[Zoo]

Ole wont be under pressure cause of that.

Maybe not but it another chance of a trophy gone and less matches available for fringe players.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Martial is just not clinical at all. If we have Cavani, we would score one of those chances in first half at least. It is what it is, I don't care much about this cup. Our priority should the league and UCL. Let's move on and beat Aston Villa.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Don't really mind getting knocked out. City is going to win this anyways when their team B has Jesus, Sterling, Mahrez, KDB and so on.

 

[SuperiorXI]

That's not really in the rules for a ref ball, is it?

I don't know I just remember one of the commentators saying it a while back

 

[Super Hans]

we rotated and gave the squad players a chance, they failed. You should be able to beat a backup West Ham squad at home.

This. It's amazing how poorly players that need to put in a performance almost invariably seem to play.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Some kinda good performances and some you’ve got to question what they were thinking.

Lindelof and Bailly were pretty good. Let down by Telles and the non existent right back.

Matic was decent and apart from leaving his man Donny was good. My only issue really is they played for 70 minutes like it was inevitable they’d score but then didn’t really try to score if that makes sense. They coasted till the 70th minute letting the game slip by.

As for Martial, normally I’d be FC till I die but surely at somepoint he has to look at himself and think right this coming deep isn’t working and no one is running beyond me. Maybe I should try getting in the box more.

 

[Blood Mage]

We're flat without Bruno and toothless without one of Ronaldo or Cavani up front.

 

[Wheato]

I’m going to take the positives from this.

• We controlled the game for the most part.
• Donny showed his passing range. And ability to move the ball forward and quickly into the forwards. Doesn’t hold it long. One touch and he’s feeding it forward.
• Dalot's crossing in the first half showed what we have been missing from right back.
• Sancho got more minutes and showed glimpses of what he can do. He will find his stride, the PL is a step up.
• Matic and DVB controlled the game.
• Mata can still do it.
• I think we can finally all agree, with some authority, that Martial will not be playing any major part in this squad this season. Especially in the number 9 role.

 

[Josep Dowling]

That was embarrassing. I cannot understand how people are happy with displays like this. We were playing at home against a mediocre team and we never looked like scoring.

Because there is a blind following for Ole by a large proportion of fans. Had the easiest of runs in the league so far. Southampton, Wolves and Young Boys all tore us apart away from home. Even against Leeds and Newcastle we let both sides back into the game. We won’t win anything with Ole in charge. His sole tactic is individual brilliance. He can’t rotate properly because then his moment of magic players can’t bail him out.

 

[Will Singh]

Our play was better then when we played them in the PL but it’s the same old good build up play but heavily rely on individual brilliance to score and tonight we didn’t have it. Some good performance was the only plus point and we did look good the majority of game just not in the final 3rd!!!

 

[FreakyJim]

feck the league cup, who cares

what annoys me is the players are absolutely clueless in the final third. No one's making runs, no one moves. The ball is either played slow when it needs pace or overhit. Always the obvious 1-2s, always 1 player tries to do it all by himself.

I don't know what we're doing in training, I really don't.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Didnt watch the game so were VDB and Sancho good or not. I see positive and negative posts.

Donny did well and Sancho had some good moments. Some on here are just determined to slag them off no matter what.

 

[sglowrider]

What a poor performance from Martial. Looked okay till the final third but just nothing from the striker. Ronaldo and Cavani being at the club just shows how much he needs to do to get in the side.

With Cavani today we win that game.

Don't know how we will shift martial next summer at this rate.

 

[RORY65]

The first 10 minutes weren't good but once we went behind we had a lot of attacks at least, there wasn't a huge amount of quality or many good chances but that's inevitable when so many changes are made and on another day one of them most likely would have gone in given the volume of shots we had tonight. I'm not sure why Matic, who is clearly finished, and Martial, who has been dogshit and not even trying for over a year, are getting games even in the League Cup having done nothing to suggest they deserve any playing time (it took Ole 6 months last year to stop playing Martial every week when it was clear to everyone how bad he was).

 

[Tom Cato]

Ole being angry for the entire first period and beyond over that Moss pen kick. Love to hear it.

Kinda bummed to lose, but this a blessing in disguise

 

[wolvored]

That's not really in the rules for a ref ball, is it?

Yes thats the rule. 1st half when we hit the ref we had the drop ball.

 

[Deery]

Aw well we played decent enough just didn’t create anything of note but that’s probably because most the team haven’t played all season, we move on and don’t dwell on it too much.

 

[bond19821982]

Good game. I enjoyed it. Probably one of the best performances of the season. Everyone had a point to prove and they all gave their best. Donny was brilliant. He has a grit developed and is chasing all balls.

 

[Terminator]

To all those saying they aren't bothered going out of the league cup, where will all our backup players play? This was the first time in years we could've afforded to go all the way because of a stacked team but we blew it.

 

[NewGlory]

Worst thing about this is we needed this competition for the squad players.

This. And in the process we discovered that most of our squad players are rubbish (except for Henderson, Lindelof, Jesse, and jury is still out on DvB).

 

[RedDevil@84]

Playing against 12 men was always going to be difficult. Atkinson/Moss are one of the best players of West Ham

 

[Flying_Heckfish]

Looking at the teams on the pitch we should be walking that game. We shouldn't need to rely on one or two players, we should be able to work around it tactically. With Cavani or Ronaldo there I'd back us to win, but we didn't seem to have another plan, and Martial was woeful.

We looked quicker and we kept creating half chances against the WH block, which is good.

I'm not too bothered by the loss, though, overall, as long as it allows us to concentrate on the bigger trophies. A bunch of players won't get any minutes at all now is the only worry.

 

[goptun]

Meh, glad we're out of a cup that doesn't mean anything to us anyway. Hopefully we can focus elsewhere now

Also quietly glad we're out, truth be told. It's a nothing cup and if not being in it gives us an extra couple of days off here and there, then I'm more than happy to be shot of it. Would have liked to have seen us play some more youth but ho-hum.

 

[FireballXL5]

Laughably poor performance.

 

[Red Shorts]

Each worse than the next.

So true. Mata comes closest amd then after that it was "who cam do their best to get the ball closest to the goal" competition.

Onto FA cup as our next cup hope then

 

[LJJT]

Thought we played really well. Dominated the game, controlled possession. Loads of chances but just no cutting edge chance. Dalot crosses where encouraging and DVB showing maybe he can get himself in the midfield

 

[Tom Cato]

We could've lost 0-4 on another night. We need to get realistic

And won 9-0 on another night. Every result is possible when you're making things up

 

[Wheato]

What a poor performance from Martial. Looked okay till the final third but just nothing from the striker. Ronaldo and Cavani being at the club just shows how much he needs to do to get in the side.

With Cavani today we win that game.

With Greenwood as the central striker, we win that game today. He should have moved Sancho to the right and Martial to the left with Mason down the middle.

 

[RikRuud]

No composure in the final third.

 

[hellhunter]

Yes thats the rule. 1st half when we hit the ref we had the drop ball.

I may be wrong here, but I don't think it's in the rules, rather good mannered. Similar to giving the ball back when played out for an injured player.

 

[Barthez]

Played better today than most games this season.

 

[FerociousCorgis]

i agree with some that donny looked decently good in the midfield role. Liked that he didnt look overmatched physically, and his passing ability could really help us with trying to unlock things moving forward. Feel like against teams we absolutely know will sit back him and pogba could do the job if they both play from deep.

 

[Ronnie O'Sullivan]

Excuses. Positives. City would have win it anyway. Etc. Sounds just like Rawk. That's what we've become.

 

[ex and]

Not good enough! How many times does the manager realise that Martial is a waste of time!
We had enough chances to win but no striker, Greenwood did his best though.
our defence, tonight, couldn’t defend. We hardly won a tackle!

 

[stevoc]

Too many changes. Paid the price.

Now half of these players will have to wait until January for a game.

 

[OLLY ORANGE]

People saying they are not too bothered about going out of the league cup need to realise that this is the easiest trophy to win, that was our first game in the competition. Ole yet again shows no signs of a winning mentality and stumbles again in an attempt at winning any silverware.
Will they be calling for Oles head if we are again trophyless come the end of the season.

 

[Dve]

Martial is just not clinical at all. If we have Cavani, we would score one of those chances in first half at least. It is what it is, I don't care much about this cup. Our priority should the league and UCL. Let's move on and beat Aston Villa.

It´s not only that he´s not clinical, his runs into the box are crap and he can´t hold up the ball. Very disappointing performance by him. The rest did pretty alright, bar Telles perhaps, and Matic in the second half.

 

[Terminator]

Excuses. Positives. City would have win it anyway. Etc. Sounds just like Rawk. That's what we've become.

Shocking really.

 

[Toad]

Only bright spark was Greenwood. Everyone else was average.

 

[BusbyMalone]

Lacked a little in the final third was the issue. Didn't play too bad, there were some decent performances, but didn't get the bounce of the ball at times. Losing at home against West Ham isn't great though, regardless of what cup it is.