Alex V 11:52 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread

>>> Still playing Allardyce football with Allardyce players. See very little of Bilic's mark in this yet.

Well said. That was the most depressing thing about the night. First instinct for a bunch of those players still seems to be to aimlessly knock the ball forward somewhere. There was little control in our play. We did improve a little towards the very end of the match - I put that down to us being so tired we couldn't manage to play kick and rush anymore.

dealcanvey 11:02 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

I cant believe people are saying dont worry this is our second string. Second string or not it was a very unprofessional performance from us. So slow it was unbelievable. We fell for their dirty tricks when we should of known better. We will be having injuries and playing alot of games this season. every player will have a role to play and everyone will have to be good enough and up to the task.

Monk~koknee 10:45 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

This may have largely been a second string but they still receive a decent weekly wedge of dosh for being part of a squad in what is meant to be one of the best leagues in the world.

You would expect them to make a better fist of it against teams of part-timers and journeymen.

Coffee 10:44 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

The referee has a disconcerting number of consecutive dots in his name.

ornchurch ammer 10:37 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

I said it weeks back but there were too many people that were too complacent about getting through in this competition.
Birkirkara were so up for it last night it was unreal so, along with their cheating/ gamesmanship made it very difficult. It was like when we were the big scalp in the Championship. Unfortunately none of our players saw it as any more than a pre-season game and played accordingly.

We will have to bring in some of the new boys for the next round or it will be an embarrassing exit.

scott_d 10:35 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

I actually thought Jarvis was our most promising player going forward.

He managed to find some space and get a ball into the box on a few occaisions and was positive for the most part when he had the ball.

I don't think he's finished at West Ham to be fair to him. I think he's actually being made to look wasteful by our strikers not doing their job and finding space.

In the first 2 games against Lusitans, you felt confident when he had the ball because A) he was getting crosses/passes into the box and B) Sakho ws getting on the end of them or at least trying to.

Ronald_antly 10:31 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

O'Brien may be generally shit, but he can certainly take a mean penalty.

Northern Sold 10:17 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

Steve P 7:02 Fri Jul 24

Excellent post P son and thoroughly agree.... I missed the first 30 mins but saw the rest... to be fair I kept waiting for us to up a gear but it never happened... we strolled (apart from a few players)... it was lazy... disjoineted... and on the whole.. absolute trash... this was a team from MALTA... dont matter what team we put out there was enough out there to easily do a job on a team from MALTA... yup that's right... fuc-k-ing MALTA... it was fucking horrible

Coffee 10:15 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

but it has a NEGATIVE growth rate over the last 12 months - presumably because of ISIS and the civil war? - what's it been for the last couple of decades before 2011?

Trevor B 10:11 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

Fingers crossed griff. I presume we can add all the new signings to the squad for next weeks' game??

stewie griffin 10:09 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

Whilst I understand the 'pre-season' argument in terms of fitness, there should, nonetheless, be an obvious gulf in class, quality and most of all technical ability against teams of this nature.

We have now played 4 games - two against the second best team in Andorra and two against the third best team in Malta - and we've looked superior for approximately half an hour of the 390 minutes played.

On the plus side, he's now given these players a fair chance to show what they are capable of, and now he and the board know, hopefully we won't see them again.

jack flash 10:09 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

Justin P

& Lanzini for Jarvis = even better!

Justin P 10:07 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

Jack Flash

Cheers for this , need more verdicts on how players fair in games.

I have the solution,

Swap Nolan for Payet
Swap Maiga for Sakho
Swap Jarvis for Valencia
Swap Noble for Obiang
Swap Tomkins for Reid

That should do it

Pub Bigot 10:06 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

I think far too much is being made of this game. Yes it was shocking, boring, dire and a fat blob scored their goal by turning over our experienced centre back, but just look back to our last pre-season (I know this was a competitive fixture) which was a disaster from start to finish and made no impact on the start we had.

Not worried one little bit.

Willtell 10:05 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

I watched on a stream but was drinking so couldn't comment other than it was a BFS team that played last night. I don't really see how Bilic can do anything else but start bringing in some of the new signings so best forgotten and move on to the next game....

jack flash 9:43 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

I thought Birkirkara got their tactics (if that's the right word) exactly right

Feigning injury, working the ref & winding up our players, on a very hot night

The usual ponderous midfield of :-

Nolan (who is far too old to run in the heat & misplaced nearly every pass)
Noble (who was clearly & easily wound up & could easily have got himself sent off in the 1st 15mins) To his credit he managed to calm himself down for the 2nd half (& showed a bit of grit by slotting home the 1st pen, which is always the most important one!)
Kouyate (who hasn't had a proper pre-season yet)

These 3 created nothing, the whole match

Jarvis should have been beating his man on every occasion at this level. He couldn't

Amalfitano was our only effective player in the 1st half

Zarate definitely has some skill, but doesn't want to pass the ball & kept running up blind alleys, losing the ball because of his lack of strength

Maiga. Surely this was his last, last chance. Don't think he even broke sweat in the heat. Didn't run round, didn't challenge, did nothing, apart from turn up looking pretty in our new kit

Tomkins very stupidly, got himself sent off. I personally thought he deserved it for reacting to provocation. It's about time he fcuking grew up (see Noble) Bilic had previously warned the players about getting provoced. He fell for it hook line & sinker, stupid boy. It could easily have cost us our place in Europe

I thought the rest of the team did OK, particularly JOB (I'm not his greatest fan) who had quite a decent night defensively. He doesn't get forward enough or get enough crosses in to be a stand in RB against better opposition though

isolated hammer 9:21 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

Two games in a row with both Nolan and Noble in the midfield and two sluggish team performances. That should be the end of that partnership.
Having said that, we could have a long season this season and scraping through these qualifiers with a mix of first teamers, youth and dregs is perhaps the only way to go about things.
Result last night was poor but we won and are through.

Coffee 8:28 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

13 Brentford Rd 8:25 Fri Jul 24

The form of champions?

13 Brentford Rd 8:25 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread (WHU win 5-3 pens)

Can't be a bad day can it, we were shit both games and scored one goal.

Steve P 8:25 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread

Sorry, Sakho. Not Valencia.

Steve P 8:24 Fri Jul 24
Re: Birkirkara v West Ham - Official Match Thread

Plus Carroll and Valencia to come in. Maybe.

You would still have backed our squad players to be better than that pub team. That's the most difficult thing to take.

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