closed West Ham 1-0 Chelsea

[LeonDavis23 371]

Batshuayi MOTM for using that hot water bottle, did more than anything than all our other players.

[cosmicway 1,326]

WH did what they always do, 11 men behind the ball.
We can't break a packed defense.
No aerial power, no long range shooters, to drag the defenders out.
When Kante has the ball he is afraid to shoot. He is also afraid to make crosses !

[Pizy 18,368]

There really isn't anything else to look forward to this season. Title is long gone and we've all accepted that a while ago. We've lost to Burnley, Palace, and West Ham now this season and were battered by Roma. Imagine what Barca or PSG will do to us in the CL.

Scrap for 3rd or 4th. I'm sure Hazard will be delighted to sign that new contract.

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

12 minutes ago, Thor said:

West Ham played so dirty. One of the most boring games of football I've ever watched. Hope they get relegated. 

 

Our fault though. Go down to a small side, and they sat back and played with 10 defenders. Don't think I've ever seen a striker man mark an opposition player. Today I did. 

To be fair we’ve played played a fair amount of games over the last 10-15 years against better opposition in a similar way defending with lots of numbers and good organisation. In my eyes it’s not really dirty.. when done right, it’s very effective. No disrespect meant but end of the day winning 1-0 like that is still winning 1-0. Id rather of seen us get points playing like that than getting 0 and playing like whoever or whatever.

No doubt about it West Ham worked harder than us I felt and they ultimately deservedly to win, as well as looking more dangerous than we did despite having the ball a lot less, they could have got a second if not for a pass played a second too late and arguably should of had a penalty for handball. 

Moratas miss was bad. He has so much time and he just doesn’t realise but wow not to hit the target from there... still we hardly created any chances but for me the effort and will to compete for first and second balls today cost us, West Ham won more or less everything from knockdowns and whatever else. Little things like that but makes a huge difference. Anyway it’s only one game. One game doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. Particularly when we know everyone competing in that top 4/top 6 bar City will still drop between 5-10 points somewhere this season. 

On the bright side all the hardcore Chelsea fan twitter accounts like carefree daily and whatever else are losing their rag and posting utter pish which will cheer me up because some of the stuff is ridiculously funny.

[cfcs most wanted 657]

33 minutes ago, Leif said:

 

 

I would have agreed to the guy, if only I had any idea, what this guy was even good at to begin with😐

[cosmicway 1,326]

We did not even bother them - despite all that possession.
Was their keeper really called into action ?
Two easy shots in the first half and Morata in the end.

[Jase 43,479]

So, we gave Crystal Palace their first points/win of the season back in October and now, David Moyes his first win as West Ham manager. Two of the worst sides this season. Well done, lads. Well done.

[manpe 10,861]

10 minutes ago, FabHazard said:

Also why did azpi go to lcb position when his crossing is so dangerous from rcb.. Should have kept him in his position... If we are using substitutes at least change the formation instead of using players who are clearly not suited to the position 

I thought we did change formation to 4 at the back, hence Azpi moving to LB and Pedro to LW. Reminded me of 4-2-4. I heard Conte even shouting "Pedro up" and showing 4 with his fingers.

[Milan 17,854]

We go to Huddersfield next. And I am already afraid of basically the same. There goes the easy run in that we were looking forward to.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

Against teams that defend as deep and as narrow as West Ham did today we need better wingbacks and a 3rd midfielder that's a lot more creative then Drinkwater or Bakayoko.

There's nothing wrong with the formation it's the personnel that's just too defensive and not good enough going forward.

 

[cosmicway 1,326]

5 minutes ago, milan.cech said:

We go to Huddersfield next. And I am already afraid of basically the same. There goes the easy run in that we were looking forward to.

We always struggle against the WH defense.
0-0 in 2014, then 1-0 under Mou with Hazard scoring with his head - from the skin of our teeth.
Lat year they beat us in the league cup.
But we did not bother them. They gave territory but we did not bother them

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

Conte should have gone 3-4-3 and started Pedro if Drinkwater was not available for selection considering Bakayoko being shot of confidence. Morata and Hazard needed more support up front as they got zero from the wingbacks and Fabregas. Pedro has been underutilized this season. 

I'll like to see 3-4-3 in the next game with a midfield pivot of Drinkwater and Kante, Moses back in the team and Pedro in a forward 3. West Ham were always going to play a certain way against us. Conte has to be smarter than this. 

[WNDS 502]

Yeah.... Conte got this one wrong..... Badly wrong.

The 3-5-2 can be great, but only against certain opponents. It's definitely worth using against those sides who have the ability to overwhelm a midfield 2 and put us on the back foot, but it's much less tactically flexible than the 3-4-3, and it's also less attacking. Why use it against West Ham? Why start 10/11 players who started in midweek? In fairness to him, Conte clearly realised he'd messed-up and tried to rectify things quickly, but it turned out that it was already too late.

But I'm not sold on the 3-5-2 as the default formation of choice. We need a faster starting wing-back than Alonso (good though he can be) to make this system more effective when we're trying to play proactively. It's too easy for teams to sit back, shut Alonso down by taking advantage of his lack of pace, and then force us to funnel attacks through the centre. The wing-backs already have a lot of work to do in the 3-4-3, and they have even more to do in a 3-5-2 as they are the ONLY sources of natural width in the team. In a 3-5-2 there is no real option of overloading the wide areas in the attacking third of the pitch without compromising another area of the team during attacks. I just feel that Conte needs to consider this aspect more closely, and not view the 3-5-2 as being a catch-all formation just because it's served us (very) well against some of the tougher opponents we've faced this season.

[The Skipper 20,593]

 

[El P. 1,354]

Conte made a mistake with 3-5-2 for this one, but it was 3-4-3 in 46th minute after Pedro went in and we still didn't produce anything.

[Milan 17,854]

It was baffling how we struggled with basic stuff. I mean seriously basic. Simple passes? How many times did we see a player fucking up a SIMPLE pass? Not just Cahill, many more. Throw-ins? Well that is nothing new, right, Moses, Pedro, Willian? Finishing? Don't even get me started. And yet we want to be creative and innovative at set pieces. What did they lead to? Nothing.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

2 minutes ago, El P. said:

Conte made a mistake with 3-5-2 for this one, but it was 3-4-3 in 46th minute after Pedro went in and we still didn't produce anything.

There's something called setting the tone for the game. We wasted an entire 45 mins. We're just not good enough to make drastic adjustments in game when the coach doesn't get it right initially. That was partually true last season as well.

[WNDS 502]

4 minutes ago, El P. said:

Conte made a mistake with 3-5-2 for this one, but it was 3-4-3 in 46th minute after Pedro went in and we still didn't produce anything.

Because West Ham had the belief at that point. They were already ahead. A 3-4-3 from the beginning would have given us a much better chance of simply taking the lead (no guarantees of course), thereby preventing West Ham from being able to sit back, and so allowing us the space behind them which the 3-4-3 is very good at exploiting.