The source of endless debates by Hammers fans this season to date has been the style in which the team have been playing. Does the style represent the idea of what West Ham has been known for? Are Sam Allardyce’s methods so anti-football, anti-West Ham, that he should be replaced? Do the ends justify the means?
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We all cling to the idea that West Ham is the Academy of Football. It’s romantic. It harkens back to an era when the football at Upton Park was played in crisp passing (ON THE GROUND!) and the emphasis was always on the attack. However, over the course of a decade and some change, due to some bad owners, bad purchases, and bad managers, the quality to be found at the Boleyn Ground changed. It all came to a head when we saw Zola (a manager I still feel has a certain quality to him) try to re-install the passing, attacking football so often synonymous with the West Ham way. In the first season did pretty damn well in the league and even pushed for a place in Europe at one point. The following season… the bottom fell out. It became evident that West Ham did not posses the players capable of playing such beautiful football nor the defense to back it up. Similar to what is happening now at Wigan (Martinez is another quality manager who needs more money/better players), we struggled in the league and only narrowly avoided relegation thanks to some trademark Scott Parker heroics. Scared, the new owners (Gold and Sullivan, aka the Davids) sacked Zola, a real player’s manager, in favor of Avram Grant, a man of experience. I can’t really describe what happened next outside of Avram Grant was total sh*t. I have never seen West Ham play so uninspired week in and week out. Anyhow, here we are, a result of all that, relegated to the Championship and now under the tutelage of Sam Allardyce. We are top of the league and look set for an immediate promotion back to the Premier League. However, many Hammers are not at all satisfied with the style in which we have achieved our great position in the league. Should we play more appealing football? Should we not allow the route 1 tactics to continue? Should we really care? And is it really even a bad thing?
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We are currently in an era where teams like Barcelona and Spain are lauded for their passing expertise, their ability to score seemingly at will, and the way they can keep possession of the ball. Seems like there are now teams everywhere trying to replicate the style and formula that has seen Barcelona win virtually everything over the past few years. Fans and coaches of lesser clubs have, I believe, lost sight of a couple of all too important facts. First, you have to have certain players to play certain football. Some of the West Ham squad are quite adept at passing the ball, but others… well… not so much. Just look at Barcelona and the squad they have! Even other top teams in Europe have realised the folly of trying to go toe to toe with Barca in terms of possession. They have the ability to play the way they do because of the players they have. I am not trying to say that West Ham has a squad full of stationary blocks, but that the squad we have at the current time is more suited to play a more direct, high energy type of game than a glossy, one-touch showcase. The second thing people seem to forget/not realise/not appreciate is that there is something to be said for playing good defence. I will admit that Big Sam’s style is more than just solid defense, but an outright dismantling of the game and it can be really hard on the eyes at times. But given the squad we have and the number of goals we have allowed and our away record, surely some credit must be given to the boys and Big Sam as to the strength and cohesion of the defence, as we have lacked a solid backline for God knows how long now. What I simply want is for people to acknowledge that West Ham have finally become a club that is hard to beat. Does this mean that we will remain so once we move up to the Premier League? Does Big Sam deserve to be our manager for life? Will he ever want to buy creative players even if the funds were available? Who knows! We simply need to give credit to the man and the team that have us sitting top of the league after going through so much turmoil the past few seasons.
**Side Note: As to us being the Academy of Football, all of our best passers in the current team (aside from Lansbury) is a product of the Academy. So no need to fear, we still produce great footballers. Glad Tomkins has signed a new contract with the club!
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Its correct to state that we do not have the players now or will not have for some considerable time to shine against the best Spanish teams. I suspect they will have come via our youth development players. Holding on to a new Brooking Devonshire Alvin Martin, Rio will also become very difficult with the wages available at the top of the Premier.
Sam has done a great job in making us hard to beat by his tactics and by bringing in real strong defenders.
To buy very skilful forwards will prove much more of a problem. But I’m confident that he’ll make a fist of it and we’ll not have the disappointments of the last 5 years.
Some times route one is also a good tactic; check Liverpool’s last goal against MU – goalkeeper punt – one pass then goal.Effective? You bet – not that we want to see it all the time!
Nice article, and articulates some common sense. Let’s not forget that Barcelona have a very good defence, and are uncompromising when defending from the halfway line. If people cast their minds back to when Italian clubs dominated Europe, all of the teams were built from the basis of a strong defence. technique might get better, but the basic principles never change. If you have agood defence, and are hard to beat then you stand every chance of scoring if you have reasonable forwards. Our problem is getting players who can perform with consitency. If you look at Piquonne, Carew, Cole they all are very similar, too inconsistent. Two out of three could go if there were any takers, and be replaced by players who know where the goal is and can score goals. Players from lower leagues do have a point to prove but the gamble is can they do it consitently. Players from the Academy may be for the future, as rushing players has seen many promising players careers disappear. So if Sam can get rid of the inconsistent ones he has now and get some consistent replacements that between them form a partnership that can score goals (which by the way I think he can). I think we should give Sam a break, after all if people’smemories are that shsort, just look at some re-runs of the Avram Grant games, and the players (most of which have gone) and then look at the squad now. I for one would not object to a 1-0 win every game, the purist can dream, just give me the results. This is after all a business and like all others success brings sucess, the alternative is to return to the days of last season. Well thanks but no thanks, I’ll take this seasons playing ethos every time, it might not be pretty but let’s get the results.
Not what we want to see all the time, perhaps, but it’s better than trying to place like Barcelona, and getting trounced evry week by everyone, who does not play that way (let’s remember not everyone is a Barcelona, and they still survive, just as we need to).
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