Positives & Negatives v West Ham (one of each please)

[Madron]

I didn't see a 'visibly upset' Bate when subbed. If he was he will soon realise it's always 'Side before self' and hopefully grow up quickly.

[1964white]

I would imagine the plan was always to give Rodrigo a few minutes, especially having fresh legs when the game had reached the part where we were solely counter attacking. As such it was probably a case of what substitution made most sense rather than who was youngest, who'd had least minutes etc. As it was it made most sense to take Bate off as he was the player least used to playing at this intensity so was most likely to be tiredest despite his age.

Definitely

When I posted up the team up on the Player Ratings & MOTM topics up prior to the match, Rodrigo was the only name I gave as one of the three subs

[1964white]

Given the injury to Forshaw I would imagine we will see 1 of those 3 as the DM for the next match. One plus perhaps from Forshaw getting injured is that it might make us get another CM in. Think we could do with 1, probably on loan, for the rest of the season then re-evaluate in the summer.

Until one of those three gets injured again

[1964white]

Positive - Lively display from the front 3 and a win that was deserved. The 3rd goal was majestically finished by Harrison and shows how much of a 'confidence' player he is. If we get him playing at his best, Dan James improving all the time, Raphinha playing like he does and Bamford back then suddenly we are a goalscoring team again.

Used his brain there by dinking the ball, the old Jack would have hit the goalie, top class finish.

[SG90]

Until one of those three gets injured again

That is the worry, especially Koch given how injury prone he is. He's been excellent since coming back.

[1964white]

Positives.....the Raphinha & Harrison show

Negatives....couldn't retain the ball in the last ten minutes, then going to sleep at the set-piece which almost cost us with the last kick of the ball. God smiled on us for a change.

[weasel]

Positives.....the Raphinha & Harrison show

Negatives....couldn't retain the ball in the last ten minutes, then going to sleep at the set-piece which almost cost us with the last kick of the ball. God smiled on us for a change.

I would say we deserved that bit of luck especially with Rephinha hitting the inside of the post and we'd have scored a 4th had it not hit Rodrigo on its way in. I think luck evened itself out in that sense and we fully deserved the win. We have had consistently bad luck in all of the games v West Ham in the last 2 years.

[The Subhuman]

Forgot to put a negative in before. Presume it was because apart from the injuries there wasn't really anything to be negatve about. The VAR decision was correct, it is the rule and it did touch Rodrigo. If Rodrigo hadn't been offside then he would have been given the goal instead of Klich as it touched him last.

Problem is it was the same as last weeks when the goal stood..

[DDB220]

Only your opinion, for me Bate did very well, we lost more 2nd balls when rodrigo came on, once more MB upsetting the youth, unless a sub is having a mare , never sub them off.

Bate wants the ball constantly - often when he shouldn’t and his movement off the ball is not as clever as Klich or Rodrigo. Their reputation demands a chaperone which creates space for others. Bates does not have the astuteness at this level just yet. The substitution was tactical rather than taking him off for his performance IMO.
Fact is it worked and we won.

[becchio bear]

Positives: Harrison's hattrick

Negatives: Raphinha not scoring

[DDB220]

Great team performance.

No negatives tbh - we won away in London and I was there. Nothing to moan about for me.

[1964white]

I would say we deserved that bit of luck especially with Rephinha hitting the inside of the post and we'd have scored a 4th had it not hit Rodrigo on its way in. I think luck evened itself out in that sense and we fully deserved the win. We have had consistently bad luck in all of the games v West Ham in the last 2 years.

We fully deserve a bit of luck & the victory, Weasel. It would have been cruel on us had West Ham equalised

[DDB220]

Actually - the injuries to Forshaw and Firpo are the only downer.

[DDB220]

I would also give special praise to Dan James. Yeah his touch let him down at crucial moments but he was my MotM. The kid worked his bollocks off. His closing down was phenomenal. He reminds me of Smithy in terms of his bravery in the challenge. He could be special - he has that thing about him that just gets you when you watch his desire.

[Byebyegeegee]

+ the resilience of the team to go on and win against all the odds even after being pegged back twice - magnificent!
- another 2 injuries - unbelievable!

[Byebyegeegee]

Problem is it was the same as last weeks when the goal stood..

No it wasn’t!

I still believe their goal last week should have been disallowed because Bowen was interfering with play in my opinion, obviously the VAR referee saw it differently.

The difference being that last week Bowen didn’t actually touch the ball whereas today, very unfortunately, the ball brushed Rodrigo’s thigh on its way into the net and therefore he can’t be said to have not been interfering with play.

[WhiteRose]

Positive: from not looking like scoring had we played all day last week to looking like we could score on every attack.
Negative: 2 players come back, 2 get injured.

[The Subhuman]

No it wasn’t!

I still believe their goal last week should have been disallowed because Bowen was interfering with play in my opinion, obviously the VAR referee saw it differently.

The difference being that last week Bowen didn’t actually touch the ball whereas today, very unfortunately, the ball brushed Rodrigo’s thigh on its way into the net and therefore he can’t be said to have not been interfering with play.

Actually he gets a slight touch but fair enough .. we can agree to disagree.

[Carrick Dave]

I would also give special praise to Dan James. Yeah his touch let him down at crucial moments but he was my MotM. The kid worked his bollocks off. His closing down was phenomenal. He reminds me of Smithy in terms of his bravery in the challenge. He could be special - he has that thing about him that just gets you when you watch his desire.

I loves the challenge on Fabianski that got him booked, full speed, full blooded, no one else would have got close.

He clearly understood that he’d get little change out of their big defenders in front of goal so put 100% effort into being a serious pain in the ass for them, great pressing display that young Mr Bamford would have been proud of.

[White Riot]

+ A performance to be proud of and a deserved win
- VAR's consistency by which I mean that even though the decisions are inconsistent, they are consistently given against us, but what's new folks