There is a worrying trait that we are facing at the moment and it is a plague that we must try and stop. The problems that we are creating for ourselves are evident. Swansea, Reading, Manchester United, QPR, Sunderland home and away, Wigan Athletic, Stoke City, Liverpool and Chelsea. These are all the teams, so far to have scored against us in the first 15 minutes.
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This point would be irrelevant if it was just an aspect of our play and we were going on to take maximum points and wasn’t determining the outcome of games for West Ham United.
For the majority of our season we have been very good in defense, only letting the odd goal slip in some of our biggest and best wins, but this is statistic that is to the detriment of the team. In the aforementioned fixtures we have only picked up 6 points. That run included drawing three of those games and winning just the one. The fact remains that from a potential 30 points we have picked up just a fifth of the points available. This has to change if we are going to push on in the second half of the season and really excel at this level, because teams in the Premier League don’t give second chances very often. Even teams near the bottom of the league have players who, on their day can cause serious problems, for instance strikers such as Christian Benteke, Papiss Cisse and Rickie Lambert.
Personally I am not one who likes to search the statistics and look at form guides or how the team has fared recently against a certain team. That fact remains, in my opinion, totally beside the point though this is a fact that West Ham United cannot ignore and I would rather see a slow start and keep a clean sheet after the first 15 minutes than go behind immediately.
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I can understand that after some recent poor defensive displays that many West Ham United fans may be feeling the New Year blues; though I feel that we don’t need a knee jerk reaction to this ‘epidemic’.
The morale of the squad has been strong throughout the year and I am glad to see cover arrive in the form of Austrian centre back, Emanuel Pogatetz. The additional strength in depth needs to be added because we are running bare of strong and very decent squad players.
Although the defense has been one of our outstanding performers, and the improvement of Winston Reid has been well documented as probably the most improved player in the Barclays Premier League. Also, I am one of the few West Ham supporters who seem to like having Jussi Jaaskelainen’s rebirth in British football. I feel he is a good shot stopper and does the job that is required of him very well. There is a mistake in him, granted but I’d rather have a dependable number one than flitter between goalkeepers each year.
Despite the strengths that the defense has made this year, the problem still remains and needs to be addressed urgently. We are continually forcing ourselves to make an impact on games in the last few moments of the fixture, which cannot continue at any level. We must not go through the rest of the season forcing ourselves to come back from poor errors in the first 15 minutes.
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Can’t agree about Jussi. We have let an alarming number of shots in from outside the box. Not only does he not seem capable of stopping them – he gets nowhere near them. He just seems to drop to his knees instead. He doesn’t control his area and gets bullied off the ball. His kicking is also poor. I expect ALL PL/Championship keepers to be good “shot stoppers”. It is decision making, presence and kicking ability that set the good ones apart. Paul Robinson has everything we need from a keeper right now. I hope we get him
supposed to be at the ground today
one of the facts is fat sam dropped tomkins this caused him to lose confidence hopefully ginger will be out for quite a while giving tomkins time to get back where he was before fatso dropped him.
agreed sibbo…BfS has done nothing for Tomo but kill the kids confidence……defensive midfielder…..do me a favour Sam!
We need to replace Jaaskelainen. Slow reflexes, poor kicking, poor spring. Conceding far to many goals from outside the box
That’s the least of our problems maybe jussi can play instead of Nolan he can’t do no worse. Bring back green or play Henderson , why do we always buy old finished players and sell young talents. Need a modern manager should of held onto Zola .