It’s safe to say this is not the strong start to the season we expected over the summer. When we signed Andy Carroll our optimism was sky high but, like the pretty bubbles in the air, it’s begun to fade and die. We know some changes need to be made, and it’s a bit terrifying that our next games after losing to Hull City are Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City.
Rather than list the problems we’ve seen, here’s some reasons I’ve not yet given up on Sam Allardyce and the Hammers to turn the season around.
Every cloud has a Jaaskelainen…
Yes, there have been a few little wobbles, but Jussi is still consistently saving the day. His performance against Southampton enabled us to nab a point there, and apparently we have the joint best away defensive record this season (West Ham News) with having only let in 1 goal in three away games – and of the 5 league goals scored against us this year, only 1 came from open play. We can absolutely improve on our defending of free kicks- or try not give them away in the first place.
We’re not Down and out just yet…
The signing of winger Stewart Downing over a striker has frustrated many a Hammer, but we came alive against Hull when he came on the pitch. Now that he’s recovered from his injury, I’m hoping he’ll prove a worthy signing. It would of course help if he could knock a few goals in so that we all forget about that whole “we could have signed a striker thing,” but let’s give him a chance – he’s got some talent, and with Joe Cole injured and Matt Jarvis not quite in top gear, he will prove useful on the pitch.
We’ve also seen some wonderful stuff from Ravel Morrison, who, although quiet in the first half v Hull, gets better and better as his comfort level and confidence grows. 3 goals in 5 starts is not a bad start to a player’s senior professional career. He’s young, and he’s only going to get better.
James Tomkins also put in a good performance against Hull, and looks sure to fight James Collins for that starting place. I like having Tomkins out there, as having a tall player good in the air is going to pay off eventually with corners.
He scores when he wants…
… And it would appear he plays when he wants, too. Love him or hate him, don’t even act like you’re not praying to see Ricardo Vaz Te’s name in the starting line up right now. This is of course partially because Modibo Maiga leaves a lot to be desired in the striking department (namely: goals), but also because Vaz Te with a point to prove is a force to be reckoned with. He’s playing aggressively and moving the ball better now that he’s (bizarrely) having to fight for his place in the squad, and- wait for it- he’s right behind Morrison when looking at our top scorers (in all competitions.)
See the STARS OF CITY…lose
Mathematically we’ll probably beat Man City. Case in point- Cardiff beat them 3-2 already this season, and if there’s one thing West Ham excel at this season, it’s beating Cardiff. So West Ham > Cardiff > Man City is a logical conclusion, no?
From a more practical point, we normally rely on beating ‘weaker’ teams as our guaranteed 3 pts, hence the frustration at losing to Stoke and Hull, but this year the points from games against the big guns really are up for grabs. Manchester United have lost to West Brom and gotten housed by Man City… who in turn have lost to Cardiff and Aston Villa. At the time of writing, Everton are the only unbeaten team in the Premier League- the season is still there for the taking.
It’s not over yet – October hasn’t even started, and we have positives to build on. But if the above doesn’t convince you (and Big Sam continues to play Maiga as a loan striker), keep in mind we are only 2 points behind Man Utd- so it can’t all be doom and gloom, right? Right?!?
Thanks Emily, at last someone looking at some positives rather than the usual doom & gloom merchants getting their thongs in a twist (which has been the case in the last few weeks).
Its not been a great start but we are 6 games in without our key man and 2 of our most creative players. I find some of our fans embarrassing and unbearable at times. We need to have patience with the board and manager, who up until now have done a fantastic job. The way some of our fans go on we dont deserve either, but they wouild also be the 1st ones whinging when the new manager gets us relegated, or the board sell our best players and dont dig deep inthe transfer window. That sounds oh so familiar
west ham would not be west ham without hic cups along the way, turn tottenham over and all will be forgotten…remember lads and lases we never do anything the easy way, the day we do easy will be the dayi start to worry or have a nervous breakdown.
keep the faith
COYI
Struggling with the positives at the moment. Not sure where the next goal let alone point will come from.
Nice post, we are so quick to only look at the negatives and as so many fans don’t even watch the full matches just see the result and complain… As frustrating as the game against Hull was we were much better than them, ok maybe not at finishing but the key players you picked out have been great to watch especial Ravel.
My only real gripe is play Vaz Te UP TOP in the middle, I have no idea why he still isn’t getting a shot up there, as easy as it is to say maiga is “shit” I think he’s in the wrong position and wrong style/team he just doesn’t work for us.
And if I could change another thing it would be to see the likes of taylor, demel, petric off the subs bench and see some of the academy grads getting 5-10 mins here and there, otherwise what is the point in having the academy. (chambers, moncur, potts, mccallum etc)
I’m not on here to have a go at west ham ……
But I can’t say you deserved anything from the game against Hull ! You look good in midfield but the rest of your play looked predictable , strikers that can’t hit the target followed with the predictable Big Sam playing style that we know of old ( Bolton in disguise ) .
Yes you look better in the second half but if I’m honest you couldn’t look any worse as the first , so that improvement was not that hard to produce !
Hull could have added a few more goals if not for some great saves and a goal line clearances ….you had one real chance but we dealt with that , yes we got a soft penalty but your mistake was Hulls gain .
Before the game stats showed that you had played more long balls than we had this season; Looks like your a long ball team as well! As for us not deserving anything, we had a stonewall penalty turned down, where as your penalty was for a dive! Did you really deserve to win? You won because you had the rub if the green, no other reason! Let’s see where we both are come may!
Every cloud has a Jaaskelainen…
“Quote of the year”
Too many Clouds though
Allardyce is useless on match day. One trick pony, too predictable. I will not spend anymore of my hard earned cash on watching the hammers until he changes the way we play. Koff back to Bolton.
Both West Ham and Fulham will end up mid-table. FACT!
Far too modern day football fans start wetting their pants after a couple of defeats.