West Ham 1 City 0: Player ratings

Chris Bailey

March 01, 2009

DESPAIRING DIVE: Shay Given

GIVEN: handling was sure and tricky saves look routine. Bit unlucky for the game’s winning goal 6

RICHARDS: pulled hamstring in process of being fouled early in the opening quarter of an hour 6

DUNNE: has looked back to his best since his four-game ban and there was more evidence here 8

ONUOHA: even when everyone fit and suspension free has made eloquent case to stay in 8

BRIDGE: must be tired of being constantly left exposed to two attackers but was fairly secure 6

KOMPANY: clearly hampered by long standing toe problem 6

ZABALETA: tends to give away too many free kicks but no lack of effort in any position 6

DE JONG: ran the game at times at Liverpool but passing let him down here in first half 5

IRELAND: looked as though so many quick games in succession had sapped superman powers 6

ROBINHO: odd bit of nifty footwork impressed but not much in the way of dynamism or threat 5

BELLAMY: roundly booed all afternoon and never got going before taken off in second half 5

SUBSTITUTES:

CAICEDO (for Richards 14) – had two great chances to snatch a point 6

ELANO (for Bellamy 66) – the odd attractive pass but no breakthrough 6

BOJINOV (for de Jong 88) – great to see him back; no time to mark

NOT USED: Hart, Garrido, Bojinov, Berti and Vassell

BATTLE OF THE BOSSES: Hughes – forced into an early reshuffle after Richard’s injury and kept rotating in vain bid to boost tired troops; Zola – also had to change his preferred system due to an injury but would have been pleased with his side’s dogged defending

WHU: Green, Neill, Ilunga, Parker, Cole, Kovac (Spector 83), Upson, Behrami (Savio 42), Tomkins, Collison, Di Michele (Lopez 87). Not used: Lastuvka, Sears, Payne, Stanislas,

REFEREE: Mike Dean (Wirral) – whistle happy official didn’t endear himself to anyone - 5

ATTENDANCE: 34,562

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josey, frodsham (01/03/2009 at 16:12)

garbage as usual, go now and take robi with you

TOE, NEW MILLS (01/03/2009 at 16:55)

lets put this in perspective, IT IS AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE!!! that we have only won 1 game away from home this year, its and ABSOLUTE DISGRACE! that a manager of a top football club has still not sussed the problem.The UEFA cup is nothing but a smokescreen for a very very very poor season.

svens record: p38 w15 d10 L 13 pts 55 2 derby day wins hughes record p27 w9 d5 L 13 pts 32 1 derby day loss 11 games left to win 6 draw 5 lose none to match svens record. sven 3 weeks before season spent £75 million mark hughes full summer before season over £150 million spent GONE is the goals we were scoring for fun at the start of the season how ironic that the thumping wins and the away win were basically with the squad that hughes inherited.Gone is the myth of his teams being better back end of season. FACT is season is over 38 games and MARK HUGHES record will be worst than svens record, and for all those harping on that we had lucky results last year and been unlucky this year.what a load of tosh!

bluemanchester (01/03/2009 at 17:56)

are you in love with sven TOE, NEW MILLS?

move on, you're coming across like the 'keegan is the messiah' lot up in geordie land.

sven was a top bloke bit its over. are you gonna compare every manager to him until you kick it?

Edski Vega, Nottingham (01/03/2009 at 18:13)

Toe, New Mills......

I agree but would add the word Sickening to your statement! We have lost as many games as all the teams under us (inc the relegation sides).... Words fail me!

subahu (01/03/2009 at 18:18)

We played ok, I thought that Caicedo lost the game for us by missing some sitters, if we had a world class stiker to aim at then we would have won the game. We had decent possession but no-one to replace Micah on the bench. I just think that we play good football at times but we are a bit toothless because Caicedo is not fast enough for the premiership or tall enough to be a good target man. He just seems to have two paces, either walking or a slow jog and never once saw him sprint, has anyone? Ireland, Dunne, De Jong and Nedum had great games. We can't boss away games because we are too physically weak and short to bully other teams especially as Mike Reilly incessantly gave free kicks to West Ham and was their 12th man.

Nick,The Voice of Reason,, caterham,Surrey,(Blackley Born & Bred) (01/03/2009 at 18:18)

How does that one go again...??"we ll be much stronger in the second half of the season"...As usual BUNKUM spoken by your clueless (bring Bojinov on for the last minute to save the game) manager Hughes!!

simon23 (01/03/2009 at 18:39)

Caicedo on 38% of the votes!! ?....I thought he was woeful.

Hayman of Whalley Rangers, Rugby (01/03/2009 at 18:46)

We are such a soft touch even for the likes of West Ham -- we will not win another game away from home this season ...when has that ever happened before ? Certain though if it ever happened the manager at that time did not have £millions to spend like Hughes.

Norvaner, Vancouver (01/03/2009 at 18:57)

I'm lost for words with those rankings. As per "The Sunday People" 10: out of this world 9: Excellent 8: Very Good 7: Good 6: Average 5:Below average 4: Stinker.

Rodney Marsh got a 4 for his debut against Chelsea

Today...Ireland, Caceido, (4) Zabby, Kompany, Richards, Bellamy (5) Given, Ned, (6) Nigel, Bridge, (7) Dunne & Robby.

Ned made Cole look good. I've never seen Cole have so much space !

Mgt to blame.....not MH solely, but lack of passion & ideas again !

CTID!!!!, Daniel Latham, Glossop (01/03/2009 at 19:06)

subahu,

Do you actually thing De Jong played great?!?! He was awful, give the ball away about 10 times in first half, which always put us under pressure and he was generally quite poor. Also i think these ratings are as good as i have seen for a long while. Normally there are way off the mark.

CTID.

the invisible fan, manchester (01/03/2009 at 19:38)

just to let you fellow blues no my cous was policing the match at half time major bust up between the players we dont no who but it all went off though!!! and after the match when he was waiting to escort the team coach out of london(so they didnt get attacked) hughes was refusing to come out and the police left the coach at west ham!! he said we were a shambles and embarassing!!

what has happend to us we are a laughin stock!

BristolStevefromOldham, bristol (01/03/2009 at 20:03)

I thought this was a decent perofrmance from the players. Having also watched at Pompey - which was painful, thinking you had spent all that time and money to get there - this was better. Most, maybe all, we putting in genuine effort and our defensive shield seems good. Yes, Cole was a handful but (v the guy above here) I thought Ned had a good game, also Dunne, Zab, VK. I still think De Jong is an excellent buy and if gave the ball away, it was probably because there was no one to pass to. Caicedo is not yet good enough to be a target man. But the main problem was the 'shape' . What in heaven's name had MH told them to do. Ok the back four were the back four, and VK and DeJ were central midfield. But where were Stephen, Robinho and Bellamy supposed to be. If Bellamy was supposed to be hanging on the shoulder of the back four, then Caicedo should have been told to drop deeper and link up the play. Ireland seemed to be in the same space as VK and DeJ. And we had no width. So (being behind the goals) in the second half you could see DeJ and VK crossing the half way line and looking up and seeing.....nothing. Caicedo, Stephen and Bellamy were all narrow and passes to them were easily picked off. And yet when we worked it up through the mid field it was crying out for some width on the right. Zab seemed reluctant to come up (why?). Had he been told to hang back? After Bellamy went off and Elano came on it brightened up but we stioll had no width. Evevntually you could see the players thinking lets make it up ourselves and get forward anyway we can. In general I have been a pro-MH person, but today is beginning to persuade me otherwise. He doesn't seem to know how to make the best of the players he has.

Rodney Marsh's Sideburns, Withington (01/03/2009 at 20:06)

Same old City Dunne playing well but the rest of the team is crap. Is there a connection here? Robinho has been bullied senseless since he came to England he has talent but people get jealous he has been set up harried and bullied. They tried it on the pitch but he skipped the challenges then the papers laid into him then was set up. Brazil is a much tougher environment than England there is no social security there, few hospitals and serious crime on the streets it makes me laugh when people say the premiership is tough it is not. The English are very very soft except for City fans of course thats why the majority of non city fans bully. If there is a problem with the referee in Venezuala or Argentina they try to kill him here he is heralded by the FA then fails totally in international competitions like Graham Poll or Webb both of which were sent home in disgrace. The point I am making is this is reality thats why Brazil have won 5 world cups and play at a much higher level we have one on home grown soil the prem is fixed and kept at a low standard to ensure world understanding and keep excitement high. Just stating the facts about football in England today I suppose the hooligans that used to direct violence before now use the pen and media as there weapon.

coleraine true blue, coleraine n, ireland (01/03/2009 at 20:07)

I watched the game on the computer and thought the performance matched the stuttering presentation that was being broadcast, the team had no passion, drive, commitment if it hadn't been for Dunne, Onuoha and Bridge for a change the score would have been greater, Mark needs to wise up to some of the players he has brought in for they certainly are not giving as good a show as the ones he inherited, what was once a goal scoring machine is more in the line of an old banger which failed it's M O T, You only have to look at the stats for the first dozen or so matches and you can see this, So is it time for Sparky to go back to basics, Try putting on the team that started the season if they can be motivated or maybe Klinsman will be getting his job sooner than he thinks, A lot more effort needed both in coaching side and the managerial as I do not think the present set have a clue, I feel they are trying to do what was being done at Blackburn but don't have the hatchet men for the job, Enough said "I'M JUST DISGUSTED!"

Belanov, The Pub (01/03/2009 at 20:12)

Welcome back Val! 2 equal teams, they edged it - Not a great day, but much better than Stoke and Pompey?

Robert Doty, U.K. (01/03/2009 at 20:29)

Ireland was horrible - easily his worst match this season. The only
positive thing he did all match was to lunge and kickout at Parker after
he scythed down Robinho. De Jong was excellent in the second half.
Bridge caught napping once again on the goal.

Reidus, Cambridge (01/03/2009 at 21:40)

I went to the game today. Ive been a big supporter of Hughes but today we were utter garbage. He's our problem. Our main striker gets man-marked by 2 CBs and our wingers get man marked by their full backs. Thus we can never find these men especially with 3 out and out defensive midfielders who cant pass the ball forward for toffee. We are deploying 3 holding players!!!!!!!!! How are these gonna feed 3 man-marked players??? We need to play 4-4-2 whereby the CBs have 2 guys to worry about and our wide-men can come from deep (hence arent man-marked). 4-4-2 wud give us solidity down the flanks too. 2 banks of 4 away from home is solid. We cud even play it as a 4-4-1-1 with Robinho in his favoured central role off the front man and he wudnt need to defend at all (hence no over-exposure for Bridge). :-(

MAN-KEY-UNION, MANCHESTER (01/03/2009 at 23:49)

Really don't know where Chris Bailey gets 8 for Dunne, he just seemed to be aimlessly prancing about as usual.This really does say it all about Hughes,he should of got rid in January. Contrary to others belief,I thought the midfield and forwards worked hard but were unnerved by an unsure defence,Thought Elano opened things up again and showed he should be used more.

Free Shaunie Wright (01/03/2009 at 23:51)

for starters on a tiny pitch like that one where we are constantly being crowded out we need to use more width. SWP and petrov will help us greatly in that department. but secondly i feel that too much of our midfield are either purely defensive players or purely attacking players. Kompany and De Jong are, lets face it, defenders (/defensive midfielders). One of which in that position is ok. then we have the elano's, robinho's (+petrov's) who dont really defend. Stevie and SWP can do both, but are not really asked to that much in our current formation. What i am really getting at here is that we are missing the M Johnson type of player. A jack of all trades. Recently zabaleta has been filling in in this role but is perhaps not quite as creative going forward.

Tipperary Blue (01/03/2009 at 23:51)

Looks like the Rags under-12 supporters are block-voting for Caicedo as MotM

Pivo, Manchester (02/03/2009 at 00:12)

We were nowhere near as good as we were at Anfield last week, but we certainly did more than enough to earn a point. Too many missed chances. And what is afflicting our full backs this season? Their poor marking has cost us dear all season long. Stevie Ireland looks knackered and badly needs a rest. With Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton and Utd still to play away from home it looks like the Sunderland game at the start of the season will be our only 3 points, certainly based on the evidence so far.

Blue is a Manc thing, manchester (02/03/2009 at 01:03)

Toe ,New Mills
Sven's away record was not much better. If winning both derby games is how you judge a season.........well that says everything about you. Listen carefully we did not win another away game after the swamp last season. In fact we didn't win many home games either. Or have you in your Sven haze forgotten that.
I see all the Hughes out brigade are on here in force tonight, only to be expected. No vision, no interest in the future, no real interest in supporting the team only come on here to complain, nowhere to be seen on this site last weekend nor thursday.
Did Ted Knott say Copenhagen would knock us out of the Uefa cup? I see 'Arsenal will beat us 3-0' Nick from Caterham as reappeared also.

Well we'll see. It may be worth mentioning ( and don't start yelling that they are professional footballers) that the same 10 out of the 11 starters today has played the last four games. in the space of 10 day's. Unlike West Ham who rested a shed load when getting knocked out of the Cup this week. Even the Spuds and 'ever so humble' Villa didn't put out a decent team on thursday. Although neither of them gained any advantage today by not doing. (am I the only person who wants Villa to fall out of the top four?)
All this really goes to show is that we are still miles off having a decent s that quad. Look at today's bench Vassell was there again.
Great to see Boj back maybe he will finally get be the player we thought he might be 18 months ago. Although did you all expect him to play 90
minutes or something today? I see Geovanni threw a tantrum today when he was substituted must be a Brazilian thing.
CTID and beyond

Raph, Rossendale (02/03/2009 at 03:15)

We are failing at the moment because we don't have a good enough quality target man to partner Bellamy and because we virtually play with 10 men away from home due to Robi's disgraceful apathy. I thought we played ok today, most of the players really battling hard, some good possession just a lack of quality/composure in the final third.
We're gonna finish 7/8/9th which isn't a bad effort considering all the upheaval this year. Let's think big for a minute - in summer we add a commanding top class centre half (Terry), an outstanding left winger (Ribery), a world class front man (Fabiano,RSC) and a creative midfield player (Diego) and play a 4-4-2 formation and we'll finish top 6 minimum next year. Rome wasn't built in a day - if we sack hughes we have to start again. A new manager wants new players and we end up with a squad top heavy with megabucks earners who can't get in the team cos the new manager doesn't rate them, who can't be moved on cos nobody will match their wages and lo and behold there's huge unrest at the club again.

Believe me I'm not one of these irritating people who preach sticking with the incumbent because continuity is the way to success - if the manager isn't good enough he won't get it right no matter how long he gets. But for me hughes is putting the right foundations in place to buildan empire here and we just have to hope that the oil boys are as pragmatic and long term focused as they claim to be.

Keep the faith boys the future's bright

Kiwiblue, Wellington, New Zealand (02/03/2009 at 07:36)

Very liberal scores. Numerous misplaced passes by Kompany and De Jong. Ireland was a 3 at best. As usual too slow to get behind WHU, Robinho is not a winger and why was Cole given so much space? And why did we have to wait until the 88th minute for Bojinov? At least Elano put a few decent passes together. This team will not qualify for Europe. Thankfully there are a few sides worse than us i.e. WBA, Stoke and Hull not to mention Newcastle otherwise we would be in real trouble. Can't see us finishing any higher than tenth at best.

nottingham_blue (02/03/2009 at 09:08)

anyone else still think it was a good thing we missed out on parker?

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