pmcla26

Fatawu sitting deep is pointless, he gives away too many crap free kicks in poor positions. Mavididi and Fatawu need to be high and wide as much as possible trying to get their full backs 1v1. Cifuentes is asking too much of them at the minute, especially considering our midfield is devoid of creativity as it is anyway.

GK Okoli Vestergaard Faes Ricardo Skipp Soumare Fatawu James Mavididi Daka

No point bringing Monga on for this. Wouldn’t want him to be on the end of one of Downes’ reckless challenges either.

On footballing ability we have, mentality wise we have a bunch of losers.

Enzo Maresca managed to get Ricardo to play a lot more than Cifuentes is in a much more intense system overall than the one we’re playing currently.

What’s wrong with this ref tonight

I agree, Winks isn't able to shield the defence by himself in Marti's system. Skipp has to start next to him for this one.

Well we could have done more to keep him. Splitting hairs.

The fact we allowed Calvin Bassey to leave and prioritised Thomas’ development is just another on the long list of poor decisions we’ve made in squad building to get to where we are now

Played for a contract, we fell for it

Was always absurd that people would criticise them 3 when we had the likes of Daniel Amartey, Mendy, Thomas etc. starting regularly (the ones that were actually meant to be replaced)

None of them should have been replaced. Could argue contract situation and age sell Tielemans and Maddison at the right time for good money, but Barnes and KDH should’ve been with us for the foreseeable. Shame how it’s ended up.

Reid and Mavididi in for Skipp and Ayew, I would have thought.

Is that Welsh?

Yep, we literally do exactly what the OP is asking for already. Don't create enough high xG chances (apart from Mavididi missing from 2 yards out vs Blackburn, of course)

Okoli Vestergaard Nelson Skipp Ricardo (LB) James Soumare Fatawu Mavididi Daka I'd be intrigued to see how that would work

I think he has to be an 8 in a 433 in English football with legs around him. The thing is he’s not really good enough to demand changing the system around just to suit him, and I think in general none of our midfielders really compliment each other. Both he and Winks are two of the most talented midfielders in the league but playing them together as a double pivot is horror. There’s been no joined up thinking in signing players that compliment each other for a few years now. I think he would have been good in Maresca’s system as an 8.

They had 1 shot until Denmark had 10 men

Soumare is one of the most mismanaged players we’ve ever had. Could easily be a consistent performer in the Premier League under the right manager/team with his attributes.

Kasper, Iker Casillas, Yann Sommer and many more. It’s more about confidence than it is about height. He had confidence in 23/24, started 24/25 confident and played well, got injured then came back probably with less confidence and didn’t perform as well. No pre-season 25/26 and being thrown in the deep end must have been hard for him. He’s got the talent - I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s West Ham’s number 1 by the end of the season or going into next season.

Coventry opening day, Norwich away just off the top of my head. Made some great saves against Stoke away too but we won that one comfortably.

Pearson is a better ‘builder’ and recruiter than Rodgers, no question. That’s about as far as it goes.

Recruitment would have been a lot different with Maresca in 24/25. Ayew, Skipp, Reid, Edouard - none of them would have been signed. Nearly £40m (including Edouard’s loan fees) that would have gone elsewhere. So there’s the possibility we would have got the next Hermansen, Fatawu etc. through the door.

How? We have a manager that won the Premier League and one that won the FA Cup.

This is exactly what we should have done ages ago. Rudkin has done some great work in terms of the academy and day to day operations of the football club, but in terms of the decisions in recruitment and financially he hasn’t got a clue.