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What went wrong today?

I'll chip in and say that we were, before yesterday's game at least, the team in the league with most shots on goal this season (and one of the top teams in Europe as well). Certainly it's not all doom and gloom, but it is worrying that we're not scoring more goals. Yesterday we didn't create enough chances, but in most of the games so far this season (bar the Gooner game), we should've scored more goals than we have, but have missed a lot of good opportunities.

Also, in the 5 cup games we've played this season (I know, I know, against **** opposition, mostly), we've scored 16 goals, an average of 4 goals a game. Not too bad.
 
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I'll chip in and say that we were, before yesterday's game at least, the team in the league with most shots on goal this season (and one of the top teams in Europe as well). Certainly it's not all doom and gloom, but it is worrying that we're not scoring more goals. Yesterday we didn't create enough chances, but in most of the games so far this season (bar the Gooner game), we should've scored more goals than we have, but have missed a lot of good opportunities.

Also, in the 5 cup games we've played this season (I know, I know, against **** opposition, mostly), we've scored 16 goals, an average of 4 goals a game. Not too bad.

most of those shots are hit and hopes from outside the area...it means nothing in terms of a team being creative and opening up the opposition

someone else posted that under AVB in PL home games we have scored something like 33 goals in 23 games......thats just dire. The problems run deep, not just who our strikers are.
 
most of those shots are hit and hopes from outside the area...it means nothing in terms of a team being creative and opening up the opposition

someone else posted that under AVB in PL home games we have scored something like 33 goals in 23 games......thats just dire. The problems run deep, not just who our strikers are.

Are they really, or are you just frustrated because of yesterday's game and think that it is so? Yesterday, we had lots of those efforts, yes, but I can't recall us having had too many hit and miss shots from outside the area before yesterday's game. Look at the game against Cardiff, we had an insane amount of shots from dangerous positions, we just didn't convert any. Partially down to poor skill, but partially because of an outstanding goalkeeper.
 
Except Vertonghen wasn't "caught under the ball" for their first goal; he was shoved in the back by Reid. I was directly level with them and saw it clearly, as the ref should have done from where he was standing.
 
Are they really, or are you just frustrated because of yesterday's game and think that it is so? Yesterday, we had lots of those efforts, yes, but I can't recall us having had too many hit and miss shots from outside the area before yesterday's game. Look at the game against Cardiff, we had an insane amount of shots from dangerous positions, we just didn't convert any. Partially down to poor skill, but partially because of an outstanding goalkeeper.

so how do you justify 33 goals in 23 PL home games? im not frustrated by just yesterdays game, our home performances under AVB have been average. There is a lack of creativity, ambition, energy. Its like if we go 1-0 up its enough to hold onto that. Where is the inventive play, we cant keep relying on a barrage of shot from outside the area. Dont the players practice any final thrid attacking patterns of play in training?
 
Anyone watch the MOTD last night? You lot should give the Spammers credit where credit is due. The defended as a unit and attacked well. They were the better team.
 
so how do you justify 33 goals in 23 PL home games? im not frustrated by just yesterdays game, our home performances under AVB have been average. There is a lack of creativity, ambition, energy. Its like if we go 1-0 up its enough to hold onto that. Where is the inventive play, we cant keep relying on a barrage of shot from outside the area. Dont the players practice any final thrid attacking patterns of play in training?

I agree that 33 goals in 23 home games is too poor for a top team, no denying that. And I too agree that it's frustrating to see us happy winning 1-0 at home instead of going for more goals. I was just pointing out that we have had a lot of shots on goal this season, which usually should warrant a better payback. But I do agree that we have a tendency to look very boring once we've go one or two nill up.
 
Great analysis. Love those - thanks for posting. :)

Hopefully it'll be a while before Windy next has to write another blog entry like this one!

Except Vertonghen wasn't "caught under the ball" for their first goal; he was shoved in the back by Reid. I was directly level with them and saw it clearly, as the ref should have done from where he was standing.

It did appear that Jan got a little nudge in the back from Reid but Vertonghen didn't appeal to the referee for some reason.

Anyone watch the MOTD last night? You lot should give the Spammers credit where credit is due. The defended as a unit and attacked well. They were the better team.

Yup, I even sat through extended highlights on Sky Sports just to make sure that really happened as it's been so long since we last lost at home to the Spammers I thought that it must've been a bad dream... Credit to Allardyce as like Mourinho he tactically outmanoeuvred AVB and despite the quality on our bench Andre was once again unable to respond effectively. Hopefully it's just a matter of the new players and system bedding in, rather than everyone else having now sussed out how to play against us...
 
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As someone stated earlier, I think Allardyce has provided a blueprint, which is, "Don't get drawn out when Spurs have the ball in their own half. Keep them stretched in the middle of the park so that, when they lose the ball (which they will) they can't win it back quickly in your half. They take so much time building from the back that you will have plenty of time to organise your defence for when Townsend finally gets it and does his thing that he always does (you've seen it on the dvd). Go man-for-man on Eriksen or Holtby as applicable; they're the only other ones in the Spurs side likely to create anything."

Edit: Oh, and focus on set-pieces.
 
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As someone stated earlier, I think Allardyce has provided a blueprint, which is, "Don't get drawn out when Spurs have the ball in their own half. Keep them stretched in the middle of the park so that, when they lose the ball (which they will) they can't win it back quickly in your half. They take so much time building from the back that you will have plenty of time to organise your defence for when Townsend finally gets it and does his thing that he always does (you've seen it on the dvd). Go man-for-man on Eriksen or Holtby as applicable; they're the only other ones in the Spurs side likely to create anything."

Edit: Oh, and focus on set-pieces.

thats why against teams like this and tactics like this, its better to allow them to have the ball, let them lose their shape because they will have to come out and attack, and simply wait for THEM to lose the ball (which they will) and when we have it we will have more space in which to attack them

so in games like this, instead of us having 65% of the ball but being able to do b*gger all with it, we should aim to have 50-55% and hopefully have the space to exploit them with quick counter attacks
 
Anyone watch the MOTD last night? You lot should give the Spammers credit where credit is due. The defended as a unit and attacked well. They were the better team.

It's because it's West Ham people don't want to give them credit. Can't see how anyone can deny they deserved to win. They had more shots on target and more shots in total.
 
14-16 in shots, 4-5 on target. A draw wouldn't have been unfair on anyone.

Sorry but that's ridiculous. Look in the ratings thread for thoughts on how we played, 3's and 4's all around. We defended poorly, barely created anything besides Defoe's chance and the tempo started slow and got slower. We were also far too narrow.

For an away team to have 16 shots on goal is impressive, especially against a supposed title contender.
 
Sorry but that's ridiculous. Look in the ratings thread for thoughts on how we played, 3's and 4's all around. We defended poorly, barely created anything besides Defoe's chance and the tempo started slow and got slower. We were also far too narrow.

For an away team to have 16 shots on goal is impressive, especially against a supposed title contender.

People will be posting negative ratings if we had won 3-0 and played well, I don't take those threads too seriously no matter what. We dominated possession and equaled them in shots. We were sloppy in defense obviously, but I think 0-0 or possibly 1-1 would have been a fair result. West Ham did not do anything special and the first goal should have been disallowed.
 
Sorry but that's ridiculous. Look in the ratings thread for thoughts on how we played, 3's and 4's all around. We defended poorly, barely created anything besides Defoe's chance and the tempo started slow and got slower. We were also far too narrow.

For an away team to have 16 shots on goal is impressive, especially against a supposed title contender.

Even if we'd won 1-0 with a last minute goal, I'd have still posted poor ratings. The performance was poor. We were the home team against a team that should be battling relegation at the end of the season. I'd expect us to dominate all the stats simply because we were at home. So I totally agree with you. For anyone to claim a draw would be a fair result is unbelievable. If this situation was reversed and we beat Chelsea 3-0 at their place with identical performances to today (with them as us, and us as West Ham) and a Chelsea fan claimed that a draw would have been a fair result, we'd be outraged and find it hilarious at the same time. For good reason.
 
so how do you justify 33 goals in 23 PL home games? im not frustrated by just yesterdays game, our home performances under AVB have been average. There is a lack of creativity, ambition, energy. Its like if we go 1-0 up its enough to hold onto that. Where is the inventive play, we cant keep relying on a barrage of shot from outside the area. Dont the players practice any final thrid attacking patterns of play in training?

Agree wholeheartedly .
 
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