OTF

Oddly enough, and almost frustratingly so, having the game taken to us in the early stages seems to elicit the best response from our players. We're a long way different in attitude to the 2008 side that was prone to turning off and giving up in matches.

I never get these right, so 2 points

I didn't say that you said he was good enough. What exactly is your point? Everyone including you thinks Perch isn't good enough. That's all that needs to be said.

As well it should or else you'd have hoardes of cloggers fugging up the pitch.

For the kind of wages we'd have to pay Craig Bellamy I'd prefer someone who isn't going to be injured every other week. I think there's some level of romanticism involved with Stevie's assessment of Bellamy. Without doubt he's a very talented player, but 'World Class' means nothing beacuse everyone has a different assessment of what it means. Can't say he'd be in my side (or even close to it) if I was to pick a squad of 30 players from the Premier League.

One of his first games since injury though, so he's given some leeway i guess, where as perch is god awful every week. I take that on board, Ant. It was more me saying Perch would've got dog's abuse rather than me having a pop at Simpson. One thing I noticed about Simpson though, which I noticed last season too, which'll be a problem: he doesn't want the ball when we have it. Because he doesn't have the ability and he knows it. I agree with you too, Chez. I was abusing Simpson a little His positioning was definitely better than Perch though. Simpson was at least there to be beaten by Obina for pace, unlike Perch who would have been jogging back after a failed forray forwards. Positionally he's better than Perch, as an attacking threat he's better than Perch as he has a decent cross, but defensively he's not very good. Hesitant when defending a player with the ball on the deck in front of them. He gives them enough space to get a shot off or slip an easy pass, plus he falls for just about ever feint overcommitting himself in an effort get a last gasp block. Truth be told though he was better than Perch and that's with only 3 reserves games (not full) under his belt. Perch conversely seemed to be getting more and more exposed as each week went by, despite playing in a fixed defensive unit. ChezGiven noone here personally dislikes James Perch so far as I can tell, but we all appreciate that based on what he's shown he just flat out isn't good enough. No amount of good will from the supporters is going to change that. If you want to talk options then Ryan Taylor is a better footballer than Perch, so with neither of them having much to offer defensively it was frustrating to see Perch appear time and time again, pushing far up the pitch time and time again. With Danny Simpson back we should hopefully have someone who is a little better defensively than Perch. I'll give the same sort of assessments of his performances as I do with any player on the pitch.

They'll do ok against decent defense as long as they get service. The problem there being that teams with good defenders are normally good teams and so the service won't be as good. Lovenkrands does make the right runs for the most part, there's value in him still in my opinion. There is if course no guarantee that his touch or finishing will be good on the end of his runs, or of course that the ball will even get to him. Th runs he makes are similar to those that you see from the likes of Kalou except Kalou obviously gets a lot better service at Chelsea.

Yeah Tiote was fantastic again today. Had his worst game for us last start, but even then he would have been the best we've had in that position for a long time. Nolan needs to improve his tackling and defensive involvement, but with Tiote alongside him he can get away with doing less than he'd have to alongside a less able partner. Barton gave away a lot of ball in this game, but still managed some very good contributions, most of all his assist but also free kicks and a decent run or two. I'd still be tempted to play Routledge on the right with Barton and Tiote in the middle. Nolan is undoubtedly a better scorer, but Barton will contribute more across a match. I can see where Chris is comin from having both Barton and Nolan in there with Tiote however it's a dangerous game when you try to play your 'best' players and not your best players in each position. As someone else pointed out it's hard to judge our performance in this game because West Ham were so poor for most of the match. In their good run our defense looked troubled.

Yeah was like he collapsed after running a marathon. In reality it was a 30 yard trot that he was probably dirty about having to make. 3 key points in the bag, thanks very much! West Ham tootheless in the second half, barely anything for Colo and Willo to do, let alone Krul. I'm guessing that Grant won't last much longer if they're going to perform like that.

Good ball from Barton great run from Carroll, horrible defending from them. Come on lads!

We're looking sloppy, maybe time for a change.

Nice passing in the leadup there.

Half time stats. Parker 5 tackles and 5 interceptions. Nolan 1 tackle 0 interceptions ...but 1 goal

Agree. His footwork has been tidy spare for one time where he mucked it up (that I remember). Using his body well and his short pasing looks crisp.

He's never been very good at defending someone with the ball at their feet, falls for every feint and overcommits often. His positioning is better than Perch though. It's hard to tell but this Obina looks to be quite quick, not the player you want to be up against in your return to first team action after a long time out. They've looked poor since they scored, but unfortunately we've also dropped off a bit since getting the equaliser.

Chris needs to get some of our attack directed down our right hand side, if only so that they can't stack our left hand side where pretty much every attacking play is coming from at the moment. Even if we just spread the ball out to Barton and Simpson then have them move it back through the middle via Tiote or Colo and Willo. Even with their defense loaded on our left Enrique has put in a number of dangerous balls and Jonas is getting into dangerous positions. Carroll is throwing his body around nicely and Shola's touch with his feet for the most past has looked decent. Nolan's defense and first touch is very ordinary. Not very mobile but he's getting into the right areas to clean up crosses/corners etc. If he didn't have Tiote playing 'alongside' he'd be more exposed but as it is it's not so bad. Having said that when Hughton inevetably brings Routledge on I wouldn't mind it being at the expense of Nolan bringing Barton into the middle.

Goose step from Tiote! Commentators get it wrong again. Simpson needs to adjust to the fact that this isn't a reserves match and he's horribly outpaced by their left winger.

Horrible attempted jump block tomfoolery from Perch... I mean Simpson after he gave the ball away up the pitch. Heh. At least he made an effort to get back.

Jonas is a cert for drawing two defenders. If Enrique can hold his run he should be able to break into space for Jonas to slip a pass out. Unsurprisingly we have nothing on our right and most of their attack is coming down that side.

I'd disagree, it's because our midfield keeps giving the ball away putting them under pressure. Yeah, we're giving it away needlessly but we conceded because of poor communication between our central defense and they do look worried against the size and mobility of their forwards. Our midfield is passing a lot better at the moment.. ish.

Totally Classic Nolan With that kind of intuition, it's almost like they live together...

and we're behind Our central defence is looking very very poor.

At least on our benxh he can't score against us

Wish we could say the same about Perch.

Barton right mid, egads. At least we'll have relatively equal footing on which to judge Simpson against Perch. Enrique all good Dickhead whoever started that rumour. It will be interesting to see how much running Nolan has when he's played in a central midfield position. There should be nowhere for him to hide here, and if he's got the fitness (ha!) he should have crumbs to clean up from knock downs from both Shola and Carroll. Here's hoping the two of them don't keep making the same runs.