Everybody inside and outside of West Ham United made assumptions when Sam Allardyce was appointed last summer, most of them negatively viewing his tactics in recent years at Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers. After an inconsistent start, it seemed Big Sam had won over the Hammers fans with some exciting results, especially away from home at the likes of Nottingham Forest, Blackpool and Watford. However, opinions in modern day football can change overnight and that is exactly what happened at Upton Park.
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West Ham are unbeaten since the end of January and have enjoyed crucial victories over Cardiff, Blackpool and rivals Millwall, but too many draws have seen them lose ground on the in-form Reading and Southampton and have turned the home crowd to booing in recent weeks.
I am not here to moan about people booing, even if it is ridiculous, nor am I here to slate the team, but I am looking at what can be done to improve the Hammers’ still realistic chances of automatic promotion. For me, the tactics are what the problem is at the moment, along with attacking personnel choices.
4-5-1? Negative! That is just a fact. Away from home; especially in the first half of the season; it is understandable to play that way and was successful on more than one occasion, dominating possession and creating chances for fun. However, coinciding with injuries to Matty Taylor and Julian Faubert, the creativity in midfield evaporated and Sam should have acted by playing two up front consistently to try and balance the play. But he stuck with what he has done for many years and so draw after draw has now left West Ham adrift of the top two.
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At home, being the clear favourites to win every single game, you have to go for the win from the start not just in the final twenty minutes; something Sam has frustrated fans with throughout this campaign. Teams have come to Upton Park and sat ten men behind the ball, so why not shove two or maybe three players for them to deal with in front of goal? Sam Allardyce, over the past 10-12 years, has always managed a middle of the road side, where a top half finish and the odd victory was seen as success. But with a relegated side in the Championship that is littered with Premier League quality players’, that is not acceptable.
Mr Allardyce also appears to be the only one of the 30,000+ inside the Boleyn Ground that thinks Carlton Cole is a good player and worthy of a start week in week out. West Ham have won two of the last nine games, both when Cole has started on the bench, and after missing two sitters on Saturday, West Ham came back to snatch a draw after Cole was rightly substituted. Nicky Maynard and Sam Baldock along with the returning Ricardo Vaz Te and Julian Faubert have the ability to cause any team in this division all sorts of problems. Hopefully, Burnley will have shown Sam what everyone else sees and that when West Ham play an attacking 4-4-2 style, they can look attractive and score goals at the same time, without leaving the useless Cole up front to ‘attempt’ to flick on long balls.
I am still confident that with Reading’s difficult fixture list and a few players hitting form at the right time, West Ham will finish second and it will be a very pleasant summer in the East End of London. Am I dreaming? Maybe!
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I do feel cole gets loads of abuse granted he ain’t the worlds best of players that is by he is at west ham, if you looked under zola curbishley we played to his strengths ball to feel and in each of the last 2 or 3 seasons in the prem he got etween 10 to 15 goals he ain’t messi knock the ball to him and way h him take 3 or 4 players o and scream one in top corner that’s just not him play football and you’ll get the best out of him faubert who you say is a great creative please tell me the last time he set up a goal or scored a goal also beat the first player when putting in a cross cos I certainly can’t remember the only thing that has changed with him is the fact he puts in 100% every week I’m sorry he just ain’t good enough poor vaz te is a striker yet gets played out wide when Sam should hVe bought wingers in in the summer and yet again in the January window he didn’t Taylor has been a waste of space aswell same to him last goal he set up?? We are poor going forward due to negative set ups of play
Carlton Cole is certainly out of form, it’s a problem when you do not play regularly. However, playing Maynard and Baldock requires a different style of play. So 4-4-2, with Demmel, Diop out the back four should pick themselves, however without Faye we look vulnerable. Mid field no creativity, yet we play Collinson out of form, Lansbury the same, or is it just playing out of position. We appear to have a glut of central midfield players, Noble, Tomkins, Nolan, Lansbury, Taylor, O’Brien, Faubert but no wide players that can cross, or players that create. We do have Vaz Te, Maynard and Baldock, so should they be rotated? The midfield should we put Morrison in but then who do you leave out?
So what if the line looked like this (bearing in mind injuries):
Greeen, O’Neill (Demmel if fit), Faye, Tomkins, McCartney (or Potts), Lansbury, (Diop) Noble, Morrison, Vaz Te, Maynard, Baldock.
Play a system of 4-1-5 with Diop or Noble in front of the back four, the front five to interchange position and when defending form the 5 man Midfield, and then use anyone as an outlet, and attack and pass the ball, no long hoofball, use the speed of the players that were bought for that very reason.
Subs could then come on and play in the same way when tiredness sets in, as this would require players to be fit and run (ever see Barcelona). Most teams have a system, choose it and then get players playing it so that they get used to it. At least this way the opposition defence would have to work out who they were picking up, as it would not always be the same player. Let’s give them the headaches, even if we win 1-0, let’s get in to the winning ways.
The time has come the Walrus said, so let’s try something different, we can always revert back to 4-5-1 and defensive play.
Some very interesting and accurate comments from all of thee above.
I for one also am a firm believer of wingers especially at this level (championship). How on earth can we have no decent wingers to do the simple thing of get “get down the wing and put in crosses and the occasional cut in and shot…
I’m not being funny but this is school boy stuff that we lack in terms of the basics…Sam is acting like we are Bolton and are in the prem trying to consolidate the usual mid table spot!
No we are west ham and just like the rest of the clubs in the land we use WINGERS!! and by wingers I mean Wingers NOT of the Matty Taylor variety, in all fairness i know hes now gone now but i would have chosen Stanislas over him every day of the week, Matty Talylor please , do me a favor hes old and washed up hence no longer at Bolton and look at the state of them in the prem, no disrespect as they always beat us.
But im sorry if this is turning into a rant but such is life and the way BFS sets us out we are always inviting the opposition to try some thing against us that’s why we have all the draws and silly loses, we don’t give the opposition much to think about up top , 1 striker not much to think about there unless hes name is Lorrente, Dzeco, Balloteli, Rooney and the like but Carlton Cole on his own? Hes not a bad player at all you don’t get England call ups for nothing, but but doing it for England is completely different from west ham.
Basically England with Cole had the players to intelligently feed off him and he did his thing , some times he even flourished in an England shirt, but at our beloved hammers the guy is screaming out for a strike partner , Baldock, Maynard id even try Morrison there if the aforementioned are not up to it but if they did play like this day in day in day out im sure we would get the best out of them all , even with different partnerships like Baldock and Maynard with Cole coming on as sup whether we are losing drawing or winning..simple things like this i believe is the answer , Mix it up Wing play, Through the middle, Short, Long …
My formation for west ham could possibly be a 352, which would be a shame because we would lose O’Brien which again is a shame because surprisingly he is one of our better players and you know why??
ill tell you why because he is playing in his correct position and doing hes job plain and simple, and the reason why id chose 3-5-2 in the championship is because we get to utilize our players more comfortably .
GREEN
Faye/Tomkins – Tomkins/Faye – Collins/Reid
Faubert — Collison—Nolan(if we must) —Vaz te
Noble/Morrison
Maynard Cole
I would probably not play this in the prem but in our current situation i think it accommodates most of the players in their natural potions,apart from Vaz te but i think hes the best we have for that side at the moment because we lack WINGERS!! the formation as im sure others are is also interchangeable with squad members if we get injuries etc..
3-5-2 Just a thought. (im forever blowing bubbles…\
Anyway im chatting to much would be glad for any feed back on the 3-5-2 but also would like to know what other formations we think could be better for our team right now to nick that 2nd spot, I just don’t have faith in our current style of play to do anything when it comes to the lotto that is the play offs.
Rant over!!
(please sneak this into BFS office) Lol 🙂
Drop Nolan.