Personally, when we signed Matt Jarvis from Wolverhampton Wanderers, I was a very happy man. Something we always lack is pace within our attacking options. Sam Allardyce has been very shrewd with the signing, he signed Jarvis knowing that he was also targeting Andy Carroll – teaming the player who wins headers in the box, with the winger who crossed the ball more than any player in the Premier League last season…..Genius!
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However, I have to admit, I haven’t seen Jarvis have too many good games for us yet. People who I know who see West Ham a lot more than I can, say they have been less than impressed in fact.
The initial signs were good for ‘Jarvo’. He made a few sub appearances and started a few and looked lively, going past his man and getting the ball into the box. But recently, we haven’t seen that as much. Jarvis sees plenty of the ball, but Allardyce plays him on the left, which for a right footer, is very difficult. Likewise, he plays Matty Taylor on the right. I can see what Allardyce wants, Jarvis crossing from the left on his right foot means the ball will swing in towards the goal.
The thing is, Allardyces dream combination has hardly reaped rewards. Carroll has one goal in his handful of games, but then has had two long term injuries already, and Cole is not that sort of striker. So the goals have dried up.
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But back to Jarvis, and his price tag…..well he didn’t put the tag on his head did he? Allardyce wanted him, Wolves were reluctant to sell, so we had to bid big. £10.75m is a record transfer for West Ham, dwarfing the £7.5m we paid for Craig Bellamy. Compare it to the £13m Sunderland paid for Adam Johnson, and the £20m Liverpool paid for Stewart Downing – I think we have got a good signing on our hands. But I don’t think we have seen the best of Jarvis for a couple of reasons.
When we play away from home, because we are newly promoted, we have to adopt a more defensive formation, meaning we have to try and catch teams on the break. This also means Jarvis needs to defend more, meaning he rarely gets into the opposition half much to attack.
The second reason is the players around him….are they of good enough quality to utilise his strengths? I don’t think they are. George McCartney or Joey O’Brien at Left Back are average at best – good squad players, but hardly a left back who is capable of overlapping with Jarvis, to provide him space with which to run at defenders and get better crosses into the box. And to be fair to Jarvis, his stats for getting crosses into the box are pretty impressive, which suggests that either the quality of the ball is not very good, or the likes of Cole and Carroll are not getting on the end of anything. Seeing the amount of games I have this season, for me, it’s the latter.
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Jarvis hasn’t yet justified his price tag, however, what I would say is that he is on a 4 year contract, he is 26 years old, and has appeared for England. He has good feet, he is fast, and good at running with the ball. I think when we are on the 40 point mark and safe from relegation, we can then throw caution to the wind, and let our players express themselves more– this includes our record signing. Be patient with him Hammers, I think there is a lot more to come from him!
COME ON YOU IRONS!!
By ChelmoHammer
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I certainly wouldn’t describe signing Jarvis and Carroll as genius. You mention Adam Johnson being £13 million, that’s because he is worth £13 million. Jarvis was never worth 10. 5 would have been right for him especially when we could have pushed harder for Ince or gone after Marcus Olsonn who both would have cost around 10 mil maybe a tad more at that time. I was disappointed when we signed him for that much money and I am still disappointed now. He hasn’t added anything to the side. Perhaps it is because we are so negative with Big Sam but even when we aren’t being negative he does nothing. Both him and Carroll are poor signings. Joe Cole and Chamakh are both better bits of business but I doubt Chamakh will play when Carroll gets back because AC is one of Sam’s favourites so will always play just like Nolan. Contrary to what some think I do not think Sam is working wonders at West Ham. We have a squad capable of a top 10 finish yet he continues to pick the wrong side and use poor tactics. Anyway rant over, but Matt Jarvis certainly hasn’t justified his fee.
quite agree with you obout sam he keeps saying he wants strikers had baldock maynard never gave them a chance now maibi cording to sam not good enough,all ways playing players in wrong position, j thompkins great next to reid but no, ginger in that position well lose thompkins,and our youngsters fatso dont give em a chance.
Exactly. Maiga has the best scoring record out of all our players but never plays in his proper position which is up top with another striker. He had one game where he struggled against Everton when we had 10 men and now it seems he won’t get a look in. Collins has made a huge amount of mistakes that have cost matches/nearly cost matches this season yet Tomkins is still 2nd choice. Frustrates me, I hope we don’t have Big Sam long term because once he gets the time to build a whole squad around his philosophy it is tough for another manager to come in and change it. He’s the right man to keep us up this season but after that I would prefer someone like Di Canio who has faith in their players to perform. Our squad is better than a lot of other squads in the league but Sam consistently picks the wrong players. People can say all they want about me not seeing the training sessions etc but I’ve seen them all enough in games etc to make my mind up and often when we lose against lesser sides it is down to Big Sam’s poor selection couple with his tactics. Very, very frustrating.
Baldock and Maynard have made such an impact in the championship huh… It would have been nice to keep one but I don’t think either are Orem quality.
You obviously don’t watch our games if you think Jarvis hasn’t added anything and that Carroll has been a disappointment. Plus our squad is nowhere near good enough for a top ten finish, we’re over achieving as it is
I am a season ticket holder mate so yes i do watch our games. For someone who’s job is to score a few goals but mainly cross it in and get a decent amount of assists he has got 1 goal and 0 assists in 17 games. During the game he rarely backs himself, I think he may have lost a yard of pace myself. Carroll has scored 1 in 9, gets knackered very quickly and Cole has shown he is just as good/useless depending on what way you look at it. If you think that of our squad then fair enough, I think we have a squad that compares very favourably with others and that a top 10 finish is well within our grasp. If Big Sam was a bit more positive with his tactics I think we could be doing better. Plus add 6 points to our current total if he picked Tomkins instead of Collins who has cost us 2 games and nearly cost us more.
Agree with you about Collins, his footballing ability is up there with the worst, only good for hi heading/ blocking. Our squad’s just too thin to get a top 10 finish this season, injuries proved this over the last few weeks. I think the problem Jarvis was having was that everyone knew we had to only go through him due to Taylor/ o’neil being on the other wing and offering nothing, Jarvis wasn’t getting any space. Haven’t seen carlton play this well for about 4 years as well so we can’t really moan there, his team play’s been quality but we need a plan B other than direct as shown against reading when we were awful. Thought we played better against Norwich because the team wasn’t built solely around accommodating Nolan, who over the last 2 months has offered absolutely nothing, an we could actually pass the ball around. Nice to see collison recapturing some form as well but I can see him getting dropped when Diame gets back
I think Jarvis is quality. Maybe 10million was too much, but he is definitely one of our better players this season. He is fast, scares defenders when he runs at them and gets balls into the box. Perhaps more criticism should be aimed at the support he recieves from the rest of the team. Too often Jarvis finds himself in good crossing positions but with not enough options in the middle.
Thats one of the reasons I hope we start playing 2 strikers, so at least he has someone to aim at and perhaps he will start to perform. For me he has been one of the worst out of those who start week in week out at this moment in time. No assists through 17 games, it can’t be everyone elses fault that he hasn’t even got 1 assist.
A lot of you lot must be pissed when you watch us !!!! How many times does Jarvis actually get a ball to a team mate in the box ????? Not very often !!! Most wingers get it in there but how many hit the spot !!! Faubert did the same but he didn’t cost 10.5 !!!! I would love him to deliver and perhaps its our system that fucks him but at the moment 4 out of 10 !!!
Bevan your a moaning old woman! BFS has got us promoted, made a solid start to the season, got the team playing as a team, made us look more solid, attracted top quality players and got a 3 – 1 win over Chelsea (we were also very unlucky not to beat Liverpool, Everton and Arsenal at home).
Think a year and half ago what a shambles the club was in. It’s about time u had a reality check! Get behind the team or do one mate!
Also Tomkins has been poor all season and his distribution in the game v Norwich was shocking! He needs to knuckle down and graft. He chose to go to the Olympics, Reid worked all summer and has been our best player. Bout time Tomkins put some work in as opposed to thinking he should be guaranteed a place ahead of Collins!
@Big Ern – Promotion by the skin of our teeth. With the squad we had we should have been automatically promoted if we are being honest. BFS is the right man to keep us up but do I want him as a long term manager, 100% no. We have also lost to Wigan and Reading and were dire in both those games.
I never said I wasn’t behind the team, I just don’t agree with a lot of what BFS is doing, that doesn’t mean I am not getting behind the team so don’t insinuate that I’m not. I have a season ticket and love watching the club but I also have an opinion. Tomkins has been forced to play right back for much of the time he has been on the pitch, you are the only person I know of who wouldn’t prefer him in the team over Collins. Reid and Diame have been by far our best players, by a long long way they have and that tells you a lot about where we are as a team right now. Our best defensive midfielder (Diame) is also out most potent attacking threat and creative player and the other best player is a centre back. I have high hopes for West Ham and no club in Europe would have Big Sam as their manager because he is too negative and I think we could be doing better. That is my opinion. Everyone is entitled to one mate and just because mine is different to yours doesn’t mean I am not getting behind the team. Just because I don’t like certain selections and think some players are better than others also doesn’t mean I am not behind the team. Doesn’t matter who is playing or managing I will still be at the boleyn every week.
as in no club in the Champions League/Europa league by the way. Not no club in any european league…
Thoughts on Collins after his Man Utd performance…? U mug!
Tompkins is so overated,he panics when he is passed the ball across the back four, he lacks pace and is turned to easily.
And there I was thinking we were having a good return season in the premiership!
I must be losing my marbles after over 40 years of support!
Trouble is….Far too may people are in a hurry and I thought those people swap allegiances to support teams like chelsea and Citeh!
What is this with the whole I’m a better fan than you thing going on here. I just want us to as well as we can I don’t feel we are at the moment. Don’t compare me to a plastic Chelsea fan because I have a different opinion. I have nothing against those who believe Sam is working wonders for us because I respect other peoples opinions. Something guys like you should learn to do.
The problem with Jarvo is that he drifts in and out of games, I like him myself, but a lot of Wolves fans were critical of him.
Give him time, play him in the right position and he will deliver.
All the best.
Perhaps if we played more positive football with 2 forwards he would improve. I don’t think our current style of play suits him that well really. He was better against Norwich than I have seen all season and we played with more attacking flair due to Collison and Vaz so we will see. I would like to see us play with Vaz and Chamakh up to from now on and have Jarvis and Collison right and left mid. Jarvis is misused on the left whereas I think Collison has a bit more flair and skill so could cope on the left better. Anyway COYI!!
Wolves fan in peace. Take it from me you’ve yet to see anything like the best of Jarvis so far. IMO he is worth the money paid. Yes the team has to play to his strengths to achieve this, his main weaknesses being injury prone and being too predictable in posession. The stats from seasons past speak for themselves.
Good luck for the remainder of the season, I’m sure he will come good for you.
Matt Jarvis has great potential and performs well given the right situation with players around him that suit his style. The problem is we don’t have the luxury of a Man City or Chelsea having quality and depth at every position. Consequently our players need to adapt a little bit in order to succeed weekly.
Matt Jarvis is a professional with great ability. He needs the courage and fortitude to step his performances up where they need to be. Maybe the second half of the season we will see that ability on full display.
Bevan I respect your opinion and perhaps I was wrong to call you a women… But your wrong.
I must say we have a tendency to over rate our academy players. Tomkins has a great deal of potential but he is also liable to lapses in concentration and panics on the ball. Granted Collins makes mistakes but what we need this year are players willing to throw themselves in front of the goal and be strong in the air. Collins does this, i wouldn’t say Tomkins does. Collins makes the odd howler, I can think if 3 this year (Swansea, Sunderland, Reading), but he has also been a big reason for the 5 clean sheets. He and Reid were immense v WBA, Newcastle, Norwich, Man City, Villa.
Regarding Jarvis, he has been steady. When we have a full strength team we will see the best of him. He has pace, tricks, can defend and wants to run at players and a fantastic delivery. Get off his bak!
Again a friendly wolves fan, jarvis took a good 6 months before he started firing for us, then he really was out only outlet and we miss him terribly. Regarding big Sam I would snap your hand off to have him at our place, he has his way and it works I watched you against Liverpool (cheering you on I hate Liverpool) and thought you were by far the better team. Good luck for the rest of the season I always see west ham as a wolves type club and therefore quite like you lot