hairy Redneck thinks anyway? Tosser!
Yes and see my post above he conradicts himself over Adebayor celebration
Actually I kind of agree with him when he says that Rio and fat Frank did more for West Ham than Tevez who after all only played well in a handful of games for us
the difference being that fat frank treats us with no respect but tevez does
Millwall are trying to get out of their charges saying they were not responsible for the violence at UP. obviously they were not at the CC match.
Also Adebayor gets his appeal heard today
Harry has said that Ade had done nothing wrong and then contradicts himself saying that goal celebrations are overrated and got out of hand
I certainly to not condone Racist comments towards him (Ade) or anyone else
but Harry has this one wrong and Ade needs to take a leaf out of Carlos tevez book of etiquette.
Luca Toni saga appears to gather pace today and we have also upped our offer for Chamakh!!!
Watch this Space!!Lol!
Fishy mate, read the date of that article for the offer for Chamakh! It was dated in August! lol
He's dead and buried mate!
Sorry thought it was a new article according to Newnow pages
Lol!!!
You can still WATCH this SPACE though!!!!
phew, thats a relief!
How can a new owner not have enough money to pay swquad players
The so called fit & proper persons test by the FA & PL appears to have flaws in the paperwork
We may have our financial problems but at least we are able to pay our players & staff on time
I like this though
Luca Toni's future at Bayern Munich has been thrown further into doubt after the Italian refused to play for the club's reserve team.
The Italian striker has been strongly linked with a move to West Ham, and the latest developments suggest a switch to the Premier League in January is a strong possibility.
The 32-year-old believes that he is fit enough for first-team action, but coach Louis van Gaal is of the opinion that Toni has not fully recovered from an Achilles problem.
Ahead of the Champions League clash with Juventus, an angry Toni said: "He wants me to play in the reserves again, but I don't think I will do that again."