After a decent first quarter of the season under our belts, a suspicious and in West Ham’s case, rare trend is beginning to surface. The Hammers have won more games on the road than they have at Upton Park so far this season but why is that?
I have the feeling that West Ham supporters play a pivotal role in how the team perform on the pitch, with unrest and negative vibes easy to see around Upton Park on some match days.
The West Ham away following is second to none in England in my opinion, with more than 4,000 fans making the trips to Nottingham Forest, Watford, Southampton, Brighton and Hull and a record breaking 7,400 heading to Coventry next weekend it is not hard to see how the players can become more motivated.
At home, supporters easily jump on the bandwagon of someone else’s opinions, someone who has not watched any of the clubs away games and who will not realise the possibilities of this team when they are able to express themselves and attack teams at pace.
I expect the team to beat both Coventry and Reading away, which are both now sold out, but then perhaps struggle in the home games before Christmas. We’ve scored 14 goals at home, and 14 away. However we’ve let in 9 at home and 4 away, something that I believe is mainly down to the player’s confidence.
Another feature of poor home form is that tag that West Ham have this season in the Championship of the ‘team to beat’, which unfortunately means that teams will be really up for travelling to Upton Park in the quest for an upset in the division.
The defensive attitude of the majority of team’s that don’t just arrive at the ground on the team bus, but they seem to park it in-front of their goal to enable the Hammers fans to become frustration and make themselves heard, ultimately putting a negative attitude into the team.
Teams are seemingly hard to break down at Upton Park, whereas on the road we are able to pick teams off as they fulfil their obligation of being the home side and attacking from the start. This is something that Sam Allardyce must be working on and a new formation or style may be used at Upton Park in future weeks to overcome the wall of defenders that are protecting the oppositions net at all times.
However, West Ham will be pleased with the start to the campaign and sitting second in the league is a healthy reward for the new manager and players and time will tell if we can improve further and make Upton Park a fortress.
I agree that home support is a problem, and think it has been a problem for some time. With more confidence at home, in front of our own fans, I’m sure we would have stayed up last season, or be top this season. Teams come to Upton Park knowing what they’ve got to do – frustrate us for as long as possible, and wait for the crowd and the tide to turn.
I don’t know what the solution is. When watching the Hammers away, I’ve seen lesser teams spurred on by the home supporters when things are not going their way. It’s a shame that some of our number can’t seem to keep their negative comments and feelings to themselves, during the game at least.
Can’t see how booing or jeering your own team can help improve performance. Makes absolutely no sense to me. I’ve heard people argue that they pay their money and are entitled to show their disappointment. That would be fine if it worked, but it clearly doesn’t, as our home form demonstrates.