Saint86

Yeah, exactly. He got 5 goal involvements in his opening 4 premier league games at west ham. And 11 goal involvements in his opening 21 games... He was generally playing as an AM or more attacking CM during that time. Regardless, hes a good passer of the ball and would do well with the increased space of the championship and the movement of our attacking players.

Wouldn't be surprised if JWP was used throughout the midfield - both in the bragg/Charles Role, but also as rotation for azaz.

We were missing 6 of our 7 best players... That is hardly the "A-team" (THB, Jander, Azaz, Larin, Manning, Downes) - People should be pissed off because we rotated so much and because the squad is not good enough currently. We also had Akachugwu making his first senior start, and Wellington's first minutes of the season. We'd have struggled to go with a significantly weaker starting 11 given the available players (who we aren't trying to ship out).

Equally, there was essentially no chance of premier league football before he came in 🙃

Its exactly like at times last season under Tonda where (at times) he does unfortunately show us how green he is as a manager tbh. I mentioned on the transfer window, but we field a side with none of its spine and then expected it to play well. No larin, no azaz, no jander, no downes, no THB... That is walking into a cock up with his eyes wide open (like at times last season before the run started). Its very frustrating and disappointing as ultimately the west ham side was there for the taking if we had gone just a little bit stronger. I'm willing to forgive it this time, but needs to learn from it and not do it again. Should have started2 of Downes, larin, and azaz and taken them off at 55min etc. and made sure we had enough core players on to drive the team an maintain control and standards. He does also need help with the squad - The jander injury and Charles sale has left us horribly exposed. Ditto THB being unavailable. Thats 2 of our best 4/5 players and 3 very good players for the champ, whilst at the same time we've been nursing Larin and Azaz's fitness coming back after the summer.

Good post. I think (with a good season) I can see about 70 goals with the current players being feasible. Last season, Peretz was averaging circa 1 goal against per game... So really that should be enough. However this year the defence has been atrocious (Jander being missed a lot imho). I will be very surprised if we do all the business the clubs wants to do tbh. There are just too many players they want out the door. Suspect we'll get 1 maybe 2 in, which will likely be a CB and CM. On Dobbin Vs Stewart, and the 4M Vs 9M. I think that's slightly unfair as in reality we can expect to break even or make a profit on Dobbin. So realistically it's £4M on Stewart Vs likely comparable wages on Dobbin - and only one of those 2 players wanted to be here and wasn't a walking sick note. A better point is how exactly the club think dobbin is a back up for azaz (he is a different player being asked to do Azaz's role - which he then can't do as well as azaz), and did we have £9M to prioritise on that this summer - looks unlikely.

Maybe not papering over the cracks... But talk about spine... Tonight we had no larin, no azaz, no downes, no Jander, and no THB... That is our spine. Also no manning.

Wellington was the root cause of that error in fairness. Just dreadful for it.

He put it on a plate for Mubama to tap in 😅

Huge complacency and no intensity.

Really poor from Stephans, Wellington, and Peretz tonight. Bragg and akachugwu basically non events and may as well have not been on the pitch. Scienza scored a nice goal but really their reserve keeper should never have conceded it. Other than that he was a non event. Corners and set pieces were once again awful. No one really impressed for me. Larin's and Azaz's brief cameo probably the only time we looked like a dangerous attacking outfit. Own goal from Eckert (he's back to making his novice errors where he just walks eyes wide open in to avoidable fuck ups)... We've damaged our confidence and boosted a direct rival who was struggling.

Mubama statuesque in responding to what should have been a tap in.

How does Mubama not attack that cross FFS.

Don't get me wrong, I know Wellington's rusty.. but he's been to blame for so many west ham attacks. Giving the ball away, out of position, letting longballs bounce... Glad he's done this in a cup game.

Most worrying thing is the head loss from the side at 2-1