After the excellent result at Brighton and the thrashing of Blackpool in our last home game, are Sam Baldock and John Carew the best strike partnership for West Ham?
I know the Carlton Cole has not featured in our last three games but I still believe that he is our first choice striker. Before he got injured, Cole was starting to bang in the goals and was starting to re-capture the form he had when Gianfranco Zola was manager.
In Cole’s absence Carew and Baldock have performed well. But I still think Baldock is adapting to the Championship having played in League One with MK Dons. Carew is still getting his match fitness back but the signs are looking good from him.
Both Carew and Baldock will score goals for fun in this division once they are up to West Ham’s style of play. However I still think that Cole should be the number one striker, with Baldock alongside him in a 4-4-2 formation, making it a perfect little and large combination. If West Ham play 4-5-1, there are many options, Cole could play up front on his own, with Baldock in the hole, or play Carew with Kevin Nolan off him.
There are many striker combinations the Hammers possess at the moment. Cole is still number one but if he fails, there are two perfectly capable strikers ready to fill the void.
Carlton Scuff has a strike rate near 1 goal for each 4 games since joining WHU. That is not good enough to get us promotion.
CranhamHammer, I wrote this in the summer in an email chain discussing Cole… “Cole has scored 1 in 4 for us in 180 odd matches, of which he has started 114. He also got 19 assists. There not bad stats, nor are they great stats, but you think that that’s been in a team that’s been fighting relegation 3 out of the 5 seasons he’s been at the club, that have chopped and changed players and tactics, and have had 3 managers (Curbs, Zola, Grant) – based on that you have to say he’s done alright!” Can we afford players that are guarenteed of anything better…. simple answer is no. Our record transfer fee is less then £8m, couldn’t even afford Pav’chenko or Gyan with that sort of budget! Cole is alright, he’s frustrating and he’s so up and down it drives us all nuts, but we can’t do any better at the moment! So for all the fans that get on his back, try cheering him on, getting his confidence up, and see what he can do then