Think if hoofball is the way to go(If only as a Plan B) we all have a head start?

If more teams put some thought into this, then getting your coaching badges would be a lot more difficult and Neck braces and higher stadiums would be a must

andy gray have you been using my neck massager?

Ordered it straight away....

Ready for the first pre-season friendly

andy gray

The advantage of people posting comments such as:

west hoof aim for anywhere apart from on the deck

West ham just hoof it forward to roughly the area cole is in and leave him to it

is that it highlights how little the poster knows about football since either

a) he hasn't seen the games, and therefore doesn't know what he is talking about

or

b) he has seen the games, and since that is clearly not what West Ham do, he doesn't know what he is talking about..

There is further irony in his You Tube 'hoof it' video, since it is a couple of shots from our away game at Leicester.

Anyone who actually watched the game would have seen West Ham put in an excellent passing performance.

whu606,

Big Sam never sent us out to 'hoof it' as the only option, but you would never know that if you read reports in the papers.

=======================

Your home fans begged to differ.

Are you talking about the same home fans, who gave a dogs abuse in one week( racially apparently) then the other week they embrace him if he appear in blue&white.

Are you talking about the same home fans, who gave a dogs abuse in one week( racially apparently) then the other week they embrace him if he appear in blue&white

--

pipe down maf. noone gave racial abuse

MafiaBoy,

Are you talking about the same home fans, who gave a dogs abuse in one week( racially apparently) then the other week they embrace him if he appear in blue&white.

=====================

I dont know. Did your home fans do this as well as shout "Hoof Ball" at their own team?

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Your home fans begged to differ.

===============

Really?

Which games were you at then, and how did they 'beg to differ'?

whu606,

They "begged to differ" by singing about wanting to play it on the floor whenever you played Hoof Ball.

Its pretty much common knowledge to be fair.

Its pretty much common knowledge to be fair.

==================

So you have no personal experience, you are just going on 'common knowledge'?

It was first sung at Peterborough, away, at the end of March.

True, the first half had been a rather poor effort, and some West Ham fans voiced their frustration.

However, the team came out in the 2nd half, passed it around with no little skill, and ran Peterborough ragged.

See here: http://www.weloveyouwestham.com/2012/03/we-play-it-on-floorwe-are-west-hamwe.html

In subsequent games, the song was generally sung as an ironic taunt to opposition fans, as we passed through them.

The argument isn't whether or not we played good football all last season, we clearly didn't, but whether we only played one way, and whether Big Sam only knows the way of the Hoof.

The answer to both of those is clearly 'No'.

Not too much hoof when we trounced Brighton:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AksbfuR5Sl8

or when we went on to beat Leicester and Hull and Cardiff over 2 legs.

Our performance in the play off final wasn't great, but it wasn't hoofball either.

whu606

I haven't been to Upton Park to watch WHU but my mates are West Ham fans, many season ticket holders. As such, i have watched a few West Ham games live on the Arab Channel, where this chant could clearly be heard, even on Giillette Soccer Saturday the Kris Kamara's etc have commented about the chants, as well as the poor style of football, plus as i've said many of my good mates are ST holders, and they have come back from the game to meet me in the pub looking like they have just seen their team lose 10-0, after winning 1 or 2-0, because of the hoofball tactics they have witnessed.

Claiming you dont care what football was being played to gain promotion is one thing, but denying West Ham play this way is another, as well as a bit niave.

Hold on, it was 'common knowledge', but now it's 'your mates'.

Which games did you watch?

After Peterborough the chant was heard at most games, but, as I said, was being used ironically.

===========
Claiming you dont care what football was being played to gain promotion is one thing, but denying West Ham play this way is another, as well as a bit niave.
============

I never said I "dont care what football was being played to gain promotion", so I'm not sure why you brought that up.

How can it be 'naive' to deny something which is false?

You didn't watch any games where West Ham only hoofed it, and yet you claim that is the only way we play.

How does that work?

Your live game against Millwall, for example, was one of the worst adverts for football i've ever seen, for hoof ball.

I can see you're trying the old "you dont go to games, so you dont know" routine, but the fact is i have witnessed it, i have read about it, heard pundits talk about it & heard it from the horse's (the fans) mouths directly after games.

If you want to turn a blind eye to it, thats fine. But dont play the "you dont know what you're talking about" card, as it wont wash.

haha millwall were the only team trying to get it down and play

I'm not trying any routine.

I don't go to games (I don't live in the UK) but I watched at least a quarter of our games, which is a lot more than you did, so I think I will play the "you dont know what you're talking about" card, since you don't.

Not too much 'hoof' in these highlights, is there?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUN3JJPzdf4

Not bad for a side harshly reduced to ten men in the 8th minute.

So, you didn't only see hoofball against Millwall.

What games did you only see hoofball from us in?

Oh, you didn't, but you've heard.

I've watched - you've heard, but you say you're right.

Hmmm.

whu606,

I hadnt just seen the Millwall game, you just ask for an example.

Even in the Blackpool game it was more Hoof Ball than playing it around.

You dont even live in the country, or go to games, & you're trying to dig me out for not knowing my stuff, when you've only watched a handful of games - probably on a poor quality downstream site.



If you think its just a conspiracy theory against West Ham that your style of play has been horrible to watch, then you're kidding yourself pal.

Well, it's clear that the Millwall game wasn't just hoofball, so that wasn't a great example, was it?

Blackpool wasn't 'hoofball' either - unless you've got a different definition of hoofball.

I accept we didn't play well against them, but that was poor play, not poor tactics.

Pick another game that you say you watched.

I've watched at least a dozen games, so I think it's safe to say I know more about how we played last year than you do.

Watch the Brighton highlights, and tell me that was hoofball.

If you watched the away Leicester game you'd know you're talking tosh.

I did, and I do.

Was all our football good to watch this year?

Absoltulely not.

Was that because we only hoofed it?

Absolutely not.

whu606

You watched 6 games out of 46 (49 inc play-ffs) & you think this qualifies you to comment on how they played all season, against what i have seen, what the pundits see, what the commentator's said, the media, what your own fans were singing, along with what West Ham fans have said on numerous occasions after games, or just in converastion, even Ian Wright wrote about it in his column, and you say i'm "talking tosh"?

Have you listened to yourself?

Sorry, just seen you said "a dozen games" not "half a dozen" but even still.

'Even still' what?

I watched around a quarter of our league games, and 8 of the last 10 including playoffs, so I think that is a reasonable amount on which to base an opinion.

As I said in my first comment, the advantage of seeing someone say 'West Ham only hoof it' is that you can tell they don't know what they are talking about.

Did we hoof it in some games?

Yes.

Did we hoof it too much in some games?

Yes, again.

Was our only game plan 'hoof it'?

Clearly not.

Did we play some good football in with the poor stuff.

We certainly did.

whu606,

Did we hoof it in some games?

Yes.

Did we hoof it too much in some games?

Yes, again.

Was our only game plan 'hoof it'?

Clearly not.

Did we play some good football in with the poor stuff.

We certainly did.

==============================

I agree with most of that. I wasnt claiming that every touch of the ball was a hoof, but the overall style of play is what is known as "Hoof Ball".

I dont know why your tactics werent more about playing it about, as when you did it seemed to be far more effective.

Spurs - Kings of diagonal hoofs, period.