West Ham 3 - 1 Liverpool: In Game & Post Game Shambles.

Against Villa we went 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 with Lallana and Markovic wide, it didn't work, the diamond has worked over recent months as arguably our best formation.. Balotelli is our best forward available, Borini like him or not has added positive impact from the bench in the last week

Now let's not jump up and down for no reason, we can all look back and discuss when something doesn't work but I can see what the manager was thinking and he doesn't deserve being spoken about like that.

This just reminds me of post Hull last season

Let's all not make ourselves look silly again now

1 decent performance this season out of 6 how can you defend the manager or the team its simply not good enough the only people looking silly are those heading back on the coach from Upton Park.Playing Lucas and Gerrard is simply wrong.

We need a good pre match team talk to the defenders, Something like "at times during the game, you'll see a white Sphere in the air, coming roughly in your direction, that's the ball!, move towards it, and if possible, make contact with your head! There will be other people in different coloured shirts to you,  they will also try and make contact with the ball, try and get to it first! "

1 decent performance this season out of 6 how can you defend the manager or the team its simply not good enough the only people looking silly are those heading back on the coach from Upton Park.Playing Lucas and Gerrard is simply wrong.

 As I said Walt, let's not make ourselves look daft again and react like after Hull last season

We have a lot to work on but let's not throw the toys out yet

Against Villa we went 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 with Lallana and Markovic wide, it didn't work, the diamond has worked over recent months as arguably our best formation.. Balotelli is our best forward available, Borini like him or not has added positive impact from the bench in the last week

Now let's not jump up and down for no reason, we can all look back and discuss when something doesn't work but I can see what the manager was thinking and he doesn't deserve being spoken about like that.

This just reminds me of post Hull last season

Let's all not make ourselves look silly again now

True. In fairness to Brendan, injuries to Allen and Can have been a bi*ch as well. Gotta feel Lallana, with his mobility/pace/workrate, would have been a better option in the diamond than Lucas (or Gerrard) though.

Oh Debs, I so want to believe this, but there is nothing to suggest we will get better any time soon. There are too many problem areas, I am not saying Brendan cannot sort it, I just worry that other teams will be out of sight before we start to gel. I understood that we identified players who would slot into our system with no problem. We either identified the wrong players or we aren't playing the system we bought these players for!
Either way, Brendan has to accept responsibility, he is the manager and the way the team is set up is down to him, I have to admit that I am worried.
I have to believe that he can do it, but I am less confident than I was.
I just feel something is not right.

It's exactly like we were in Brendans first season, well the first half of it anyway.  We looked like we'd never played together, didn't know what we should be doing, where on the pitch the players were supposed to be or what to do with the ball when we got it.

Brendan now has better quality ingredients, he just needs to sort the right recipe out so he can make the best cake 

  For the record, I fully expect us to get over this bad spell and go on a hell of a run! 

As I said Walt, let's not make ourselves look daft again and react like after Hull last season

We have a lot to work on but let's not throw the toys out yet

its not a case of over reacting the fact is tactics and players have been poor so far. We simply haven't adjusted to Luis going and we look a shadow of the side from last season despite £100mil being spent. did you see the goals we conceded today my God it is embarrassing to say the least the second goal would have been perfect in Stanley park on sunday Morning because the goalie had a serious hangover and he couldn't lift his head up.lets not make up excuses for the Manager or the squad this is not good enough.

True. In fairness to Brendan, injuries to Allen and Can have been a bi*ch as well. Gotta feel Lallana, with his mobility/pace/workrate, would have been a better option in the diamond than Lucas (or Gerrard) though.

Spot on really mate

As much as Luis was a massive loss the injuries early on this year to Sturridge, Allen, Can and Lallana have hurt as much

its not a case of over reacting the fact is tactics and players have been poor so far. We simply haven't adjusted to Luis going and we look a shadow of the side from last season despite £100mil being spent. did you see the goals we conceded today my God it is embarrassing to say the least the second goal would have been perfect in Stanley park on sunday Morning because the goalie had a serious hangover and he couldn't lift his head up.lets not make up excuses for the Manager or the squad this is not good enough.

I'm not making excuses for them, I'm just not going from one end of the scale to the other over 6 matches

And that second F***ing goal was a cross that left the keeper flat footed, as much as I'm not a Mignolet fan I can't hold him up for that too much.
I've played plenty and watched more to know he didn't mean that

It's exactly like we were in Brendans first season, well the first half of it anyway.  We looked like we'd never played together, didn't know what we should be doing, where on the pitch the players were supposed to be or what to do with the ball when we got it.

Brendan now has better quality ingredients, he just needs to sort the right recipe out so he can make the best cake 

In which case it's one step forward, two steps back which is wholly unacceptable, especially after spending so much in the window to allegedly improve our defence. This season is meant to be about consolidating our position as a top four club yet, as you point out, is looking more like the first season of a new manager's tenure. I know its still early but Top 4 is looking like a distant dream right now.

Didn't vote MOTM ......all poor  ! Gerrard needs a big game to stay in the side for me , Lambert should start not Borini, What happened to the " stars " we signed

In which case it's one step forward, two steps back which is wholly unacceptable, especially after spending so much in the window to allegedly improve our defence. This season is meant to be about consolidating our position as a top four club yet, as you point out, is looking more like the first season of a new manager's tenure. I know its still early but Top 4 is looking like a distant dream right now.

I said the early part of his first season and I also said we'll be better than last season so no it isn't two steps back to me.

Despite our form and results this season we still have more points than we did from the first 5 games in 2012 so we shouldn't fall as far behind before we get our arse in gear.  Once we do get it into gear, as Brendan did in 2012, we are capable of being far more deadly than than the second half of that season, so we're more likely to finish nearer to our 13/14 points total than our 12/13 season.

get

My main concern is, it's not Brendan's first season, he should be building on last season, not regressing. Brendan needs the balls to make some difficult decisions, we all know what the decisions are, we would all struggle to make that decision, that is why Brendan is paid £Millions!

I'm not making excuses for them, I'm just not going from one end of the scale to the other over 6 matches

And that second f**king goal was a cross that left the keeper flat footed, as much as I'm not a Mignolet fan I can't hold him up for that too much.
I've played plenty and watched more to know he didn't mean that

SOrry you are wrong because they had a player on the far post and if it had been a cross they would still have scored with Simon floundering round on the front post the absolute worst position he could have been in. its a reality check nothing to do with being over the top.The whole team where just so poor YET AGAIN and this is 5 out of 6 games.

My main concern is, it's not Brendan's first season, he should be building on last season, not regressing. Brendan needs the balls to make some difficult decisions, we all know what the decisions are, we would all struggle to make that decision, that is why Brendan is paid £Millions!

We have bought two CB's and two Full backs and what is the result no change we are still incapable of defending set pieces and crosses

We have bought two CB's and two Full backs and what is the result no change we are still incapable of defending set pieces and crosses

Absolutely.

SOrry you are wrong because they had a player on the far post and if it had been a cross they would still have scored with Simon floundering round on the front post the absolute worst position he could have been in. its a reality check nothing to do with being over the top.The whole team where just so poor YET AGAIN and this is 5 out of 6 games.

I'm not defending the keeper

Anyway I'll leave you to swing from one extreme to the other game in game out

We need a real defensive midfielder. Our defenders need back up

Skrtel has been crap for 2 seasons now. Needs sorting out.

Sahko needs to play for us like how her plays for France, he's a beast for france!

Gerrard is tired as hell. Dude had a crazy season last season, a world cup and a new season with a champs league.
He gets man marked during games. If we had a DM stevie could play further fwd.

To be honest the two centre backs are more exposed this year than last year as Manquillo and Moreno are more attacking and further forward on a regular basis  than Johnson and Flanno were last year.

Not a bad thing but you need to get the balance right in other areas to counter that

Even when we had Lambert and Balotelli up top we didn't even put a decent cross in.. or at least put one in the danger area..
Sakho had a shocker.. as a French national first choice that was dreadful..and Mignolet just doesn't cut it for me , sorry !..
So many players just fizzled out of the game in to oblivion.. like they weren't even on the pitch..
F**kin West Ham for christ sake !!..
This is worse than last week's defeat at home !!

I do not think it is an over reaction to be angry or concerned about this season's performances so far this season we have become a soft touch .We were so lucky to beat Southampton regardless of what they have done since and Villa just did a job on us and we did not have an answer to their tactics.
Ludogrets made us look pedestrian at times and today West Ham had the better of us from the kick off and never looked in trouble. which part of the above is anything other than factual. Having one decent performance in 6 is a sign of something fundamentally wrong.

To be honest the two centre backs are more exposed this year than last year as Manquillo and Moreno are more attacking and further forward on a regular basis  than Johnson and Flanno were last year.

Not a bad thing but you need to get the balance right in other areas to counter that

I totally agree our major problem is balance when the two full backs go forward we are left with Lucas and Gerrard as our DM to cover when the CBS go out wide it just isn't balanced.

As I said Walt, let's not make ourselves look daft again and react like after Hull last season

We have a lot to work on but let's not throw the toys out yet

Not sure where the hull comparison can be made tbh... we didnt have a WLWLL  record after that hull game.  If the team plays poorly one game.. it is just a bad day at the office... if the team consistently plays poor there are other issues here


I do think we will improve and once sturridge is back.. him and balo will come good for us.

However I have 3 questions for BR...

1)  how to address leaky defense

2) how to regain the midfield

3) what to do when another fkin international friendly comes?