The Tigers faced West Ham United at the KC Stadium, looking to put together back to back league wins for the first time in over a year. While that did look likely for a while, we had eventually to settle for just a point. The game was riveting; a wonderful football match between two teams who play nice stuff but can't defend that went back and forth and had everything you could wish to see on a Satrday afternoon.
The Gaffer
Despite the availability of Geovanni, Phil Brown chose not to make any un-enforced changes from the team that beat Stoke City a fortnight ago. Dean Marney replaced the injured Seyi Olofinjana in the only switch. It's hard to disagree with the team selection because while Geo is a wonderful player, the side had a nice balance to it against Stoke. The only change I would have made would have been to switch out Dawson for Kevin Kilbane. More on that later.
I thought Brown had another good day. He was fortunate in that the team he selected reacted well to adversity and then unfortunate when Braindead Mendy was sent off but reacted well to the adverse conditions and was even brave enough to put Geo on for the last 10 minutes to try and nick a winner.
The Defence
... was absolutely shocking. They undermined the whole performance. When we had the ball, we looked a good team right from the start, played some neat football and showed good movement but that was all undone by conceding two terrible goals. We'd had one warning when Behrami was able to shoot from 20 yards unchallenged but hit it straight at Duke when we allowed them to march through us again and only a terrific block from Gardner denied them a goal. From the resulting corner, Franco marched in unmarked at the near post to head home. It was schoolboy stuff. The second was just abysmal on so many levels. Parker was able to cross the ball in under no pressure, Dawson didn't even attempt to challenge Collison and then Duke was just stranded a few yards off his line. It was pathetic really. At that point, you feared for us because we looked likely to concede whenever they crossed the half way line. Every tackle we won was a scruffy one that hit one of our own players or just fell to them and it just inevitably invited pressure. While we did quite a good job of keeping Carlton Cole quiet, he made space that Collison, Franco and Behrami were exploiting. We just didn't do any of the basics right. We let them cross the ball in at will, we didn't mark closely, we were casual in possession and half hearted in the tackle. Our full backs just aren't good enough defensively though Mendy did have a decent effect going forward and won the free-kick for the second goal.
He also changed the game in the second half. We were looking comfortable at 3-2 and I thought we looked likely to get a fourth. Then we contrived to allow Scott Parker a free run on goal. Mendy made a decent run around the back and lunged at Parker. He had to get the ball or he was off and he got nowhere near it. It's one of those situations were I personally don't think it's worth him taking the risk. We'd have been better off at 3-3 with 11 men than we were down to 10 with more than half an hour to play. I'm not certain that there was any contact with Parker but that doesn't really matter, it was a reckless tackle that cost West Ham goalscoring opportunity so he had to walk. We'd got lucky in the first half when it appeared that Gardner pulled down Parker in the box. Certainly when our penalty was awarded, Parker had a long conversation with Mr. Clattenburg to try and establish quite what the difference was between the two incidents.
The equalising goal was another nightmare and was compounded by the fact that in the run up to the goal, Mr. Clattenburg should have shown Franco a red card. He'd been booked already when he lunged in very late on Altidore. Clattenburg's decision was strong, immediate and made obvious to the crowd, just very, very wrong. I thought the ref was superb for 70 minutes, but he lost the plot in the last 20. Anyway, one wave of play later, West Ham win a corner, it's swung in, neither Zayatte or Gardner win it and when it falls to the floor, they are both still looking for it as Da Costa smashes it in. We spent the remaining 20 minutes attempting to commit suicide. We'd win the ball and then dwell on it or make a challenge and then stand around until a striker took the ball from us. With Matt Duke having one of his non-stick afternoons, the whole back 5 was poor. To be fair to Dukey, he did make one fine save late on but he'd dropped everything up to that point. McShane came on and demonstrated his inability to deal with a ball before it bounces. Did he not listen to a word Roy Keane said?
The Middle
The should we/shouldn't we play Geovanni argument reminded me of a couple of games from last season, Newcastle away and Everton at home, when Phil Brown left out Geo and played a traditional 4-4-2. It worked quite well, though Geo came back in for the next game and we switched to a 4-3-1-2 and I think we beat Arsenal or something, it was no big deal. The game today and last time were quite similar in that now we have a decent midfielder, we can play a 4-4-2 and look like a well balanced side. Bullard was magnificent again, taking responsibility for taking the ball, dictating the tempo and starting all of our attacks. Some of his passes were exquisite. I've watched Liverpool, Manchester United and England on TV in the last fortnight and not one of them has a passer as good as Bullard. He's just a joy to watch. The first goal was a bit lucky but he deserves it for having a go from the free-kick, while he insisted that Hunt hand over the ball for the penalty and then smashed in an absolute beauty.
Bullard rubs off on people too, everyone is keener to take possession and we're thinking about the passes we make. The awful back to front stuff has barely been seen. When the ball does go long, it goes into feet or into space. Bullard isn't just good on the ball, he's pretty good off it too. He has a knack for getting himself back into a defensive position and he's deceptively quick over a short distance, picking up some balls that looked lost. Marney did quite a good job alongside him, making some crucial and well timed tackles and finding good positions to receive the ball. He wasn't always creative on the ball but kept the game ticking over. Hunt had a fine game, his best for months. Garcia didn't really match the performance of those around him. He was pretty anonymous other than popping up every now and then to give the ball away. He didn't do a great job of protecting Mendy either, Dawson got much more from Hunt than Bernie got.
The Front Line
A second good performance from this front pair. Altidore had his best outing for us to date, he was strong, his touch was good and he got himself around the back a few times, showing a great turn of pace and good feet. He was unlucky not to score from a corner in the first half when Fagan locked his goal bound volley. Fagan was terrific again, especially without the ball, when he won the ball back countless times in their half and also tracked back to help out. He showed his versatility too by moving out to the right when we went down to 10. To be slightly critical, neither forward really troubled the goal enough but they did a super job of holding on to the ball and making space for others to join in. Big Jan replaced Altidore but struggled to make an impression as it had had become a backs to the wall job. He should have won a free-kick on the edge of the box and a penalty though as Upson blatantly climbed all over him twice. The one inside the box was a cast iron penalty. I missed our actual penalty award but it was said to be soft so that is probably why we didn't get a second one. Geo didn't really have the chance to change the game either but he did do a fine job of getting back a couple times.
The Future
The point was a very good one under the circumstances. It's disappointing not to have won because some of our play was worthy of victory but you cannot possibly defend that badly and deserve to win anything, it just doesn't work like that. Wednesday night is a big game for us. Everton are a good team but are struggling to put anything together. Our attacking play should give us a chance but we obviously must defend better.
As for the season as a whole, things are certainly looking brighter. We look like a Premier League team now we're playing football. In Bullard, we have a player who is better than anyone our rivals have. Hopefully he can stay fit because not only am I sure that we'll stay up comfortably with him around but I also think he might have a busy summer if he continues to show this form.
Ratings: Duke 6, Mendy 5, Dawson 6, Gardner 6, Zayatte 6, Garcia 6 (McShane), Hunt 7 (Geovanni), Bullard 9, Marney 7, Fagan 8, Altidore 8 (Hesselink).