Samaras was left out in the first place because as his performance for Greece against England showed, he was off the pace. He may have picked up a knock in China - the preseason did us no favours. Corradi was busy doing the stuff you don't see - closing play down, running into space, providing service between midfield and Samaras. Hamann was off pace but he's not a quick player - but he made some telling interventions. Again he probably isn't fully recovered from the injury he picked up in China whatever the club says. As far as I'm aware Miller plays on the wing in the reserves and either is or is becoming a left winger. Stevie Ireland is still a little lightweight, a little unaggressive, a little too often caught in possession but is getting there. For the time being he is too much of a liability in midfield especially when better players like Barton, Dabo and Hamann are available but he is improving and he will make the side. Reyna came on to close out the game. Beasley is an attacking player, Reyna is good for shoring things up with 10 minutes to go, he is a better tackler than Beasley and we didn't need to be pressing West Ham. Also Beasley still either hasn't properly recovered from his knock or is still getting used to the pace of the game here in the premiership. We closed the hammers down very, very quickly and didn't give them time to work - when we dropped off them they showed that they were there for a game, they did attack, they didn't get too many shots and that would be down to both Dunne and Distin. Distin is much maligned on here but he had a reasonable game on Saturday, I think a lot of the criticism specifically from Dougisfreshblue but also from others is unjustified. We will see what happens in the next 4 or 5 games. If this was a flash in the pan then clearly we have a problem. But if we regain some of the form we showed earlier last year and Samaras shows some of the promise he did last year we should be in a good position by the end of October. We still have Ned, Vassell and Dabo to come back, Sturridge will probably get a game as long as he realises the premiership is a hell of a step up from reserve football. I know we criticise because we love the club but sometimes if you are too critical when players are just finding their feet you can kill a season.