The Sam Allardyce Myth

“They get rubbished some of our players for the type of football they play because of me and I do think that’s a disgrace because they have shown everybody how good they are today.”

Sam Allardyce fumed after watching his West Ham United claim a point at the hands of the so-called ‘Champions elect’.

Firstly, lets get this straight. It was offside; Robin van Persie has now scored 3 times against us this season. A fortunate deflection off of the back of James Collins at Old Trafford, a wonder goal back in January to take it to 2-2 in the F.A Cup and now an offside strike gave United a point. Nevertheless, there is no point attacking a linesman for missing a key decision because that’s football. It is an interpretation of one man at a split second moment. I cannot stand it when managers rant and rave about the rules and laws of football. They leave the game when the players cross that line, the referee, or linesman, applies those rule on his interpretation. That is the core role that an official plays in a game of football.

Although, I can strongly agree with the statement that Sam Allardyce made on the performance of the West Ham United side. For too long, we have been criticised by a general perception from managers, pundits and fans that we play ‘ugly’ football. I am not going to make outlandish remarks that we are on par with the fluent passing styles of Barcelona, Arsenal, Swansea or even Wednesday night’s counterparts. Statistics would agree with the critics that West Ham United under Sam Allardyce play ‘ugly’ football. On average, according to the statistics provided by whoscored.com, West Ham United play 288 short passes per game. Only Stoke and Reading play less. However, there is big reason for this. The pace of our counter attacking football.

We should take pride in our performance on Wednesday night as we attacked fluently. I can only refer you towards our opening goal. James Collins nicked the ball from Wayne Rooney (if I remember rightly). We were off, Gary O’Neil quickly found Mo Diame; Diame carried the ball passed the position of Michael Carrick. Then the Senegalese powerhouse swept the ball across to Jarvis, with a quick sprint he beat Ferdinand, crossed the ball towards Andy Carroll. Vaz Te heads the loose ball home. From defence to attack without a ‘long ball’ or ‘up and under’ insight. Quick and brutal attacking football. If the perception that follows Allardyce around that his sides play ‘ugly’ football continues, he should simply point to this move.

Sir Alex even said in his post-match interview that the game followed the suit that he had predicted, a battle. He isn’t the only manager who has done this. Rafael Benitez, Martin Jol and Nigel Adkins have also commented on the fact that the game was a battle. The common trend to these managers is that they have come to Upton Park and have been beaten. We didn’t beat Manchester United, but Sir Alex would have been disappointed that his side didn’t really offer any response to the battle. Managers quickly fall back on their laurels and are respectful to Sam by offering him a watered down insult. Sam should take pride in this performance, because he is certainly winning the war over the critics.