Spector: West Ham vs. Man United [R] 2-8-09

He is on the bench and I would look for him to get some minutes today.

 

They've actually beaten Man U both times Spector has played. I believe he had very strong games in both matches.

 

He did play well in that game (the one that kept West Ham up).

I think his best games as a pro came against Liverpool while at Charlton.

His worst game was against Chelsea in 07. SWP skinned him.

 

Let's not forget one of his best games was when he got MotM for Man U.

 

What a classy goal from Mr. Giggs. He made that look so easy.

 

I'm sure I can't dent the hype, but that's Premier League defending? And our World Cup hope is on the bench? Ouch.

 

A lot of our World Cup hope is on the bench somewhere: Altidore, Edu, Beasley, Szetela (sometimes), Guzan, Spector, Adu, etc.

 

But some folks would argue we'd be better off leaving them behind for players who play all the time in MLS. I'm not one of those folks.

 

Me neither. But it can be situational. I'd take Marshall and Kljestan over Edu and Spector right now.

 

Looks like you got half of it:

http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_12550144.html

 

don't worry, it WAS ryan giggs. lol, he's been doing this for almost 20 years now.

 

C'mon... that wasn't just shockingly poor defending, that was like Benny Hill end credits without the lingerie.

 

The West Ham defence made one mistake and it lead to a well taken goal from a player who has been one of the best players in the premier league for years playing for the best team in the league and we have a poster who lambasts them as playing like comedians. What sort of mentality is it to bitch about a defence that conceeds one goal against one of the best teams in the world FFS. Those comedians have kept clean sheets against Liverpool away, Arsenal away (last week) and Chelsea away this season.

Maybe that's why Spector didn't play in this game? You can just imagine Zola thinking about team selection today something like "I know, despite keeping a clean sheet at the Emirates last week and the defence playing exceptionally well I'm going to drop one of my defenders today and bring in a squad player who has barely kicked a ball all season". Maybe that's why he's a manager and the rest of us are sat in front of our computers being monday morning wannabes?

I thought West Ham played well and worked hard against superior opposition and were no means outclassed. We had chances but against that level of opposition if you don't take them you know that they only need one chance to punish you which they did. I'm disappointed we didn't get the draw but I was pleased with the teams performance and the way we are progressing.

 

Don't get too defensive about the posts. It is BS, after all.

Great game to watch! I enjoyed it immensely. WH has everything to be satisfied with short of the win. ManU closed things down really well defensively. But who knows? On another day, the ball would have bounced a bit differently in the ManU PA and that would have been a WH win. All in all, a very good, highly competitive game. Clean, professional play. The only thing I'd criticize would be the relative paucity of WH flank play compared to their pretty successful attacks down the middle.

 

You are absolutely right. However, this is a Yanks Abroad and people want Spector to do well, and if that means West Ham does well or not, most don't care.

 

If I had my druthers, West Ham would humiliate Man Utd. Didn't mean to say your team did poorly overall, and I was not suggesting Spector should start over those defenders.

The goal was laughable, that's all. Whoever our World Cup defenders are, I hope they can do better than those poor fellows managed on that play.

 

It's difficult to judge how well he is doing without taking into account the circumstances of the team he is playing for. The reason Spector isn't playing is not because he's not a good player it just happens that the players currently starting are performing well and like any other player in his position he has to bide his time and wait for his chance. He will get that soon enough as Neill has now reached 5 yellow cards and has a suspension due.

 

Well, they just signed him to an extension so I'd imagine West Ham are stuck with him for a bit. Hopefully he'll get a shot fairly soon.

Of course, I still wish he stuck it out with Man Utd

 

All it takes is seeing John O'Shea playing for ManUtd for me to realize Spector left too soon.

As I'm sure Kenny Cooper would tell you in hindsight, you don't walk out of Carrington without a security escort (in other words, they're making you leave). So long as that club is happy to have you around, you should probably be happy to be there--especially if you are relatively young.

 

Rossi doesn't agree with you.

 

He'd be playing as a platoon player right now for Utd. I'd rather have him than Berbatov and Tevez to be honest. He's more versatile and his finishing isn't too far from their standard.

Spector, if he had developed at Utd as they had envisioned (and they did offer him a contract extension) would have been yet another useful platoon player across all 4 backline positions.

His biggest problem isn't a lack of talent, it's been the lack of ability to stay healthy.