glasgowspur
Dimitar Berbatov
Not saying you specifically, but it is often top of the excuse list.
Doesn't seem to matter what we prioritise, we fall short.
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Emerson Royal
- Thread starter Daisuk
- Start date
Not saying you specifically, but it is often top of the excuse list.
Doesn't seem to matter what we prioritise, we fall short.
We prioritised Top 4, rightly or wrongly, above all else during the Jol to Pochettino years (and probably since?) and got over the line a fair few times iirc
Legohamster
Cecil Poynton
Dont think he has the concentration to play there, he seems to switch off
We shouldn’t be prioritising anything IMO - we should be trying to win whatever competitions we are in. Even the top teams aren’t at the top forever so you should know that when we are competing at the top table it isn’t going to be for that long so should be going out to win whatever cups you can - be it League Cups, FA Cups or whatever. Because if you don’t you have the situation our players are in when all they can do is look back at the time they qualified in the top 4, and those glory days of nearly winning a trophy which is a travesty for a team that were as good as we were. The snobbery of some fans towards certain trophies all to follow the holy grail of Champions League qualification, of which there was blatantly a good chance we wouldn’t qualify for being knocked out of all these cups anyway astounded me.
People always seems concerned about who was getting rested during Europa League games because that apparently was beneath us and players needed to be fresh for the league.
West Ham have got to the Europa League semis and a realistic chance of winning it, all whilst competing top 4-6 in the league all season. They have an inferior squad to us now, and certainly compared to our peak Poch era. For me there was no need to prioritise anything….
spurspinter1
Paul Stalteri
He may have some of the defensive attributes but we need ability on the ball in a back three for it to work; Romero in that right side CB spot can run purposefully with the ball and spread the play when needed, however Royal looks like a fifa player glitching due to poor WiFi, he’s like Sissoko without the power / determination. It’s a far cry from Romero’s assured presence which had our right side looking more functional. In an injury crisis Royal could do a “job” there but Dier / Rodon and Sanchez would have to be unavailable before it’d happen.
It may have been billiyiddo that said it, even if we were playing a back four with Emerson at RB we’d still be pulling our hair out watching the guy. After passing the ball out of play last game I wonder if our HR referencing department had to double check that he was genuinely employed to play football by Barcelona.
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DeanoAustin
Christian Ziege
I'm not Royal's biggest fan but I'm uncomfortable with the hammering he's taking across all the forums and social media. People are talking about him as if he's a complete donkey and the reason for our bad form. Matt Doherty, who not 6 months ago was being spoken about similarly if not quite as viciously, is now being held up as the reason we had a great run of form and have now been very flat in the last two games.
The pass out of play was embarrassingly bad. But it was one piece of play and people are holding it up as if he's the first footballer ever to do such a thing. There are whole videos on YouTube of Bentancur, who I love as a player, doing similar for Juventus.
Royal, for me, has had some decent games and some terrible games here but he's young and new to the league. I think he has potential as a full back or even as a RCB in the same mould as Ben Davies at LCB (albeit he'd only ever be cover for Romero there). He's not a good wing back, granted, but I don't think he's as bad as he's currently being made out to be.
Football fans are clams sometimes (I'm talking in general, not on here).
The pass out of play was embarrassingly bad. But it was one piece of play and people are holding it up as if he's the first footballer ever to do such a thing. There are whole videos on YouTube of Bentancur, who I love as a player, doing similar for Juventus.
Royal, for me, has had some decent games and some terrible games here but he's young and new to the league. I think he has potential as a full back or even as a RCB in the same mould as Ben Davies at LCB (albeit he'd only ever be cover for Romero there). He's not a good wing back, granted, but I don't think he's as bad as he's currently being made out to be.
Football fans are clams sometimes (I'm talking in general, not on here).
Yiddo
Cecil Poynton
Well said, football fans are clams, i have stopped following sky pages, Bt, and other general football pages on social media due to how toxic the comment sections are. 9/10 the people who comment don’t have a fudging clue.
DeanoAustin
Christian Ziege
Without wishing to get into circle-jerk-onomics, I find the level of discussion on here is usually quite high and most posters who I disagree with articulate their points well enough that I can appreciate their arguments.
I'm not big into social media but the level of discourse in comments sections, on FB, on Twitter is horrendous. One of our fans last week said Conte is "tactically inept". Now, you can criticise Conte's tactics by all means but if he's tactically inept then so is pretty much every manager out there. I challenged the guy on it and the response was "been going to Tottenham since 1967, I know tactical ineptitude when I see it." Couldn't even be f**ked arguing it any further.
Finney Is Back
Luka Modric
West Ham probably would've been absolute shoe-ins for a 4th place (maybe even 3rd place) finish had they not gone to the latter stages of the Europa. Their league form has fallen off of a cliff due to them having a small squad and their first choice players being so fatigued. If West Ham end up winning the Europa League then good for them, they'll be in the Champions League and have a major trophy to their name. If they end up losing the semi-final or the final then they may well only end up in the Conference League next season.
In addition to the above most of the years when we ended up in the Europa League with a team perhaps good enough to win it there was no Champions League place available to the winner. Rightly or wrongly (and that is a big separate argument) Levy and Pochettino prioritised the riches of the Champions League over the glory of winning a Cup competition. With a very expensive stadium to pay for and a rather large revenue gap to the rest of the top 5 to make up that may have been the right thing to do in terms of the club's long term vision.
parklane1
Vic Buckingham
I don't disagree with much/any of that I'm just commenting on what we were doing as a club - which was prioritising top 4/CL qualification over cup competitions (outside of the CL itself)
exactly, he is a good not great one on one defender but has questionable positional awareness and as you say switches off. I have no idea why people are clamouring for him to be RCB???
glasgowspur
Dimitar Berbatov
He did put a couple of decent crosses but we don't have numbers in the box.
spurspinter1
Paul Stalteri
I was part of the contingent going in a bit hard on him but have to say, he defending like a man possessed tonight - Cannot fault his commitment.
Completely. Problem is that we're hopefully going to dominate more games than back-to-the-wall games
Great game from him, but still need a proper RWB instead of him
