[Albion] Did Hughton do anything wrong last night?

[Wardy's twin]

Gross was on too long , looked knackered and was miss hitting passes towards the end and at 2-2 and having faced a comeback I would have thought Kayal or Knockaert would have been on to revert to a more defensive line up.

I guess the Bernardo injury might have influenced things as well but I don't think CH would have put on Bissouma to press for a win and I guess he thinks Murray is more likely to be defensive than Andone.

Personally I would have liked to have seen Andone & Bissouma on at 70 mins and go for it.

 

[GT49er]

Armchair fan here, so appreciate that others are better placed to have an opinion, but as soon as Pellegrini made his substitutions I had the feeling that they would be game changing - and minutes later I was proved right. From the time of the substitutions, and even more so after they scored their first, I was mentally screaming for Hughton to counter their substitutes with pace - Andone and Bissouma for Murray and Gross.
And sorry, while I do respect some of the views expressed on here, I personally still wish he had done that.

 

[schmunk]

I am certainly puzzled as to why Bissouma hasn't featured at all in the last three games whatsoever.

Perhaps Houghton doesn't like the song..?

 

[Bob'n'weave]

I would have liked to have seen Andone come on for the start of the second half as his pace may have given us another 10 yards in the game. There was no way WH were not going to give it a go in the second half.
Whenever Murray is up front teams can press us further back into our own half as his pace is not such a danger. Fair play to WH they turned it on and we got mugged.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Armchair fan here, so appreciate that others are better placed to have an opinion, but as soon as Pellegrini made his substitutions I had the feeling that they would be game changing - and minutes later I was proved right. From the time of the substitutions, and even more so after they scored their first, I was mentally screaming for Hughton to counter their substitutes with pace - Andone and Bissouma for Murray and Gross.
And sorry, while I do respect some of the views expressed on here, I personally still wish he had done that.

As said, don't see how this would have made any difference. We didn't really succumb to pace or pressure, Antonio individually tore up our left side for 5 mins, and that was about it. Other than that we had kept up our own threat and kept them largely at bay. Once they equalised we sorted out the Antonio threat as Dunk covered that side a bit more and you could see we dealt with it. Just a shame that it all happened so fast, he came on 63mins, they'd equalised by 68mins.

I'd agree with you if we hadn't been carrying a threat ourselves, but we still were with our best chance from open play coming just before they scored.

 

[Bold Seagull]

I would have liked to have seen Andone come on for the start of the second half as his pace may have given us another 10 yards in the game. There was no way WH were not going to give it a go in the second half.
Whenever Murray is up front teams can press us further back into our own half as his pace is not such a danger. Fair play to WH they turned it on and we got mugged.

Wasn't it Murray putting pressure on their centre halves that lead to several corners that led to 2 goals?

 

[Tooting Gull]

Don't think Hughton did much wrong.

I love our defence, they are what makes our team, but they were culpable for the goals. Duffy got really done by Arnautovic for the first, even if you think the keeper should have come out, and it was much too easy for Antonio for the second (and again just after, when he really should have scored).

 

[Eric Youngs Contact Lense]

Armchair fan here, so appreciate that others are better placed to have an opinion, but as soon as Pellegrini made his substitutions I had the feeling that they would be game changing - and minutes later I was proved right. From the time of the substitutions, and even more so after they scored their first, I was mentally screaming for Hughton to counter their substitutes with pace - Andone and Bissouma for Murray and Gross.
And sorry, while I do respect some of the views expressed on here, I personally still wish he had done that.

I understand your point, but pace wasn't an issue - Noble was a reaction to the fact that we were bossing the midfield, Antonio was a reaction to the fact that Snodgrass had been completely anonymous and we were threatening down that side of the pitch. They were desperate subs that we didn't need to "react" to - we defended the 1st goal poorly, albeit MA ultimately finished it well - he delayed the finish just a second that did for Duffy and Button. After the second goal, and the few minutes after it, we were ok again.

 

[A1X]

Don't think he needed to change the team after their good performance on Saturday, especially with the cup coming. I know Glenn has his record against them but we played better with Andone.

Whether that's "wrong" is maybe a moot point, but it's the one change I'd have made.

 

[father_and_son]

Perhaps Houghton doesn't like the song..?

He only has to warm up for the North Stand to break into party mode!

Has any other player made it into 'Fan Zone' before?

 

[amexer]

Lost because of 2 defensive errors. For first was facing away from goal when received ball and Duffy should have done better. Must say in this game and Amex one of best forwards I have seen. For second Bernardo should have done more to stop him crossing.It is not as if he doesnt have the speed.
With March so one footed going on outside and getting crosses in is something we lack.

 

[Machiavelli]

I said at the time that we should have brought Andone on when we went two up. West Ham were bound to push up, and Andone's pace could have exploited that. Whether that had affected their comeback is a slightly different question. In retrospect, some extra support on the left would have been welcome, but that's being wise after the event. I also agree that it's strange that we haven't seen Bissouma in the last three games, but bold and early substitutions is the one area where I think CH does warrant some criticism.

 

[GT49er]

I understand your point, but pace wasn't an issue - Noble was a reaction to the fact that we were bossing the midfield, Antonio was a reaction to the fact that Snodgrass had been completely anonymous and we were threatening down that side of the pitch. They were desperate subs that we didn't need to "react" to - we defended the 1st goal poorly, albeit MA ultimately finished it well - he delayed the finish just a second that did for Duffy and Button. After the second goal, and the few minutes after it, we were ok again.

Maybe we didn't need to "react" as you say - but ultimately the result suggests that the complacency wasn't justified; we lost a two goal lead! But as I said, that's just my opinion - and none of us will ever know what would have happened if we had brought the subs on straightaway!

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

Sounds like Bernardo pulled a hamstring trying to prevent the cross for the second goal - that clearly looked out for a goal kick as well. Sometimes these things go your way. But a good point away from home. Keep playing like this and we could easily build some unbeaten runs.

 

[perseus]

I've read a few comments about West Ham being bold with their substitutions and/or Hughton not making any changes, and I'm scratching my head slightly, so thought it warranted its own thread.

From my vantage point we were putting in a very solid away performance against a side that has very much been in form of late (although you could make a case for them having a dip after their loss at Burnley and being rather lacklustre against us). We took the lead, probably deservedly and then doubled that lead. It could have been even better had Bernardo managed a third, or squared the ball for Murray to do so.

In short, however, I thought we were looking very comfortable.

West Ham rolled the dice, but at two down with half an hour to go, they had little choice.

I really don't see why Hughton would be making substitutions before their first goal, and the second came so fast, there was no time to react before that went in either.

From 2-2 I feared the worst and thought we'd go on to lose 3 or 4-2. Arnautovic was strutting, West Ham had their tails up and the crowd was back on their side. We held firm however and saw out the game in a relatively assured manner.

Do you think Hughton played it wrong last night?

It did not sound nearly so good on the radio or shown on MOTD. When we went 2-0 up or almost felt settling for 2-2.

Huffed and puffed w/o creating anything. Then we ran out of puff.

CH should have made subs before the start: Andone and the three Bs for a M, B and SM. And a K on later.

Got lucky as Pelligrini made an even worse starting choice leaving out the two most likely players.

 

[dazzer6666]

Sounds like Bernardo pulled a hamstring trying to prevent the cross for the second goal - that clearly looked out for a goal kick as well. Sometimes these things go your way. But a good point away from home. Keep playing like this and we could easily build some unbeaten runs.

No, it was just after the second goal, he stretched to tackle near the touchline and went down..........

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

As an aside, why was the crowd so big? They don’t normally get gates that big do they?

 

[Bozza]

As an aside, why was the crowd so big? They don’t normally get gates that big do they?

They've just moved the capacity up from c57,000 to c60,000. They're aiming to get it to 66,000.

 

[Bob!]

As an aside, why was the crowd so big? They don’t normally get gates that big do they?

They got a new safety certificate for a higher allowed attendance

 

[trueblue]

I was hoping at 2-0, with West Ham starting to push, that he’d bring on either Bissouma or Andone (probably the latter) just to keep the pressure on up front & give them a counter-attack to worry about. That said, it’s pretty unusual to change a team that’s been playing well and has put you 2-0 up.

I find CH frustrating sometimes but he’s proven to be arguably the most effective manager we’ve ever had, and he’s taking us in the right direction so if he thinks it’s better to ‘stick’ than ‘twist’, doesn’t seem much point disagreeing. Normally we’d have seen that through from 2-0 (and the equaliser was a foul on Bernardo).