[delerium]

Dalot has improved massively. He used to be a lot more suspect defensively but had much better offensive assets than AWB, for example. Now that he has improved his defensive game, I don't see his status being demoted to bench any time soon, unless injuries happen.

Proper game against proper and up to it opposition, West Ham made us run hard and to be honest, we are a bit lucky to come away with a win against a draw for example. There were many possibilities who should be the MOTM, David De Gea for example really kept us alive throughout the game with his more than fine saves, Dalot made some last ditch interceptions against Antonio, Rashford was properly up to it as well and such a great powerful header, brought memories of young CR7.

All in all, such fine overall team result and a fair result in the end, we were just that tiny bit better today. Hard work paid off!

 

[Ludens the Red]

Man, I have to say I thought that kinda performance was in the past.
absolutely horrific performance that, especially second half. Our forwards were so bad at retaining the ball and I have no idea why Mcfred came on and were gassing like they’d played 75 mins. Bruno, Ronaldo, Elanga and Rashford from minute 60 honestly league one levels all of em. Goalkeeper and defence bailed us out big time.

 

[KirkDuyt]

Stop taking the piss

Piss taking aside, he was actually good today..

 

[NewGlory]

How the feck did we win this

We got lucky (and God bless, De Gea) to win this one, we were unlucky to not win Chelsea one. It got all evened out across two games, but we need a proper striker and backup CB, for feck's sake. We could have won this 3:1 with Varane and a proper striker.

 

[RedfromIreland]

Lucky

I don’t get this lucky stuff.
What were we lucky at? Is the defence not allowed to play well?
They bombarded our area with high crosses and on only one occasion did our keeper have to make a save.
Rice had one shot from distance which as one would expect, DeGea saved.
The only time they got through, Maguire was in the right place to clear.
We didn’t have one of our best days, but there was nothing lucky about it.

 

[bosnian_red]

Good win. But showcased our lack of depth. We controlled for 75 minutes, last 15 they pushed so it turned into just hanging on. Maguire showed his worth that 2nd half IMO, credit to him. So sloppy on the ball from quite a few.

Shaw, Martinez, dalot, Rashford our best players by far.

 

[peridigm]

Not really. We decided to stop playing any football in the second half. A draw was fair.

We didn't create any chances in the second half but we defended very well.

 

[Spark]

Probably would have lost that in previous seasons.

West Ham played well and we clung on hard. Good win, on to the next.

 

[TheRedHearted]

Underserved win. But we take it.

we were the better team the first half and we held them off the second half, we defended quite well. Not like West Ham had 30 shots on goal

Not a very good second half. But winning bad games makes a champion.

staying cohesive and tight under pressure is huge for us. To me Ten Hag would have made it easier for us if we put on Sancho instead of Fernandes or Ronaldo. Now Bruno is suspended but honestly he needs to rest anyway.

Fecking Bruno at the end almost giving me a stroke but not passing down the line

Yeah he shouldn’t have been on at that point at all. Sancho would have been a perfect change and could have played in that role finally.

haven’t seen the stats just yet

 

[Ramshock]

we arent as good going forward without Martial, Antony and an inform Sancho

 

[bosnian_red]

How the feck did we win this

Because they didn't actually create any good chances until the last minute. Rice a shot from 35 yards out, Zouma a random header, but that's it. We missed chances and controlled for 75 minutes with them doing nothing during that time.

 

[Orange Tree]

McFred was such a non entity in controlling possesion. Plus Bruno keeps gifting the ball away. Such a shit show in midfield.

Still, a very good result, back to a positive GD.

 

[Member 125352]

Some might say we don’t deserve this but I think we do because we show resilience. I love the team spirit. The backline did awesome and frustrated a rampant west ham final quarter of the game.
Our lack of attack is worrying but this is a big win.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

We looked tired for the first time in a while

 

[Marcus]

Rashford has been training his headers clearly. Excellent coaching. I think Rooney also went through heading training in one of the off seasons and he started to score a disproportionate number of goals with his head.

 

[mshnsh]

Nail biting stuff in the second 45. Ten Hag needs to avoid negative subs atleast until he has better quality off the bench. It invites unnecessary pressure. Was the same vs Chelsea when McFred came on and our game deteriorated in the second half.

We definitely need a midfielder to partner Casemiro, a no 9, and a left winger (depending on thr formation)

Honestly, I think with squad we have, any position in the top 4 this season is welcome. Than we take it from there.

 

[Judas]

Martinez is so bloody good, unreal what he brings to our defense.

 

[Irwin99]

Defence got us through that. Superb display by the back four and goalkeeper. I mean seriously, Dalot's defensive contribution was mind blowing. The improvement from him has been insane.

Disappointed in the midfield and attack. I can't fault a single player for work rate but attacking quality is a bit lacking (aside from Rashford who was excellent first half). The performance was a bit of a step backwards but the win is the main thing.

 

[Mike Smalling]

The most difficult of our pre-WC games, where we will be missing Varane. Nice to come away with a win. We could definitely beat Villa and Fulham as well, and be in a good position when we come back.

 

[GreatDane]

Its so funny you idiots call it lucky when we defended superb. Without Dalot & martinez west ham would score. Maguire also won many headers. Give some credits where credits due you miserable fecks!

 

[Elcabron]

Maguire, Martinez, Dalot, Shaw and DDG were all superb. Particularly Maguire coming back into the squad with such excellent performance. Hope he will be better and better under ETH.

I agree re Maguire was very good. Won a huge amount of headers and I'm very pleased for him.

 

[Jazz]

We looked tired for the first time in a while

This is true. Plus I believe there was some anxiety because we really needed to get those 3 points especially with Chelsea losing, Had to capitalise.

 

[eire-red]

We had plenty of chances on the break to kill that game off, but we rode our luck and it's nice to know that we have that sort of performance in us.

The areas that we need to improve on are clear to see, which I suppose is positive. Antony missing on the right was problematic, we looked a little unbalanced with no threat from the right. What must Sancho be thinking? He's been so dreadful that even Elanga is starting ahead of him.

 

[BorisManUtd]

We'll be happy about 3 points but I absolutely hated this match. Other than 2nd part of first half and some periods in the 2nd half, we were never in control and it was classic post-Fergie United relying on De Gea to save us. He did it today thankfully but don't want to see us often in these kind of situations.

It's a big win with another 2 PL games to go before WC. Villa and especially Fulham away won't be easy stuff for sure.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Some games are a battle, this was one of them. We won the battle. Stop feeling sorry for the opposition, goals win games. We scored it. For the first time in ages we have a team that will fight to get the points and a defence that can defend.

 

[newgiz]

That second half performance is extremely worrisome. We ceded control to West Ham and if they were any better in the final third they could have got themselves at least a draw. That was the poorest half of football since the City game. The lack of composure was very frustrating with absolutely unnecessary giveaways.

Dalot was the Man of the Match in my opinion. If not for his crucial headers at the far post, we would have conceded and possibly even lost the game. Both full backs had a very good game.

We had no composure whatsoever late in the second half. Fred had no composure whatsoever. Extremely sloppy in possession.

Bruno almost cost us the game with his absolutely needless wayward ball in injury time. Absolutely moronic. I would fine him a week's wages for that mistake alone let alone his mediocre performance in the game as a whole. In a half that was full of mistakes from everyone, that was the one which infuriated me the most.

Lastly, we cannot rely on Ronaldo anymore. He looks off the pace and ineffective. If we are serious about competing for the top positions and secure CL qualification, we need to find a solution at center forward in January.

 

[suheilsworld]

A win is a win! Big three points. Villa and Fulham away will be tough too . Must need 6 points from those to go into the break on a high! Huge credit to the entire back line and ddg!!

 

[tjb]

I don't think people really understand the fact the effect of having Ronaldo and Maguire have on our play.

I'll start with Maguire. In the build up, he's not very good at providing support for people on the ball. Whether this is De Gea, Martinez or Dalot, his awareness in terms of support for the pass just isn't there. Which is partially why our build up play has always been static with him. Add that to the fact that he doesn't have the agility to retain possession or the quick feet to move the ball quickly and you have someone who constantly has to pass it back even when not under much pressure. Lindelof doesn't have this issue. Defensively, he overpresses and lacks the agility or pace to make up for it, so he ends up constantly leaving the defence exposed. In the past, I blamed other players for this, but its quite clear he's actually the problem there.

Ronaldo - The pressing is a massive issue and is the difference between us pinning West Ham back and what we saw today. Yes he has bursts of accelaration, but his agility just isn't there right now, and this makes it very easy to bypass him. People see that occasional quick burst and assume he's pressing, not realizing that it's very ineffective due to no longer having the agility or the reaction time to turn. The ball tends to move laterally and that requires quickness and sharpness, not just top speed. In addition to this, when he's not doing these quick bursts, he's jogging, forcing us to play with a mid block. In attack, he no longer provides a real threat. His finishing and composure in the final third are gone. The sharpness in his movements are gone and everyone in the team seems to keep making terrible decisions in order to find him and give him that goal. He's a hinderance at this level right now and people can't seem to notice how much. A striker, especially a lone striker, is very important in how a team plays. They are the central link to the midfield and the first line of defence. Ronaldo isn't providing either, so why concede control of games to massage his ego.

 

[dpansheth]

After a Thursday night europe games I can take a half-baked win. Always been a factor on Sundays. Dalot MoTM for me, DDG good and that little fella Martinez is a monster. If I can I’d hand out negative points to Bruno and Ronaldo. Very bad games but slowly they are lowering the bar for themselves. Everyone else was meh.

 

[HaliRed]

The referee almost cost us here. I’m still amazed he didn’t send Scamacca off, he literally kicked Martinez in the head!

That decision was just mind-bogglingly bad. Could not have been a more clear yellow card.

 

[berbatrick]

Hard to say if this was a reversion to the days of battling with virtually every team on equal terms... or if Ronaldo takes one of the chances and it becomes stress-free.

 

[TheRedHearted]

I don’t get this lucky stuff.
What were we lucky at? Is the defence not allowed to play well?
They bombarded our area with high crosses and on only one occasion did our keeper have to make a save.
Rice had one shot from distance which as one would expect, DeGea saved.
The only time they got through, Maguire was in the right place to clear.
We didn’t have one of our best days, but there was nothing lucky about it.

I agree completely, we were strong in defense and although they were throwing it all at us we worked together and to me that was important to see us be able to do. One more technical tight midfielder (dare I say Declan Rice) i think they wouldn’t have most of those chances. The other time they got through was Antonio’s shot

Because they didn't actually create any good chances until the last minute. Rice a shot from 35 yards out, Zouma a random header, but that's it. We missed chances and controlled for 75 minutes with them doing nothing during that time.

Antonio also forced a good save

The zamacha challenge was one hundred percent a second yellow and west ham is lucky he didn’t get sent off and we would have scored one more at least. NBC still hasn’t showed the stats, shots, chances created etc

 

[Member 125352]

Also the first game of the season where Eriksen wasn’t dominating imo. Fantastic assist of course but it never felt like we were going to progress the ball in a dangerous way today. We don’t have a mobile midfielder that runs with the ball nor have we the technical passing advantage to outplay opponents in midfield. But we battled hard, that is also very positive.

Maguire had some shaky moments first half in passing and some rash tackles that could have cost us. But he stood up when the going got tough in the 2nd half, I counted at least 2 great interventions by him. He is not even close to the work Dalot and Martinez did again today though.

 

[dpansheth]

There are people who think we should replace DDG - I am not one of them

I still believe we should replace him, use half his wages to buy another attacker.

 

[Renegade]

Why does ETH get really tough questions compared to the other managers? Fair play he answers them but bloody hell

 

[Dominos]

A truly dreadful performance.

Full credit to our defenders and De Gea for withstanding the onslaught.

We were so unbelievably bad in possession, and our attacking play as always is dismal.

 

[Deleted 112447]

The most difficult of our pre-WC games, where we will be missing Varane. Nice to come away with a win. We could definitely beat Villa and Fulham as well, and be in a good position when we come back.

We should be top 4 by the break.

 

[Isotope]

There are people who think we should replace DDG - I am not one of them

Get in line.

 

[tjb]

I’d be very interested in who you would have played Instead?
No Martial, no Anthony and Sancho has been poor, so who?

Sancho or Garnacho. Push Rashford or Elanga up front. Get the energy from pressing that allows the team push up the pitch.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

The 2nd half is unacceptable.

A sign of champions, they say.