West Ham V S***s

[Guest Gary Loughran]

Inane, insipid and banal - qualities that no-one wants to have. West Ham, however, have this in abundance.

We played like an away team in a home fixture.

We played with no desire, passion or heart.

We played with no creativity.

We played with no redeeming quality.

We played with no pace.

We played not to score.

We played not to concede.

We played with Faubert, Behrami, Di Michele, Tristan, Ilunga and Cole

We played awful.

The performance was so poor that it was disgraceful and insulting to fans. As a fan, I accept that teams get beat, that teams have off days, that we don't have the financial support to challenge for titles. As a fan, I will not accept the laissez-faire attitude of certain individuals (named later) and especially cannot accept the surrender as a whole.

This performance, though, isn't a shock, it is how we have played for the last 4-5 matches. It is how we have played since Zola's attacking masterplan failed so miserably. Yes Curbishley must shoulder a fair amount of blame. He sold all the young, energetic, potential laden talent at the club, gathered by the much maligned Pardew, and replaced them with old, injured and poor players demanding high salaries.

Spurs were the better team and deserved their win. Who could complain if Liverpool and Sunderland had also have beaten us. We have not outplayed a team for weeks and when we did (Everton) we got unfairly beaten.

Spurs had 5, maybe 6, players on their bench who would have easily improved our first eleven, and Redknapp moaned, before the game about Spurs' lack of strength in depth????

Faubert is a disgrace to footballers everywhere, his attitude is pathetic. We now know, for absolutely certain, he has no ability, but surely he could at least show good attitude. he got 58 minutes too long last night and should never make the squad, never mind the team ever again. Perhaps he is playing to get him in the shop window for the January sales. In which case, another catastrophic failure.

Behrami at least showed a little energy despite being very poor. It is evident he will not be even an average player for West Ham. I also hated his petulance in the last 10 minutes (when the game was over) when he could have been sent off for at least 2 of his 3 silly attempts, to elbow/wrestle opposition players.

Cole. There are 30 guys in the lower leagues easily who be a VAST upgrade to what Cole has done the last few games - I am extermely confident, in fact, that at least 10 conference players could do his current job, only much, much better. Utterly pathetic attempt at acting like a footballer.

For these 3 players above, virtually every time they touched the ball it led to opposition possesion.

Iliunga is apparently using West Ham as a stepping stone. Yeah right!!!! to obscurity maybe. Remember it was Rangers/Celtic who were after you when we 'swooped'...not anything to crow about. Performance wise he is still a liability - so much so that by comparison Neil (who was decent last night) looks rock solid.

Di Michele is a joke player. When he manages to stay on his feet he is superb at giving the opposition possession, the opposing players need to stop laughing first before making use of his wastefulness though.

Diego Tristan a non-goal scoring legend, unfit, old and done. Let's sign him. Pure genius.

Ratings

Green - 7.5 - Good handling. Good saves. Nothing he could do for goals.

Neil - 7.0 - Solid outing. Did OK against pace on the wing.

Upson - 7.0 - Solid outing - could have done better for King's opener. Alarmingly dispassionate.

Collins - 7.5 - same as above - but more passionate

Ilunga - 5.5 - Poor performance. Too easily beaten, gives away possession too easily and will give away a penalty soon with his stupid hands.

Faubert - 1.5 - Patheticly awful. I pray that I never see this miserable human in Claret and Blue ever again.

Parker - 6.0 - Looking sluggish and leggy. Not up with game at all last night. Lacking creativity. Alarmingly dispassionate.

Mullins - 6.5 - Tried to keep possession, but there's only so many he can pass to who will also keep it. Not sure he is meant to be creative. If so it was missing.

Behrami - 5.5 - High energy disguises lack of ability. Poor possession retention. No creativity.

Cole - 4.0 - He is what he is. When it doesn't bounce his way off his failed control he looks awful. Hasn't controlled a ball in weeks.

Bellamy - 7.0 - The only thing preventing Bellamy exploding is his lack of games. Once he has a run without injury he will go bonkers, guaranteed! You can only chase lost causes and clap pathetically overhit passes for so long, before snapping. He will snap and soon. Our best player at the minute and he hasn't had a sniff of goal. Could well pack it in at West Ham once fit. I know I would, only after lamping half the lazy, overpaid, useless cretins.

Di Michele - 0.5 - He did have chances to win it. So poor were his attempts that it only reinforced his uselessness. He and Faubert are disgracefully bad.

Tristan - 1.0 - Wasn't on long, but I think I seen him feign a jump for a header.

Nobel - 7.0 - Added a bit of energy to the team. He also stood out for his passion and how comfortable he looked on the ball. In marked contrast to the failures noted previously.

A couple of asides. The people who fill out the player ratings are either too frightened to give players 1-5 scores or don't know the game well enough. Some of those scores are ridiculously high.

If Zola feels that he has improved the fitness at the club he is a more shocking judge than I thought. We were lifeless last night. It was like a WKD advert and the fans were the marks, but then aren't we always.

[John Simkin]

I don't think I have ever been more depressed about a football game as I was last night. The main problem that it was so predictable. We knew that Zola would continue to play Faubert despite his recent performances. He then plays two holding players (Mullins and Parker) at home. This is the man who said he wanted to play attractive football. He clearly intends to make the team "hard to beat". What he has done is create a team that is "hard to watch".

The full-backs have clearly been told not to attack and the two midfielders playing wide, are journeymen defenders. There is therefore no width and as a result we get no crosses in. It is true that Bellamy and Cole are not playing well, however, the service they get is awful.

Even more upsetting than his starting line-up is the substitutions he makes. Faubert should have been off after 20 minutes. His confidence has completely gone and it is painful to watch a footballer having a nervous breakdown on the pitch. Zola should have accepted his mistake and brought on Collison and Noble in the first-half.

Most of our young talented players are out on loan (Reid is playing especially well at Blackpool setting up vital goals in the last two games). Sears is not even on the bench. Instead we had Di Michael coming on. The sight of him doing up his laces while a potential dangerous free-kick was being taken, was the most unprofessional thing I have ever seen in the Premier League.

I watch a lot of Premier League football on Sky. In my opinion, West Ham are the worse team in the league and unless things change we will be relegated. Remember, we finished 10th last season and were 5th before Zola took over.

[Guest Gary Loughran]

John I can't express how utterly deflated I am today after the last few performances and especially last nights.

With your usual composure you have summed everything up succinctly and, unfortunately, accurately.

I have no idea where Sears and Etherington are - how times have changed - I was yearning for Etherington to add some width and exuberance last night. Perhaps Etherington is at one of those celebrity clinics drying out from his gambling addicition.

Di Michele doing up his laces will live me forever as one of those moments that can only happen to a West Ham fan. It was painful to watch; a truly sorry sight.

Faubert looks mightily relaxed for a guy having a nervous breakdown. What are Clarke and Zola doing at training if they haven't figured out this guy is useless????

I agree with you about how bad we are to watch. WBA play a far better brand of football than us.

In finishing, I would add, that irrespective of who the manager is - there is not enough talent at West Ham to be successful. Once again our success or otherwise will be measured against our ability to avoid relegation!!!!