Dear Mr Allardyce,
I’m writing you to show my concerns about our team. Do not get me wrong you are a very respectable manager and have a very good proven track record and our away form is testament to this. We have played some fantastic football and have looked extremely dangerous, however my concern though is our home form. I don’t think it’s all the team at fault or yourself, I also believe the fans could be partly to blame, especially considering our atmosphere at home games has been practically non existent (if you ignore Millwall and Southampton) unless we score a goal or get a corner.
I feel this atmosphere is having a knock on effect to our players. When the crowd are frustrated and quiet our team appears to panic, we then resort to kicking the ball long to our strikers, which everyone can see is not helping us at all. I feel you need to calm our team down in these situations, remind them of their abilities and make them play a simple pass and move game. The team would then start to dominate games and create more clear cut chances, instead of kicking it long and suddenly see the pressure thrown straight back on ourselves, thus tiring our defenders and making a mistake far more likely.
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Please can you remind this to the players and encourage them to try to play like that, I will almost guarantee if we start playing like that more regularly like we have in multiple away games, our fans would begin to pick up and start to get behind the team a lot more at home again. We have no one to blame but ourselves, all of us, not just the players, not just yourself and not just the fans, we are West Ham and we are all united together. I will never ever boo my side, but after the Doncaster match, we kicked the ball long for 70 minutes, despite everyone, including Julian Dicks who was commentating, pointing out this wasn’t helping. Also when we got in wide areas our team seemed reluctant to get the ball in the box, this is one more thing I feel should be encouraged. I’m not real football manager, but I find the long ball see’s players like Noble, Nolan, Collison and Lansbury all ignored as it is kicked over their heads, when they are the players who can create chances for players such as Baldock, Cole and Maynard. I don’t mind what formation we use, but the tactics at home are not helping any of us. I’m certain you of all people can see that and will push our club to play sensibly. None of us expect us to play like Barcelona, but a simple passing game is something that is hammered into our players minds from a young age throughout the academy, this should not be ignored when playing at home in the first team.
I honestly hope you can help bring back these players confidence in playing in front of a home crowd and win over our fans hearts, which I think you will if we start to play sensible football.
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Your Sincerely,
James Bannister
PS Good luck in the remainder of the season, I hope we can all pull together and get us back in the Premier League.
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It is shamefull to hear the amount of hot air instead of bubbles WHU FANS??? are spouting about their team.
It is now a very simple decision – get behind them for the “Run In” or take your share of responsibility for failure!
Promotion will still bring Plenty more for you to moan about – guaranteed!
I travel from Southampton as a season ticket holder and can not believe the trash I hear on these sites. I pay to be entertained and have not been entertained for one game this season. Bar maybe Southampton cheats. The problem is not with the support it’s with the manager and players. Time for Morrison to show the way back.
Exactly I’m sick and tired of hearing how we are to blame for it all it’s for to simple for players and management to blame the fans for our very poor home form, I mean Collins on for Nolan when we was crying out or some one in midfield to create some thing that was a shocking sub to make
If you read the majority of this blog I’ve said it’s not just the atmosphere, I feel everyone has their own role, I openly admitted the performance has not been good, but Millwall and Southampton we sang throughout the entire game and the team rewarded that support with a battling performance, I just feel it could help. But if you read the majority of this post which I don’t think you have it shows my main concern is the players not playing football they know how to and struggling with the pressures of not pushing teams over who defend very well at Upton Park.
if both sides are playing a 4,4,2 system, mathmatically kicking a long ball means there are twice as many defenders to intercept the ball as attackers, it doesn’t make sense ? Play for possesion, from the goalkeeper up. No more long balls please.
I’m afraid singing won’t get us back into the Premiership.
Its almost written in the stars isnt it…West Ham lose second spot to an excellent and motivated Reading side, end up in the dog-fight that is the play offs and bloody lose. Welcome to the wonderful world of being a West Ham supporter…and get used to it cos thats how its always been and thats how it will always be. These home performances are now beyond a joke. If we cant beat the likes of Watford and Doncaster on our manor then we dont deserve to get automatic promotion. Stop blaming the long suffering fans and the injury list Sam. We are the most loyal (some may say blindly loyal) fans in the country, give the team away support that is the envy of many Premiership sides, and have the biggest and most expensive squad in the Championship. Time to deliver boys…time to deliver !