Sunday 1 March 2009

West Ham 1 - 0 Man City ( Collison 71')

City had away from home syndrome again today and go away from Upton Park defeated.

I hate saying this and I am going to apologise in advance to Mr Cook who wants to rid our club of this attitude, but today we were typical City. Just when you think we are hitting the kind of form that may see us qualify for Europe, we blow it.

When called upon today we were found lacking in quality and against a good West Ham team we got what we deserved, nothing.

I think the midfield were poor today and didn't really help in defence or provide anything for our attackers. Robinho and Bellamy for example looked lively when they were involved today, but they weren't involved as much as they could or should have been because the service was either poor or non existent.

Zabaleta was moved to right back after 15 minutes because Micah Richards went off injured and I think it was obvious the midfield missed him. Kompany and De Jong didn't really have any impact on the game, Kompany tried his best to rough a few West Ham players up and that was about it.

As for when we got forward today, there were some bad decisions once we got in the final third and at times it was all a bit messy, saying that we did have enough chances to score and win the game but our finishing was found wanting.

Negatives from today's game:
Another loss and with some tough fixtures coming up we could be looking at being heavily involved in a relegation battle. More bad news, Robinho, Bellamy and Richards all went off injured today and are at the very least likely to miss the game against Villa in midweek.

Positives to take from today's game:
I have been vocal about how poor I think Wayne Bridge has been, today I thought he was a lot better for large parts of the game. There was still things I thought he could have done better but overall I saw some improvement.

Now a huge positive from the game today was the surprise return to the squad of Valeri Bojinov. I am really pleased Bojinov is back and can't wait to see him in action regularly. It was thought he would need a couple more reserve outings before making a first team squad, so I just hope he isn't being rushed.

To sum up, Hughes really has to hurry up and stop this inconsistency whilst there is still a possibility of qualifying for Europe. If he doesn't I don't think he will be our manager next season, unless he wins the Uefa Cup and even then I'm not sure that would be enough to save him, so on his head be it.

5 comments:

  1. bridge was caught out as collision reacted for the goal much quicker than he did.


    bojinov for 2 mins...pointless...at least he is ready

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  2. Bridge was just getting back into position, saying that I think at that time his position was left mid, he was playing there enough time to suggest that was the case, if that was the case it could be any of the midfielders you can blame for not tracking back.

    I think the odds are good that Hughes told him to push up into midfield. Bridge may have made another mistake it is hard to say, but his general play throughout was still better I can't take that away from him.

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  3. ^ considering the other perfromances today, him, nedum, and dunne were pretty good.

    Just the rest of them let us down.

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  4. I think this was a game all about Zola (Chelsea's latest managerial target) versus Hughes (the man Chelsea wanted to replace Avram Grant). For me, Gianfranco won hands down and has made an average and relatively inexperienced side look a lot classier than the world's richest football club.

    I think Zola is the hottest young property in the Premiership.

    Charlie

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  5. Well Zola has certainly worked hard with those players and they played well for him yesterday. City did a lot of the simple stuff wrong yesterday, whilst West Ham were doing them right and that was the main difference, you only have to look at the stats to see that.

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