Spector: Chelsea v. West Ham, 11/18/06 (R)

Re: Chelsea vs West Ham(SPECTOR) 11/18/06 (R)

thanks, I couldn't find any articles on the kid, which is why I hadn't started a thread earlier.

 

Live on Setanta tomorrow morning.

 

Re: Chelsea vs West Ham(SPECTOR) 11/18/06 (R)

Good news. It will be a tough challenge to say the least but hopefully he can rebound from some less than impressive performances. No FSC coverage though.

Fox Sports Preview

 

Re: Chelsea vs West Ham(SPECTOR) 11/18/06 (R)

yeah dude what are you talking about, he has been pretty impressive in my eyes

 

Re: Chelsea vs West Ham(SPECTOR) 11/18/06 (R)

Didn't he have a stinker in the last match (which I did not watch)? Didn't he get away with a couple of bad tackles the match before (with one PK not called, and a potential red card not shown)?

 

I thought Spector and Konchesky were our weakest players against the Smoggies but it was a terrible game all around. I agree with the views of 2ndstarright about the tackles in the Arsenal game and it's been done to death already in any case.

I don't think any Hammers fan is expecting much from tomorrows game however it is a London derby and we are the last team to have done the league double over them so you never know.

 

Re: Chelsea vs West Ham(SPECTOR) 11/18/06 (R)

I thought he played fairly poorly, but as has been said before, so did much of the defense. He frequently seemed to be attempting to bait his opponent to try a through pass, and then jump into the way of the pass. Unforunately he would usually be a hair late. As a result, several through balls went right by him.

Also, IIRC, on the yellow card, he let his man (couldn't have been van Persie since he plays for Arsenal) beat him to the inside of the field, with the result that he tried a late-ish tackle from behind and the outside. Don't think it was worth a yellow, but it wasn't a particularly smart play, either.

I wouldn't call his performance in the game a stinker. It just looked like he was out of sync, just like the rest of his team. I can't imagine that his coach would be too worried about it.

 

Re: Chelsea vs West Ham(SPECTOR) 11/18/06 (R)

Would you characterize his performance in these two matches as impressive (since you asked when he was less than impressive)? Just because the whole team plays poorly does not mean that we cannot say that a specific player plays poorly in that match.

 

if its on setanta ill record it and watch it when i wake up


forza inter

 

Re: Chelsea vs West Ham(SPECTOR) 11/18/06 (R)

Not meant to offend, just paraphrasing what has been said and reported. He's obviously done enough in matches and in training to have gained the manager's confidence. That says alot.

 

Re: Chelsea vs West Ham(SPECTOR) 11/18/06 (R)

http://home.skysports.com/matchratings.aspx?fxid=298619&clid=21&cpid=8

Jonathan got "7" from Sky and "7.4" from the fans.

Fanwise, only Tevez graded higher.

 

Re: Chelsea vs West Ham(SPECTOR) 11/18/06 (R)

He deserved it, he was solid. I like him & Tevez on the right side. That seemed to be where most of the action was happening, offense-wise. And no major mistakes on d. that I noticed.

 

spector played alright today from what i saw. he got beat by robben for a dangerous cross that west ham were very lucky nothing came of. but besides that he played fine, no glaring errors or bad play.


forza inter

 

Spector battled really well today and didn't look outmatched at all against Robben or Shevchenko. He is strong, fast and a competitor. He also did get forward a few times though his service wasn't of the best quality.

 

He effectively contained Robben, a player nobody in the world can completely stop, and looked tactically smart and confident when attacking space. Made a great cross on the last action of the game. He looks like a pro, not a project.

 

Spector played a decent game against Chelsea. West Ham are an "honest" side who continued to work hard even though they never really threatened Chelsea in the second half. Spector fit well into what they tried, telescoping some runs out of the back but he made some intelligent passes, played effective positional defense against speedier opponents and generally acquitted himself well against top level competition. His lack of quickness means he has to give his opposing number plenty of space if he wants to stay in front of him. His only average size is a liability against stronger strikers. He got beaten in the air a number of times, hops aren't his specialty. Has he always played on the back line? I could see him becoming more offensive-minded as his career advances albeit more of a distributer where Feilhaber and Bradley will be tough to displace. A solid pro who will have his role to play for the Nats in the next years.

 

He was a forward till age 17,which might explain the occasional positioning error.A couple people on USN&A think d-mid is his future.

 

he is big for an outside defender, average for a central defender. His attacking ability is useful as an outside defender. Which is why his coaches generally use him there. I would guess he will play outside back, probably right, for the USA. He can play some left too. He is plenty quick, probably better than average for a defender. He just needs more seasoning.

 

I didn't go to this game or seen any on TV so it's always interesting reading what neutrals have to say.

 

I caught about 30 minutes of the first half on Fox Sports here in Mexico and I have to say Spector looked good. He had one bad touch were he knocked a ball over the line for a corner when he didn't mean to, but otherwise Chelsea couldn't get much going on his side of the field. He looked good going foward--on one run he was tackled hard by Lampard, who earned a yellow as a result. He connected well with Tevez, who was amazing, by the way. Tevez plays as if he were really 3 people. Spector also had one good shot on goal that I saw, a looping header from the top of the box off of a corner.

 

Now, that is a convincing bit of analysis!

 

"you can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him"

- Frankie Hejduk