I know I missed out my Everton review and Sheff United preview, but things have been hectic with work and general life that my blog had to take a sabbatical.
But I can easily rectify the above by basically saying:
Everton Review: We were unbelievably shite but could have sneaked a draw, and the 2-0 defeat flatters us.
Sheff United Preview: A massive game for us and the desperate need for 3pts, Pellegrini to make minor changes but not to our formation.
PRE-GAME
Saturday morning was spent at an inter-firms’ competition. No, not an Inter-City Firm’s competition, an inter-firms’ competition.
The former would be something completely different! Although judging by some of the tackles and testosterone flying about it maybe was more like an Inter-City Firm outing!
The inter-firms is a football competition played between different companies. It wasn’t a bad day’s craic and I came through relatively unscathed, just the usual struggling to walk properly for a few days.
We won one, drew one and lost two.
But the important thing was, that I was back home and on my sofa in time to watch kick-off, duly supplied by my ever reliable ‘international satellite system’.
We seen a few changes to the recent starting line-ups. Cresswell coming back in for Masuaku, Zabaleta taking Fredericks place, Yarmolenko back in for Fornals and Snodgrass making his first start in ages in place of Lanzini.
This struck me as a game for Snodgrass and it was a welcome change as Lanzini has been pretty anonymous lately in my opinion.
THE GAME
The game started spritely with an early chance for West Ham in the 6th minute. A fine ball into the area by Snodgrass was only just missed by Yarmolenko.
Next chance for West Ham came in the 23rd minute when a long range shot from Anderson went narrowly over the bar.
We never seem to have enough shots from distance. Unless, of course, its Antonio. And generally, we don’t want him doing it, as his shots normally end up in the back row, which is testament to how hard he can actually hit a ball.
Sheffield United’s first real chance came in the 29th minute when O’Connell headed the ball onto the unmarked McGoldrick from a corner. The Irishman flicked the ball on but good reflexes from Roberto managed to keep the ball out of the net.
With less than 5 minutes to go to half time Sheffield United had a couple of chances. The first, a good low cross into the area found Lundstrum but his shot glanced wide. Lunstrum then became provider with a great cross into the area but Roberto managed a slight fingertip touch to take it off the head Robinson. The ball then fell to Stevens who’s shot took a deflection out for a corner. Should have been 1-0 to the Blades.
It wasn’t long afterwards the deadlock was broken.
A long ball up the field was difficult to deal with by the Sheffield United defence the ball fell to Yarmolenko who inch perfectly cushioned a volley onto the on-rushing Snodgrass. The Scot made no mistake in slotting it past Henderson. Scenes in my sitting room! 1-0!
West Ham started slowly to the second half but had an opportunity to double the lead when Anderson got on the end of a long ball by Noble. He ran with it and probably should have played it into Snodgrass but instead played it into Haller who teed up Yarmolenko who’s shot was blocked.
Roberto was called into action again in the 53rd minute when a bit of trickery by Lundstrum allowed a cross to the back of the area to Baldock who’s shot was saved by Roberto with the ball ricocheting off Cresswell and then pounced on by the keeper.
Another certain chance for West Ham in the 57th minute. Anderson dispossessed the Sheffield United midfielder, passed to Yarmolenko and continued his run to get the ball back, had a shot that was saved by the keeper. Possibly could have squared to Haller for a tap in but I suppose the shot was on.
West Ham were left to rue that chance when in the 69th minute the equaliser came. A long ball forward played in Baldock down the right who whipped a ball across the area, it was half cleared to Stevens who nodded the ball down to Mousett who’s bobbling shot went past Roberto and into the net. Replays would indicate that Roberto should have done better. Expletives in my sitting room! 1-1.
A chance for West Ham to go back ahead came in the 73rd minute when Yarmolenko spotted Cresswell free in the area. A pinpoint pass landed at the feet of Cresswell who tried to control the ball before getting his shot away but it was saved by the keeper. Probably should have hit it first time on his left.
Another chance in the 80th minute when Jimmy Hill’s love child Fornals played a great cross into the six-yard box but Yarmolenko missed it and the defender got the slightest of touches to take it away from Snodgrass at the back post.
At this stage of the game, Sheffield United seemed to sit back and be happy with their point.
West Ham had one last chance at the end. I thought it was in, the wee lad thought it was in, heads held in hands when we realised Yarmolenko’s long range shot had just grazed the post.
1-1 Full time. 2Pts dropped.
OVERVIEW
A few things to talk about from Saturday’s game.
Firstly, Snodgrass was great, he covered some amount of ground, rarely lost the ball and put in some great balls into the area. You could see how gutted he was to get substituted. It was a strange one for me as he one of the ones who I thought could have broken the deadlock. He was more likely to do it than Ajeti that’s for sure.
Secondly, Zabaleta seems to give us more down the right. Fredericks is a good footballer, but he doesn’t seem to give us the same outlet as Zabaleta does on the overlap. Or maybe he doesn’t make the correct call as to when to do it as it seemed to me Zabaleta was more on the ball than Fredericks normally would have been.
Thirdly, Pellegrini changed his line-up again, thankfully. As I have said in numerous blogs lately that we are becoming too predictable. OK, so we didn’t win this game, but we probably had enough chances to, only wrong decisions were being made. We just need him to change formation a few times now to keep the opposition guessing.
I don’t believe all this talk of getting rid of Pellegrini, its madness. Are we just going to sack our manager everytime the going gets tough? Who is his replacement?
We have had a blip, I feel that it can be turned around. We have Newcastle (H) and Burnley (A) which, hopefully, we can get the points from. That would tee us up nicely for Spurs at Home.
First things first though, lets beat Newcastle and then we can take it from there!
COYI!
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