lappinitup 629 Posted January 13, 2014 "A week ago Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was Cardiff''s messiah and Sam Allardyce a prat after the novice Norwegian''s first game in charge was a 2-1 "triumph" at Newcastle in the FA Cup, where "Big Sam" turned into "Effing Allardyce" with West Ham''s 5-0 drubbing by Nottingham Forest. A few days later Cardiff are in the Premier League''s bottom three for the first time this season and the Hammers are out of it after a well-merited 2-0 win against Solskjaer''s new charges.As the more sagacious judges tell us, managers are rarely as good as they are cracked up to be when they are winning, and not as bad in adversity. West Ham''s performance at Cardiff rubbished all those phone-in cliches about Allardyce "losing the dressing room" and being "tactically naive". The players'' spirit, individual and collective, was immense, overcoming the loss of their right-back Guy Demel with concussion after seven minutes and the dismissal of James Tomkins after 71." ''Aint that the truth?http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jan/12/west-ham-united-cardiff-city-match-report?CMP=twt_gu Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Indy_Bones 441 Posted January 13, 2014 [quote user="lappinitup"]''Aint that the truth?[/quote]No.The truth is that Cardiff outplayed West Ham for the vast majority of the game, had far more shots (both in total and on-target), monopolised the possession and got booted up in the air in return by West Ham, who somehow managed to scrape goals before the end of each half which on the balance of play were completely undeserved.On another day that would have been 3-0 to Cardiff, and Allardyce would have been getting his marching orders!Sadly the balance of play doesn''t always reward the better team and on this occasion West Ham virtually stole those three points from Cardiff, never mind all this BS about "spirit" and "collective teamplay"... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lappinitup 629 Posted January 13, 2014 Nice to get a report from somebody who was there Indy. Thanks. [;)] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Indy_Bones 441 Posted January 13, 2014 [quote user="lappinitup"]Nice to get a report from somebody who was there Indy. Thanks. [;)][/quote]I''ve seen the highlights, I''ve read the match reports and I''ve looked at the stats - West Ham were lucky to get anything out of that game, and certainly did not deserve a 2-0 win based on the balance of play and quality of football that they played...But I''m sure that now the match stats are lying aren''t they Lapps?How about this one:68% possession to 32%27 shots to 79 shots on target to 110 corners to 36 fouls to 9Let me guess, this was a splendid example of where despite completely battering the opposition, the winning side should have lost because of their opponents ''spirt and team incentive''...Shame that was our 7-0 defeat against Man City though, guess you can''t tell anything from the stats can you...? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lappinitup 629 Posted January 13, 2014 Similar stats to when we played Cardiff then. Perhaps West Ham should be deducted three points because they didn''t deserve them. And they should be given to us because we did.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Indy_Bones 441 Posted January 13, 2014 [quote user="lappinitup"]Similar stats to when we played Cardiff then. Perhaps West Ham should be deducted three points because they didn''t deserve them. And they should be given to us because we did....[/quote]Not at all Lapps, that''s just how football goes at times - the ''better'' team on the day sometimes comes away with nothing despite probably deserving it taking all other factors into account.My disagreement was around the suggestion that West Ham actually DID deserve it based on some nonsense about ''spirit and team incentive'', despite Cardiff being the ''better'' team throughout...Not really important enough for either of us to worry about though, so I''ll leave this one here [:D] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lappinitup 629 Posted January 13, 2014 [quote user="Indy_Bones"]Not really important enough for either of us to worry about though, so I''ll leave this one here [:D][/quote]I''m glad we''ve cleared that one up Indy. [:)]However, my op was not about the game itself but all about fans reactions. Quote......"rubbished all those phone-in cliches about Allardyce "losing the dressing room" and being "tactically naive".Exactly the same as many fans views expressed on here. If, as seems likely, Gutierrez joins Bassong and Redmond in following Hughton to Carrow Rd it would give lie to the theory that players are not playing for him or that he has the dressing room. He seems a very popular manager with his players from where I''m sitting.And can you honestly say us fans who''ve seen the highlights, read the match reports and looked at the stats know more about tactics than a manager who''s spent his entire lifetime in football? [:)] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ricardo 7,349 Posted January 13, 2014 [quote user="Indy_Bones"]9 shots on target to 1[/quote]So how did they score twice with only one shot on target?[8-)] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Indy 3,286 Posted January 13, 2014 [quote user="ricardo"][quote user="Indy_Bones"]9 shots on target to 1[/quote]So how did they score twice with only one shot on target?[8-)][/quote] Funny that Ricardo, Liverpool went 1-0 up without a shot on target, so it does happen! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Indy_Bones 441 Posted January 13, 2014 [quote user="ricardo"]So how did they score twice with only one shot on target?[8-)][/quote]We didn''t, so I think you''re getting confused.The stats I quoted were from our game vs Man City, which clearly illustrated that they had the much better of the play and deserved the result, compared to Cardiff who similarly dominated vs West Ham but ended up losing 2-0... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites