BBC Sport - Sam Allardyce defends West Ham style after fan chants
It seems to me that West Ham play the percentage game and this involves playing the ball into channels creating a lot of half chances against less than resolute defences. They are also good at counter-attack (but not as good as Southampton and Reading) and selective pressing (making it difficult for passing teams to play out of defence, but not as good as Birmingham at this). In short a competent team but nothing really special. They have got a lot of big name (sort of a little bit big in the Championship) players though.
I have seen a lot of West Ham this season from the very first match of the season when Cardiff won 1-0 against the run of play at Upton Park. They have got a better team now. I still could not understand how Reading beat them at home. West Ham did not seem to do too much wrong and Reading exploited minor errors.
BBC Sport - West Ham 2-4 Reading
Team v Birmingham
BBC Sport - West Ham 3-3 Birmingham
West Ham United
01 Green (quite good)
02 Reid
03 McCartney (quite good)
05 Tomkins
15 Faye (quite good)
04 Nolan (looked better as the game went on against Birmingham)
16 Noble (seems to get directed in blind channels by competent sides)
32 O'Neil
08 Maynard (give him an inch and he could be dangerous, but nothing special)
09 Cole (quite good)
12 Vaz Te (looked a bit of a handful)
Substitutes
20 Demel
25 Collins
14 Taylor
22 Lansbury (Covered a lot of ground but not incisive)
07 Baldock
FootStats - Complete UK Football Statistics Analysis - Teams
Attack & Defence:
Shots on target - 265
Goals scored - 70
% shots scored - 26.42
Opp Shots on target - 258
Opp Goals scored - 45
% Opp shots scored - 17.44
Thats a good record
cf. Albion
Shots on target - 190
Goals scored - 49
% shots scored - 25.79
Opp Shots on target - 223
Opp Goals scored - 43
% Opp shots scored - 19.28
BBC Sport - Brighton 0-1 West Ham
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