Well guess what I am going to harp on about ! Does anyone have any arguments ? Thought Not !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When the team news came through an hour before kick off our little group in a bar a mile away from the London Stadium were baffled as to the sections made by Ralph Hasenhuttl, two right backs on the bench and our best midfielder at right back, add to that Danny Ings also sitting out the start of the game and all the talk was about why we weren't playing our best team.

In my preview I mentioned that we had to try and dictate the game, but it went just the way I feared, we had the bulk of the possession, but the Hammers kept on catching us on the break.

Time and time again they caught us on the break with our central defenders not knowing where the other was and not knowing who to mark, add to that another goalkeeping mistake and it was a comfortable win for West Ham once we had gifted them the second goal on the stroke of half time.

We have to hope it was a bad day at the office and as I have often said, defensively too often we gift the opposition chances and too often there are individual errors, some games they will get punished and others they won't, it happens in every game and that is not good enough.

At time Stephens and Bednarek have formed a partnership with promise, but the goals against tally does not lie and all the evidence that you need was in this game and this was not a one off, it has been better of late, but it is still far from being good enough or consistent enough.

It was a funny performance, we could have easily have got something out of it, but we kept gifting them goals, if we had gone into the break level pegging you would have felt that we could have pushed on in the second half, but the goalkeeping howler by Alex McCarthy meant that the impetus was now with the home side.

Even when Stephens and Bednarek combined to gift them the third with one failing to get tight and leaving his man with an easy flick on header and the other being totally lost as to where his man was.

But even after that you felt that if Saints could get a second then the Hammers might crumble, but that goal did not come, bizarrely the third substitution with 22 minutes late saw Jannick Vestergaard brought on and a change of formation what it needed was was perhaps the strength of Che Adams given that he was the only attacking option left on the bench at this stage.

Sadly we just have to write this one off as one of the games where we didn't get away with it and come the end of the season we will look up the table and think of what could have been, of how many games like this we have undone a lot of good work by lapses of concentration, poor defending and individual errors.

I'm sure that some will disagree and point to missed chances by our forwards as an excuse, but no team scores every chance it has, that is the nature of the game, but why do our opponents finish their chances far more than ours ? this game answered some of those questions, we don't mark and we get caught on the break.

I would have loved to have written about a great win, how we were now only a point or two from safety, how we might finish in the top 10 etc etc, instead once again it is all about defensive errors, last six league games 12 goals conceded, that tells you whether our defence is good enough or not, not my opinion or otherwise.

But this game is now gone we have to look to the next one and that is vital so that we keep daylight between ourselves and the relegation strugglers.

Photo: Action Images

warrens76 added 10:32 - Mar 2 When we question team selections and Ralph playing people out of position it is viewed as the cause of our defeat, ir certainly doesn't help but it not at the heart of what is wrong in yet another season whereby we are still far too close to relegation. Even Puel's 8th was closer to relegation than 5th..you could argue that we have been relegation candidates for three and a half seasons, so this is not new. The fooball is in the main more enjoyable but the results over the last 6 games put as back in relegation form, the bottom line is that we have far too many players who cannot fo the basics at true PL level, pass, control, vision is in very short supply. The style of play Ralph say's he wants requires extreme fitness a la MoPo and a high skill threshold, tapping the ball around until one of our players inevitably loses it, misplaces it or is pressuried out of it indeed allowing the opposition to get 11 behind the ball guarantees it, we simply do not have enough good players as evidenced by how many are also on loan with no takers. If we want to be honest about it name more than 3 players we have that would be guaranteed a start with a top 6 side...I think we have Ings as a stand out but even Redmond and JWP are not consistant, who else? The table does not lie and the total points tally since the league cup final is atrocious, that is the big picture, not just the WHU lash up.

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SanMarco added 11:38 - Mar 2 I agree with something in virtually all the posts and indeed with the main thrust of the article. I'd therefore like to think about Ralph's eccentric selections for this match and his very pointed after-match comments. We can just say he is an oddball trying to ape Klown at Liverpool but without the resources or perhaps he is talking to the owners/decision-makers? He has, on the whole, been fairly docile to now with "I'm happy with the squad I have got" type comments during and after unproductive transfer windows but we are now looking forward to the summer (if we do go down from the position we are in the scale of the collapse will be such that, well, all bets will be off of course.) Next season will be one that Ralph has to produce in, for his own career. He therefore needs to let the club know that what, of course, we all know. Yes, we need strengthening in other areas (only scored more than 2 twice, and one of those against a 3rd division team, speaks for itself) but the biggest problem is at the heart of defence. How many games this season would the 'if you had swapped their CBs with ours we would have won' have been true - quite a few. If Ralph can get a couple of decent CBs he, and we, have a chance of doing a Wolves next season and challenging a lot nearer the top. That is why he is talking loudly to the powers-that-be. If they don't support him he will leave. Also the rather odd - let's play/bring on Westergaard just to show everyone how useless he is strategy (cost us at Spuds in the cup and vs Burnley) must be a message to someone - us supporters don't need to be told, we already know! Not playing the RBs or Danso would seem to be similar gestures. At 3-1 on Saturday we needed to go for it - alright 4 or 5-1 would have looked bad but 3-3 WAS still possible - and Ralph brought Westergaard on.....

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Sanguin added 11:40 - Mar 2 I thought Bednarek, Hojbjerg and McCarthy all had uncharacteristically poor games. Boufal had a characteristically poor game and we really miss Nathan Redmond. Ward-Prowse and Armstrong were characteristically good, but it wasn’t enough. I think 34 points will still be enough to see us safe, I’m hopeful we can get a few more on the board before the end of the season. I wasn’t impressed with the West Ham fans who seem to think that this was a 6-pointer and we’re at risk of relegation.

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BoondockSaint added 15:07 - Mar 2 No surprises. As others have mentioned here (and in many previous posts), Every team in the league knows the formula for a win against the Saints: 1) They're all small, so just muscle them out of the way any time you want. 2) Let them have the ball all they want, with the exception of Ings, none of them know how to finish, so just wait until they turn the ball over and ..... 3) Loft the ball over their defenders who usually are out of position and you're in!

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Peterx added 16:24 - Mar 2 We got bullied. If there ever was a game in hindsight to play Danso, Vestegaard and Romeu this was it. Also the fore arm smash to the back of Armstrong's head by Cresswell should have been booked which would have stopped the rugby tackle on Long that he did get booked for in the 2nd half - weak ref. Smallbone in hindsight was too lightweight for this opposition in his second game in defensive midfield. Weve known for a while we need a more cagy Plan B for these physically imposing teams.

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Peterx added 16:29 - Mar 2 And we are crying out for an imposing centre forward who can provide us with a Plan B at the end of games. It's kind of why we brought Carillo.
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underweststand added 09:43 - Mar 3 After a day or two 's "thinking time", after the smoke has cleared we need to take a longer look at our present situation. Lawrie Mc Menemy's analogy (about his teams) was always ..." eight road sweepers ...and two prima-donnas" . Not the most logical comparison , but what Lawrie had in his teams were always 2 or 3 players who were real "game-changers " and could be depended on to DAJFU and make the difference. I would argue that both of our "prima-donnas" (Redmond and Ings ) are out/injured at present and it obviously shows. YES - Shane Long always puts in 100% , but he has a lot of mileage on his clock, and his injuries don't heal quickly. MIchael Obafemi comes in and gets a "meaningless goal " although it does positively add to his tally, and whilst Ché Adams still hasn't impressed Ralph enough to give him a start, or any proper game time. Those expensive "prima-donnas " we have signed in the recent past, don't seem to fit in here and are mostly out on loan, and some are getting rave reviews elsewhere. Fortunately, with 34 points up Saints fans are a little more tolerant than those at Spurs where Moaninho has to cope without his "prima-donnas " Kane and Son, and is already feeling the heat whilst continuing to lose in their new "state-of -the art mausoleum". It will be a very unpleasant place to be - if they don't win the FA Cup or finish top 5. As long as we stay up I'm prepared to let Ralph "experiment " with the fit players he has, but he MUST get it right next season, if we are to avoid yet another nightmare season.

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aceofthebase added 17:21 - Mar 3 Why does RH think that he has the brains to pick a team. A return to the wrong players playing in their wrong positions. Wrong subs at the wrong time, destroying the confidence of the players and the fans. What is the reason that Valery never gets on the pitch? By the way, I fear that KWP is , like Cedric, too small to play an effective defensive role and he would not have coped with Antonio. JWP has the talent and energy to play in most positions but his experience is as a midfielder and that is where he should play. RH has to shoulder some of the blame for this defeat. Our central defenders and gK need to be protected by a much stronger midfield

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