I left writing this until the dust settled on today...

Hi guys,

I am bitterly disappointed like the rest of you and even though today's performance was low-key, flat & well...quite frankly p*ss poor, I'm only blaming one thing & that is burn out.

I said prior to Xmas we were starting to look slightly jaded - now...well I think we are running on empty!

Yes Wes Ham were far superior in every department, (however if Whitts's free kick goes in, I wouldn't be surprised if we'd gone on to win as we were on top at that point, the crowd were getting into it...momemtum was with us etc...) but that obviously didn't happen & the rest is history.

But what I really want to say is that West Ham did to us what we were doing to everyone else when we were fresh. They ran the legs off us & didn't give anyone a moment's peace. We simply cannot do that anymore.

We have a squad, albeit a small threadbare squad, but now is the time to use whatever fresh legs we have - and we do have some.

It may not be nice to read here so I apologise in advance but the guys I'm thinking of are the likes of Quinn, Naylor, Darcy, Kiss, Earnie, Conway, Rawlls, Harris, Gerrard & now Lawrence.

They may not be world beaters and I'm not saying they are better than our "first 11" by any stretch, but that is 10 positions that can be freshened up, utilised & rotated.

For Example....(and I'm not making this players out to be scapegoats, I'm just hopefully trying to justify my point!) Cowie was our top scorer at the start of the season with something like 6 in 7/8 games. I can't remember the last time he notched? He hasn't changed position - he is just knackered & can't burst into the box like he was. So rest him.

Kev since he has come back from injury looks a shadow of the player we all love. Confidence seems shot & he is certainly not covering every inch of the touchline like he was before. So rest him.

We have ready made replacements - Quinn or Darcy could fill the RB slot & let Kev rest. Cowie, Rawlls, Harris, Lawrence...hell..in fact even Kiss could play on the right.

We are light up front, Miller is short of confidence but Earnie cannot play with him (as proved) or instead of him as a lone striker, now with Gestede going off injured, the number 9 position (target man/loan striker role) is a real cause for concern.

Freshen things up, make people play for their places and I do think the results will turn. Everyone...EVERYONE has a blip/poor run of form at some point. We still have 13 games to get the results we need to hopefully secure a top 6 place, & everyone around still has to play each other so points will be dropped.

I'm not expecting much at Brighton except a positive reaction to today, but I hope I'm wrong (just don't forget Brighton are on a tremendous run of form!!!!)

Just don't slag the players if they can't bust a gut like they were prior to Xmas!

looks like we,ll do what watford did last year and blow up...think they are knackered and could do with all the intense sessions malky does maybe its catching up with them.

Very good post, but the answer to it is simple, we should of strengthened and we will now suffer because of it.

Have we become a bit predictable and are our opponents know how to combat us? We have been full of energy but we haven't got the players to get behind the defence and cross into the box/create chances. Lack of width/height in attack.

We definitely were not at the races today and played with no real plan of attack.

However I thought West Ham had the rub of the green and I reckon Sam Allardyce is sucking off the ref as we speak.

It will turn again I am sure!!

a good read that. but it dont wash with me players being tired and all that. these players are athletes. they have there diets checked. there scanned for injuries before they even happen etc. i think it could be used as an excuse . but work out how many hours they work in a week?

yes i think we have become predicatable - but I don't think it has helped changing to 442. We are being over run in midfield, and Whitts clearly hasn't got anywhere near as much influence on the game because of the fact we are being run ragged.

I'm not sure if it was by luck or judgement but when we were 451 Kiss & Gunnar defended so high up the pitch they were almost alongside Miller!! However that left Whitts to control the game playing behind these two. Kiss get's injured, and we have to try and adapt. It just hasn't paid off - which yes - you could say no plan b/one dimentional team etc...

However, now Kiss is back fit "if it ain't broke don't fix it" springs immediately to mind. Go back to what was working.

But still rotate the squad. We have enough players to play that 451 formation & we can give some of the guys a much needed rest. (The only one unfortunately who can't be rested is Whitts as he is pivotal to that tactic & we have no one else who can do that job!!)

Good post,

I don't think Kiss is the issue, its Joe Mason, where does he fit in the 451 ? Unless he is the 1

I second all that, but if we r running on empty, let's use our bench. Baffling that was today!!

Very good post, but the answer to it is simple, we should of strengthened and we will now suffer because of it.

But we didnt while we was in 3rd four points above 4th and one point behind 2nd ,If that was not a good enough reason to get more in then what is or when will there ever be a better time than back then

I second all that, but if we r running on empty, let's use our bench. Baffling that was today!!

Hi guys,

I am bitterly disappointed like the rest of you and even though today's performance was low-key, flat & well...quite frankly p*ss poor, I'm only blaming one thing & that is burn out.

I said prior to Xmas we were starting to look slightly jaded - now...well I think we are running on empty!

Yes Wes Ham were far superior in every department, (however if Whitts's free kick goes in, I wouldn't be surprised if we'd gone on to win as we were on top at that point, the crowd were getting into it...momemtum was with us etc...) but that obviously didn't happen & the rest is history.

But what I really want to say is that West Ham did to us what we were doing to everyone else when we were fresh. They ran the legs off us & didn't give anyone a moment's peace. We simply cannot do that anymore.

We have a squad, albeit a small threadbare squad, but now is the time to use whatever fresh legs we have - and we do have some.

It may not be nice to read here so I apologise in advance but the guys I'm thinking of are the likes of Quinn, Naylor, Darcy, Kiss, Earnie, Conway, Rawlls, Harris, Gerrard & now Lawrence.

They may not be world beaters and I'm not saying they are better than our "first 11" by any stretch, but that is 10 positions that can be freshened up, utilised & rotated.

For Example....(and I'm not making this players out to be scapegoats, I'm just hopefully trying to justify my point!) Cowie was our top scorer at the start of the season with something like 6 in 7/8 games. I can't remember the last time he notched? He hasn't changed position - he is just knackered & can't burst into the box like he was. So rest him.

Kev since he has come back from injury looks a shadow of the player we all love. Confidence seems shot & he is certainly not covering every inch of the touchline like he was before. So rest him.

We have ready made replacements - Quinn or Darcy could fill the RB slot & let Kev rest. Cowie, Rawlls, Harris, Lawrence...hell..in fact even Kiss could play on the right.

We are light up front, Miller is short of confidence but Earnie cannot play with him (as proved) or instead of him as a lone striker, now with Gestede going off injured, the number 9 position (target man/loan striker role) is a real cause for concern.

Freshen things up, make people play for their places and I do think the results will turn. Everyone...EVERYONE has a blip/poor run of form at some point. We still have 13 games to get the results we need to hopefully secure a top 6 place, & everyone around still has to play each other so points will be dropped.

I'm not expecting much at Brighton except a positive reaction to today, but I hope I'm wrong (just don't forget Brighton are on a tremendous run of form!!!!)

Just don't slag the players if they can't bust a gut like they were prior to Xmas!

Good post mate and i agree with most things you say

annis come on honestly tell us in your opinion why have we not invested in new players

annis come on honestly tell us in your opinion why have we not invested in new players

This is an excellent question and not only addressed to Annis.

There still seems to be an undercurrent on this board that the reason Malky has not strengthened the squad is because he has not had the funds to do so.

This still appears to be the insinuation even after the failed bids in the transfer window, after the post from Carl saying that the Malaysians keep asking Malky when he's going to sign anyone and even after we appear to be paying Liam Lawrence's not insubstantial salary from Portsmouth.

So, let's ask the question. Who's fault is it that we've not strengthened - the Malaysians or Malky?

Good post - and we definitely should have sured things up in January with some proper signings.

West Ham were very good today, they closed us down all accross the park and as you said didn't give us any time on the ball.
Teams are starting to really hassle Whitts and give him a bit less time on the ball, which I think we can expect for the rest of the season.

I honestly believe Malky has been to choosey in getting in tranfers to strengthen the team and we have missed out big time. Our players started to look jaded before the transfer window closed when we should have acted quickly in bringing players in but left it to the last moment and missed out.
Dont see what Malkys tactics were today in not making substitutes Blake for a poor McNaughton and maybe Conway, and for not having a striker on the bench I can't understand. There are too many teams with close points in the top ten teams and I believe we are going to sink further down the table, without bringing on fresh players like Darcy, Quinny, Earnshaw,Conway,Ralls, Naylor and Lawrence and give them a chance. Our present players have been excellent and played as a team but are now all burnt out because we havent rotated them enough. So come on Malky sort it out!

If any of our players are burnt out the first weekend in March then we should be selling them first chance.

They didn't look jaded 7 days ago. They were taking all the plaudits of a good performance. So in the space of two weeks they've been jaded and tired, then turned in a superb performance against Liverpool over 120 mins and then became jaded again.

Today's game was shit. We were shit, West Ham were shit, the crowd were shit. Everything was shit. Their second goal was so shit, it summed up how shit today was.

In terms of chances, there was nothing between the teams today other than they finished their ones off which ultimately is the aim of the game. I was a bit baffled that he didn't make another change but on thinking about it, I don't actually know what other change I'd have made. I would have started Vuckic before Rudy and that should now be a given come midweek but I wonder who will make way for Lawrence.

Would Earnie have made a difference today? No, because the ball wasn't going into the box. As always Miller is having to come deeper and do his work from outside the penalty area. We were sloppy on the ball, Whitts and Gunnar were pickpocketed a few times too many and at times the passing was careless from everyone. I expect much better over the next 180 minutes.

You stop whitts you stop cardiff simple

The problem today wasn't tiredness it was lumping the ball out of defence to no one (and we didn't even sign him from Brighton ) . We play five in midfield then hit the ball over their heads all afternoon to the opposition defence and it comes straight back at us because Rudy can't hold it or knock it to one of our players. When we played through them today we caused them some real problems. If you hit it out our players have to be given a 50/50 chance of getting on to it. We should get back to playing fast football and let them chase us... having said that West Ham did look hungrier than us today though.

Put simply we lack pace out wide and a threat up front.

MM knows this, this is why he went for Matt Phillips, Noone and Sordell in the window.

We don't have the pace to get in behind the opposition and hence we end up passing the ball across the front of them.

Now Lawrence can deliver a quality ball but will he get in behind them, no. If the quality ball does come in who's on the end of it.... We need another striker, Lovenkrands is an answer, or Jay..........

Well if we are burnt out because of the performance today then how about when we played Blackpool, Leicester and Ipswich. Lets go back a bit further, how about when we played Doncaster......cannot think of anymore. There have been a lot of games where we have been bad lately, very bad.

Very good post, but the answer to it is simple, we should of strengthened and we will now suffer because of it.

But we didnt while we was in 3rd four points above 4th and one point behind 2nd ,If that was not a good enough reason to get more in then what is or when will there ever be a better time than back then

I still cant work it out, something does not add up.

like someone commented earlier, we are doing what watford done last year they were in the mix come end of january then fell away from then on ..

it could be 2 things

1 teams have worked us out and know how to play against us

2 as a squad we are burnt out, and i put that down to malky, he has got players prob not as good as the first eleven that he could of used .

earnie can not play with miller we know that ,but he scores goals and miller has had enough chances now he needs to be rested and give earnie a chance.

if you go through the league we have prob got the one of or not the worst strikers at hand , why was he bidding 3 million for sorddel when west ham picked up maynard and te vaz for a total of 2.5 million

I know the automatic promotion places are prob out of reach now but a big push for play offs would be nice, but i would not be gutted if we dont make it this year as we dont have the squad to stay up and also i dont think the money would be spent..
I as a fan would love malky to have another summer with the squad and be given a nice bit of cash to pick some good players up and build a great squad and see us go up confortably next year as the three sides that come down will be shit so it will all be up for grabs, no big clubs spending money

over and out

I think MM said he would need 3 transfer windows then judge him?
Well he's had 2 , and really he has not done so bad. This season is a season of transition , I think we all would agree with that, we didn't expect much in August, and so far we are doing way better than I thought.
I do think other teams have worked us out as a one trick pony, everything goes through Whitts. So now its time to maybe alter one or two things, maybe with Lawrence joining us, taking the weight of Whitts a little, perhaps Earnie on the bench or the young kid Harris, we are way too slow on the breakout, and we need to play through balls not lump them up high, where we cant compete.
Malky its up to you, to sort us out. 13 games left we need 25 points, to get us into the play offs, so lets stay the 90 +minutes, in every game, and support the boys and make some noise.