saha's hit came from teh right side? how is spectors cross from his left foot? I thought he was there best crosser from the right side. Probably best passer out of the back by a mile.
the winning goal came from his side of the pitch. I dont know if he was at fault. No one was giving the pBp. I have to say this kid is being killed by his versatility. He is a CB, who plays better at RB, who now has to man LB. As I said before, I would actually like to see him at Dmid as I think he is turning into a very gifted passer. My only knock on him is that he doesnt play with a chip on his shoulder. He is very considerate. I like defenders to have a little nasty.
Hammerette will fill us in im sure. Neither Everton or West Ham are as bad as the table would indicate. It is nice to see Spector locking in some clock at left back
I was at Upton Park today. JS played a serviceable game at left back. First goal he had nothing to do with. On the second, he was in a difficult pick-your-poison type of situation where he had to choose between pulling into the center on Fellani or staying wider to prevent a clear chance by Gosling (Everton right mid). In the end, I would say he made the wrong choice and got caught out of position. Still, that's easy to say with full hindsight. Spector as a left back: I think that he's adequate. Clearly, he is hampered by a relatively weak left foot. More often than not, he pulled the ball back to his right. One impact of this is to limit his abilities going forward, and I think he didn't press the game on his side as a result. His few services with the left were not good. His tackling was sound. Except for the difficult decision on the goal, his play defensively was very good IMO. His passing was generally good, but fairly cautious. They love Faubert's crossing from the right and Spector is not a natural on the left, so I expect that Spector's chances will continue to come as first choice replacement. In general, West Ham played an utterly forgettable first half. Only Scott Parker did anything resembling dangerous and basically everything went through him. But without Cole and with no service from anyone on the wings (not just Spector ... and besides Hines and Franco are not exactly powerful in-the-box types) the Hammers seemed without many ideas. After WHU went down 2-0, Stanislas and Diamanti were brought on and the whole tenor of the game changed. Stanislas brought additional speed and Diamanti took over the game. Why Diamanti doesn't start is beyond me. He's got bite and talent (but boy does he love to shoot) which WHU absolutely needed to adapt to the loss of Carlton Cole. That's about it. A nice day in east London. Cheers.
I was also at the match today. Have to agree with this assessment of Spector's play today. The second goal came from his side of the pitch, but to be fair, he probably couldn't have prevented it. He played pretty well.
One good save off a Diamanti free kick low to Howard's left corner. Arguably, could have done better on Stanislas' chip which Hibbert put in for own goal. Came up with the ball in the final goal mouth scramble. Excellent distribution, especially in the first half. Put the ball onto the head or chest of the Italian filmmaker and the French striker numerous times. Other than that, not too much to do.
I wasn't there (would have been nice) but caught the second goal on the FSC re-play tonight. I think it's VERY hard to fault Specs for the 2nd goal. The entire defense, except him, clumped up on the right side leaving JS to cover two players on the left in the box. When the pass came over to the left, he did the right thing-- he took the ball. You always have to stop the ball first, worry about the other players later. He forced Everton into a difficult shot, which was saved. The player he left uncovered was to the inside, meaning three other WHU defenders had not as far to go to recover. They just didn't get there in time (almost, but not quite). If you need to blame anyone, blame the two centerbacks for clumping so far over to the right on the play. I swear there were three defenders all standing within 5 feet of each other.
I'm back in the States and waiting on my flight to DC... Upon further reflection, Spector was pretty good yesterday. He couldn't have done much to prevent the 2nd goal. West Ham supporters don't thing much of him (the fan next to me was a nice guy, but he told me that he thought Jon was rubbish, even after he knew I was a Yank) but they seemed to think he performed pretty well yesterday. Jon has trouble when he's dealing with speed, and Everton doesn't have anyone on his side of the pitch with speed.
they say that about all yanks in every capacity. they fear that one day soccer will become the 5th most popular sport in America and we will overtake them. First the GBP gets eaten by the euro then the Americans make them call it soccer.
You must encounter a completely different set of English than my colleagues and acquaintances. Or, more likely, this is claptrap.