Fair enough. Dawson was meant to be the upgrade. Maybe he was based on his West Ham performances now he is in a competent set up. Or maybe he’s on a purple patch. Time will tell.
I'm not really sure what 'setup' or 'organisation' an experienced English centre back needs though @Jumbolina? He knows the country (obviously) and the league. One of his best mates was already here and playing in the defensive unit with him. He wasn't asked to partner a hopeless youth player in a makeshift defence and, for a large chunk, we had an English head coach too. Really he should have come into the team and taken to playing like a duck to water. I have lots of sympathy with the view the Pozzo setup sets youngsters up to fail, mismanages those whose faces don't fit for whatever reason and the constant churn in head coaches definitely doesn't suit some players. Unless Dawson is one of the latter - and again, as a centre back, I can't imagine changes in head coach affect you as much as others, as really the only difference in playing philosophy seems to be between the 'hoof it out' merchants and the 'pass it around the back like we're Barca' type coaches - he has few excuses.
Dawson's good form is purely down to trying to get a contract. Once West Ham sign him, he'll go back to his usual ways. I personally think he's an ok player, and we didn't see the best of him at Watford. Right now, he's playing above himself. This form will not continue once West Ham sign him permanently I suspect.
They still let in 2 goals last night but could have scored 4/5 more - West Ham attack much better than we did so relieve any defensive pressure on him and the other defenders. 2 of the recent games have come against lower league and non league opposition plus another v West Brom who are very poor. Maybe he has just been carried along playing in a team with confidence and is managed well? I mean the bloke would have come in to us and had 2 new managers by Christmas! Whereas there is some continuity at West Ham it seems - probably because there aren't any fans ready to protest and get nasty.
The goal machine that is CD scores again. Can we recall him and play him upfront as a reverse Marcus Gayle?!
Yeah! Lets do that and play Kabaselle up front with him as he started his career as a striker apparently
I don't want this flaming bag of crap anywhere near my club again. Once he gets his permanent deal to West Ham they'll see the true Craig Dawson.
"Craig Dawson was today confirmed as the 2022 Ballon D'Or winner, seeing off inferior claims from Kylian Mbappe, Jayden Sancho and Erling Haaland. The West Ham defender surprised the footballing world..."
Yep he was very good and nearly scored a last minute winner. I can’t believe how good he is now. He was just coasting at Watford because he was allowed to do so. Now he’s motivated and trying hard, he looks like an excellent player. Ian Wright cant stop talking about how good he is. FFS. So frustrating seeing these players flop with us then look like top stars when they move on.
Maybe if West Ham weren’t playing so well as a team he might not be that good. Always helps having confidence and motivated players around him .
Maybe playing with Capoue and Doucoure in front of him, two players who didn't want to be at the club and lacked commitment, was the cause of the issue. Many games felt like attack v defence due to our midfield going missing. Also worth noting we didn't concede many more goals last season than we did the season before...but we did score a lot fewer and that was where the real problem was.
Fabianski, Cresswell, Ogbonna and Coufal are all mucg better than the pathetic defenders Dawson was alongside here. Moyes has had the time and personnel to build a stronger all round team. You defend from the front West Ham also benefit from having Antonio up there unlike the penalty taking elephant Dawson had to aim for last season.
Lets not forget we also had the likes of Pereyra and Deulofeu in the team last season as well as Sarr in parts. Plenty of exciting names in attacking areas. Minimal actual substance but they sounded good at least.
Deeney wasn't fit for most of the first part of the season. We actually improved quite a bit when he came back and Pearson was here. Much like Dawson. Basically the whole team looked good for about 6 weeks then went to pot again just before the lock down happened and never recovered.
We could have put a bag of **** up front instead of Deeney and we still would have improved, Deulofeu and Sarr actually playing together would improve any bottom half side, take one of them away and we were lost
Not having that at all, Doucoure played in a more advanced role, and Capoue was fine last season (dipped a bit after lockdown, which ironically is when Dawson upped it a bit). Giraldi's interview with Leventhal was interesting, saying he expected Dawson to be able to pass the ball out effectively, which has never been his game. Goals conceded can be deceptive, how many times last season did we set up just to contain the opposition, come away with a point (or less), but completely ruin any chance we had of actually winning the game? Bournemouth and Sheffield United at home were every bit as damaging, perhaps even more so, than the City game
We missed some good chances in those games too like Gray and Welbeck although agreed we weren’t exactly on the front foot. Deeney scored some important goals around Christmas time when the whole team was playing well . Let’s not pretend he didn’t do anything at all last season.
That Sheff Utd game we had three clear golden chances and looked defensively solid. Take just one of those chances and it is a different story.
5 goals from open play last season, and 2 of those were the 3rd against Liverpool when the game was all but won, and the consolation against West Ham which was meaningless in the end
You say that, but we just never seemed to be able to take those chances, we must have been the most wasteful team in the league
He scored a few goals against Aston Villa - the only team Deeney can actually show a desire to score against. His selfishness with trying to be the hero and 'playing with one leg' after lockdown is what put the final nail in our coffin.
I remember being pleasantly surprised that he played quite well against Leicester given he had a week less training than everyone else, a decent performance all round, I thought we would cruise to survival then! Turns out post-restart Leicester were basically as **** as us!
Only benefit we have of him playing well is the fact we can get more money for him now. West Ham could have had him for £3mil but opted not to take up that option. In the summer, if he continues his form, will most likely fetch somewhere between £4-7mil.
From BBC report on last nights win to send Spam 5th with a game in hand.. They didn’t buy in the Jan window and won’t buy him in the summer now thanks to the Spam porn peddlers reading the ITK posts by HB1 and RS2. He’ll be back at the Vic in the Championship next season draining the bank balance and playing sh*t again.
Amazing how he seems to be playing well with a decent defender next to him, decent midfield shielding, and team mates who give a damn and are prepared to put in s shift. Even more bizarrely, his goal output has improved dramatically in a team that knows how to take a decent set-piece. Baffling really.
