In my opinion Sam Baldock has an eye for goal, a natural instinct that very few players are blessed with, West Ham have been fortunate enough to have this type of player in our teams over the years (less so in recent times). Predators like Tony Cottee who do little else in a game other than feed off their team mates and put the ball in the back of the net.
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Next season will be a tough one for West Ham, I anticipate our system will generally be 4-5-1 and we will be under a lot of pressure during games, We will try our best to pin teams back this is when 4-5-1 becomes 4-3-3.
It will be the duty of the striker to relieve as much pressure as possible by either holding the ball up or turning and running at defenders. Sam Baldock being a poacher doesn’t have the tools in his locker (pace, technique and strength) to do this job for the team and lead the line on his own. Baldock is no slouch but he hasn’t got the kind of pace that will terrorise Premier League defenders.
If you can imagine West Ham had immense quality throughout the team and we applied a lot of pressure on premier league opposition during games next season then Baldock would definitely be useful player but we are not going to pin teams back. Not yet anyway the team is a long way from that.
Sam Baldock has done extremely well in pre-season scoring goals and there is a campaign with growing support on social networks for WHU to keep Sam Baldock on our books.
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Football has evolved and rarely do the top teams in the world play an orthodox 4-4-2 system, Players like Baldock thrive in a 4-4-2 system or feeding off orthodox wingers, West Ham do not play 4-4-2 and West Ham do not have orthodox wingers.
Sam Baldock did not pull up trees’ in the Championship last year, he definitely wont cut it in a 4-5-1 system.
The best teams play with one striker, There was no blossoming partnership between Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba for Chelsea last season, one or the other played. It was the same at Tottenham Hotspur with Emanuel Adebayor keeping Jermain Defoe and Roman Pavlychenko on the sidelines, Liverpool went with Luis Suarez up top, Arsenal went with Van Robin Persie up top.
It is well documented that Demba Ba has complained to Alan Pardew about being pushed out wide after Newcastle signed Papiss Cisse in January. So even when you do see two strikers on the pitch at the same time it is unlikely that both players are playing in an orthodox striking role, unless of course the team is desperately chasing a goal.
It amazes me that the campaign for West ham to keep Baldock is strong, if you follow tweets sent to @DavidGoldWHU you will see that this opinion is hugely popular especially when rumours of a bid from Bristol City first broke.
Can we really rely on little Sam to terrorize Premier League defenders? I don’t think so, Premier league defenders are big, quick powerful guys who will dominate Baldock.
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We all want Sam Baldock to be the new Cottee and whilst he has shown a knack for scoring goals in the lower leagues I think Sam & Co have seen enough to realise he isn’t going to do it at Premier League level and that is where West Ham intend on playing and for me a big clue about Baldock’s true ability is in the club he is being linked with.
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He didn’t pull up trees cos he was injured and then was never used or out of posission which don’t help no one yet he’s first 5 appearances he scored 4 goals also please name me
Another striker that has played in pre season to score more then him and he has actually only played 3 games come on matey what do you read n watch I love cole but he ain’t set the world alike either get shot of Maynard who couldn’t hit a cow ar** with a banjo I don’t think any of our strikers are prem quality if I’m honest but I’d go with the ikea in form of we can’t get other players in every one rattles on about vaz te he’s had 1 good season in the English leagues out of about 5 or 6 he didn’t set the world alone when at Bolton we will struggle to score goals who ever we play but I’d rather watch him play n score as he seems to be on a roll
I dont think Maynard or Cole are brilliant either but they are definitely ahead of Baldock, Cole on his day can make himself a nuisance, even sometimes against top class defenders however as we all know that day doesn’t happen very often.
It was confirmed we bid for Holt, it is well documented we bid for Carroll, I think Maiga has been purchased to operate wide in a front 3 (but will end up wide midfield when we get pinned back.
Half the battle of making new signings is getting current players of the wage bill to free up funds.
Baldock has scored a few goals pre-season but they were against our weakest opponents.
Fingers crossed we find a goalscoring gem before the trasfer window shuts otherwise it will mean inflated fee’s in January and an uphill struggle to stay up (again).
how can you say that Maynard is ahead of baldock if your going goal wise then baldock is still ahead of Maynard and played less then him do that had gone out the window!! Maynard is defo the one who should go not just for being useless in front of goal but he will keep his price for a championship club yet again buying all these attack minded players which don’t get me wrong is good but yet we have shipped goals for fun in pre season how about take a look at the back aswell a proper right back another quality cb and another left back to back mcartney or to go ahead of McCartney
load of cobblers
quite right mickey
At least give baldock a chance! He hasn’t been given a proper go yet! Lok at the size of Owen and at what he achieved suing a lot on his own up front when he was still 18/19!!
I take your point bro but Owen had electric pace and he was one of the best natural finishers in the game, remember his two goals in the cup final against Arsenal, Baldock is not capable of those kind of goals, he just doesn’t have the same pace or finishing ability.
Bloody iPhone screen!!!
So tell me then who would you like to see at west ham if you think we should sell baldock??? Dot come up with all the same old names that will never attract to then club this season what has annoyed me the most is since last summer we have bought in 5 strikers and already have cole n piq that’s 7 strikers and we are going in for more I thin we need to worry about the back line myself of I’m honest cos he obviously can’t be trusted in signing strikers but then not even givin them a chance at all then slags them off who would have the confidence after all that yet comes back this pre season scores goals and low n behold guess what hes dropped again
Allardyce bought to get the goals – Vaz Té, Baldock, & Maynard – who were all top scorers in their leagues. Vaz Té was the only one that really delivered, & I was bitterly disappointed with Maynard. I do feel for Baldock, but I totally agree with this post – he’d never cut it in the prem. he’d get bullied off the park by the likes of Vidic & Kompany. Allardyce bought lots of strikers simply to get goals for promotion. We’ve now achieved that, & now we need better to keep us in the prem. nobody has seen Maiga play yet, so there’s really no need to panic until we are in the bottom 3 at Xmas!
PS – Vaz Té was 16 at Bolton. Bit unfair to say he didn’t do anything.
Oh yes we have Hammerhead, he played the first half against Ipswich on Saturday and was totally and utterly useless!!!! looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights,
Vaz te was 16 up to 20 maybe even longer and done nothing here cyprus Scotland had 1 good season since he was 16 how old is he now?? Please don’t tell me your harbouring hopes of him being a massive hit in the prem I hope in wrong but I can’t see it mate! Not saying baldock is the answer to our prayers but the potential is ther for him given he sees enough of the pitch
Are you allardyce
are you alladyce
Are alladyce in disguise
No I’m not, but i would not mind his job or bank balance.
Baldock is the only one who looks like he can reach double figure goals this season. Unless we are getting a top striker we should keep him. If someone has to go and not sure why anyone needs to then it has to be maynard
Baldock will get double figures at the right club in the right league but not the premier league. Scoring goals pre-season against Southend is a long way from scoring goals in the premier league
I begining to wonder if Alladyce is losing the plot, buys young players for the future then does not think there good enough, makes you wonder whats goin on.Baldock was not giving much chance after getting injured & Alladyce did not give any strikers a real run in the team kept dropping them all the time, even near end of season bringing back donkey Carew. As for Vaz ta total hero, but he has only had one good season in England last. Big season for him & i’m not sure he is good enough for the prem. When you see a club like Reading buy players & seem to find goalscorers like they grow on trees, makes you wonder if our scouts are good enough.
I agree our scouting network may need reviewing.
The common thread here is that Big Sam had to bring in new forwards, as the ones we had didn’t score enough goals. So some people here are saying that as we got promotion, we can get rid of the new blood and go back to the forwards who never delivered in the Prem before, and then in the Championship !!! My brain hurts, but at least I have one.
Exactly we have wasted 2 weeks trying to get a player who said 2 weeks ago he didn’t want to Join any ways we ain’t getting no top class strikers in we will struggle this year but will class it a good season if we just stay up then we can progress from there as we have been lucky enough over the past 4 or 5 years not to go down so, we will ship goals for fun aswell I think he just likes to buy players to say well at least I’m trying instead of going all out to get our first options we ain’t.
Stick with baldock give him a chance and run in his posistion n will score goals
Jason Hannen, you knew it would be tin hat time, but your argument more than holds it’s own as much as we would all like little Sam to be a success, it probably won’t happen for the same reasons that you have stated.
…. and for this I’ll don my tin hat too, as I make you right on this one!
I was at Ipswich on saturday unfortunately !!! and we were absolutely terrible !! Honestly can’t say that one of our players looked good enough to play in the Prem . Noble was made to look two bob by Massimo Luongo who is on loan from Tottenham . Keeper looked bad , Cole normal and new striker clueless . We will struggle big time this season , don’t care what anyone says about friendlies not being important , they are !! and we should be beating teams like Ipswich this close to the season !!!!
Pre-season has shown us that we lack strength in depth and we have very little time left to resolve. Baldock was brought in to a Championship side, stepping up from Div 1, not convinced he was expected to make the next step up. For me he is a little lightweight, like Freddie, and will struggle against the very physical PL defenders. Unless our chairmen get their fingers out and bring in some slide players across the back line, out wide and one more up front, we will struggle very badly and I wouldn’t be surprised to find us in a desperate relegation battle. What I don’t understand is why they would potential risk the OS and their future plans for us by not getting solid business done. No-one is looking for marquee type signings, just a solid unit to be bale to compete and stabilise us in the PL.