Personally I am, as usual, relatively optimistic. You may deny it Leggy but I believe our defence is pretty top notch. West Ham's best chances today came from out mistakes (De Gea mishandling, sharkty back pass) which are growingly uncharacteristic. Varela looked good but got a bit "fussed" in the closing minutes with two silly mistakes that lucky didn't lead to anything, but yet another good prospect.
If the first third of this season was about closing the defence, then we've done that, and now we're starting to create real chances. We had 21 attempts today and 9, a whole 9 were from inside the box (:P). We should've buried them. As Giggs said at the start of the 2007/08 season after Ronny, Tevez and Rooney were only winning games 1-0, "we're not too worried, if you're creating chances the goals will come."
Lingard really needs to tidy up that part of his game, and when he does he is looking like he will become a superb player. Cannot wait to watch him, Memphis, Martial, Januzaj and potentially Perreira next year. On the subject of Perreira, I really wish he could get a start. Him instead of Fellaini, or as you say, Mata.
I'm not sure if Mata is being played out of his favoured position or not but we're not getting any danger out of him at all. There's no cute passes, no dangerous shots, no runs, nothing. I would particularly like to see us play Perreira instead of Mata:
-----------------------------DDG
Young/Verela - Smalling - Blind/Jones - Darmian
-------------------- Carrick/Schmidfield
--------Lingard -------- Perreira -------- Memphis
----------------------------- Martial
With Shaw at left back, Darmian on the right and an in form front four (or one big signing) this would be a pretty sweet team.
Bournemouth will be one of those games, like Leicester last year, where they get up for it because Manchester United is in town or get kicked because they actually try and attack.
I am still optimistic, and you are right about some of the young players. The chances came from mistakes from our defenders, so what I said still stands. The only place for Carrick is on the bench. He just keeps giving the ball away. I usually watch the game 2/3 times and hone in on a couple of players. That is when you can see what they are made of. Smalling is another one. Can pass 10/15 metres but hitting anything more is not in his capabilities - they either get cut out or more often sail into touch.
Am hoping LVG spends buckets on a top striker in January, because of the chances we will create we could beat any of the other teams.
It is no good pretending that all our players are fantastic. One has to be honest-- unlike some other supporters.
