Evening news round-up for Saturday 17/12/16 by 337hammer.
Pre match news:
Slaven Bilic: This West Ham player has made me feel like Forrest Gump. dailystar.co.uk
West Ham legend Clyde Best recalls hostile past and what the current Hammers need to do. express.co.uk
West Ham and Chelsea in talks over transfer deal for Ruben Loftus-Cheek. express.co.uk
West Ham want transfer of Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi. metro.co.uk
West Ham want Mario Mandzukic for Simone Zaza. eurosport.co.uk
Andy Carroll insists West Ham have too many good players to be dragged into a relegation battle this season. standard.co.uk
Post match news:
Bilic: It was a nervy game .skysports.com
Skipper hails ‘massive’ Hull victory. whufc.com
Antonio Conte compares Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi to West Ham’s Simone Zaza. standard.co.uk
Mike Phelan says Hull should have been out of sight before West Ham winner. skysports.com
Bilic – It’s a massively important three points. whufc.com
West Ham give Man of the Match award for Hull victory to ‘The Post’. standard.co.uk
Slaven Bilic happy to win ugly and give Hammers breathing space from the relegation zone. independent.co.uk
Noble penalty earns points for lucky Hammers as Phelan rues chances. express.co.uk
My view: A very scrappy game today and a game that we were very lucky to win. I even felt a bit sorry for Hull… But the last 3 games have produced 7 points which is just what we needed at this point. We move a little further away from the bottom of the table and now sit in 13th position. Good news from today was that we did not seem to pick up any injuries during the game. We now have a few days rest and go to Swansea on Boxing day. Swansea are in a terrible position and again I don’t expect a pretty game, but I would like to see us battle and work hard and hopefully come away with at least a point.
Although we have somehow won again today, we are so lucky. The post helped us out 3 times and some poor finishing from good positions by Hull also worked and desperate defending on our part worked in our favour. I have to say that our first half performance today was rubbish, why is it that we cannot pass to each other? I was pleased to see that at least we changed things at half time by making 2 substitutions and a formation change, but still it did not really help us. It only seemed to give Hull more of a foothold in midfield. Our right back position really does need sorting out in January, I think we are only playing with a back 3 because of this problem area. Antonio has to be covered defensively by a third central defender on the right side. If we solved this position once and for all I believe it would really help us out. We cannot keep on relying on bit part players being shoe-horned into that RWB /RB position anymore. We may just get away with it against equal or supposedly lessor teams, but the big boys will exploit us and hurt us there all day long as they have done already. It’s time for Slaven (and the board) to bite the bullet and solve this by getting a good player in.
Still 3 points makes us happy doesn’t it? 🙂
Enjoy the rest of the weekend..
First half Carroll was isolated and his knock-ons went to no-one. Second half, Carroll was our best defender (after the post) for most of the time. Hull were aware of Cresswell’s danger so played with their RB quite wide which meant the partnership of Payet and Cresswell down our left were unable to get any crosses into the box what-so-ever, and now every team in the Premiership knows that once our back three get a bit tired it will be the easiest thing in the world to find space down our right and get round the back of the three man defence because we can’t successfully defend the RB position. Huddlestone suddenly started pinging balls out there every time he got possession and every one caused us trouble. Add to that, at least six players this season have made unbelievably silly mistakes (today Cresswell’s back pass for example) that have resulted in giving away a goal (or chance) and it all adds up to a pile of frustration if you support the Hammers!
Don’t panic, we have some really good players but I agree, we need a RB to stabilise the defence more than we need a forward and we desperately need a forward! Other good news, Fernandez looks promising, Antonio looks powerful, Obiang looks good (albeit not today!), Cresswell is defending and attacking (when he can) Carroll looks menacing, Kouyate is a work-horse, and was I mistaken or did anyone else notice that halfway through the second half the crowd came to life and there was more than a hint of ‘atmosphere’ in the stadium. Give it a few more weeks and it may well seem like home again.
Its true we didn’t have a very good transfer window last summer but to be fair to the board, we had a couple of pretty good windows just before that with half the current side coming in then. Perhaps January will be better. Anyway, just my humble opinion after today’s game, nothing more than that. COYI