The stats say it all. 74% of the play and 30 shots but still lose the bloody game.
I would agree that we are desperate for a striker, however, we are still trying to walk the ball into the net FFS. SHOOOOOOOOT!
Gutted for Declan Rice, he was desperate to beat them to stop the brain dead Hammer's fans winding him (and us) up.
The whole team were average tonight.
I don’t think it’s just necessarily a striker issue, last season we got very close but the difference was Saka, Martinelli and Odegaard were putting up numbers they’ve never previously been capable of. Now that teams have worked out how to blunt us we don’t really have another way of playing and our danger men are struggling without the space to play in.
The fact that we’ve been so reliant on set pieces as well is a bit of a concern because it’s kind of masked over how weak the forwards have been.
This game was quite sobering I have to say. Arteta has to find a way of getting the goals flowing again from where they should be coming from.
The performance was fine, I don’t think it was that much different from most games.
We were spanking them till it went 1-0 up. But we do struggle for goals - not compared to most teams, but given how much possession we have. 30 shots and zero goals is ludicrous.
As soon as it went 1-0 it was easy for West Ham to sit deep and while they defended well we made it too easy for them, we struggled to stretch them, we move the ball forward too slowly.
We usually get away with it because in most games our quality shows, but with these flaws there are always going to be games where you’re going to get found out.
When City go in to beast mode there are still going to be games where they don’t win, but it’s always just bad luck. There was a game last season, possibly Leicester, where they drew. But looking at the highlights it was ridiculous they didn’t win it, they created so many chances and it was just one of those nights. You get those. But last night wasn’t like that for us. The stats indicate we were dominant, but watching the game we never seriously threatened. The ‘keeper made a few saves but they were mostly routine. We never stretched them or broke with pace. We will be there or thereabouts because we are better than most sides, but it’s difficult to see us winning the title when scoring seems so laboured for us.
I know it is only December, but Saka, Martinelli, Rice and Odegaard look knackered. We need to give ESR a run of games (if he stays fit) and get a couple of players in come January. Who would have thought we would miss Havertz. On to Fulham...COYGOriginally Posted by Letters
We missed a player like Havertz only because the manager put out an obnoxious selection and unbalanced the team on purpose. A poor Martinelli, Jesus and Trossard have no business being on the pitch at the same time, it has never worked especially if the 3 are all playing in the same space.... all 3 are to alike and kept running into each other. It was a no brainer that Martinelli should have come off as early as the first half and he should have either pushed Trossard or even Jesus to the right, to finally create some semblance of space.
We've complained severally about the manager starting favourites no matter how the opposition set up themselves and yesterday was no different. It was just to glaring that the team was unbalanced and non-functional. I didn't want to say anything during the match thread as I wanted to see if Arteta would realise the obvious which is that he needed to get Jesus out of that middle and bring in Eddie ASAP....which would have helped Jesus, who is not a striker by any sense of the word, play better.
But he just kept watching the boring merry-go-round and hoping the West Ham would tire and make a mistake. Then when its as clear as day, he makes the changes in the 70th minute. Poor form from Arteta in all ramifications. I mean any idiot who thinks he can win the league in this modern age by trusting only 15 or so players is obviously some sort of "mad king" (GOT style).
Last edited by 21_GOONER_SALUTE; 29-12-2023 at 01:02 PM.
I think the shooting boots were just not there. Martinelli and Trossard were very poor, Jesus tried but not much better. Both the conditions and the fact they scored early played into their hands. We didn’t feel confident playing more directly. I think MO is right that we haven’t adapted to the deep block, I think the absence of Partey and his directness doesn’t help but having players in the team that are massively out of form because of a lack of options doesn’t help.
I think we need to see if we can sell players in January to try and bring in a target man. Because if we don’t, I don’t think it’s just the title that won’t happen (I think we can kiss goodbye to that now, that’s between Liverpool and Man City) but top four as well
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