Versus Tottenham Hotspur, Sam Allardyce took a big risk in changing his formation and not playing a single striker for the entire 90 minutes. Risks like this can obviously go one of two ways; fortunately for Sam it was executed perfectly and in a game where a point would have been a welcomed result we managed a clean sheet and netted 3 goals without the use of a forward.
Suddenly, the West Ham fans who were at their wits end with Big Sam were praising his tactical prowess, yet if Tottenham had taken one of their earlier chances then the game may not have ended in West Ham’s favour.
A lot of football fans are led to believe that an “outcome” goal is all that should be focused upon; that is when the outcome of a match is taken into consideration and the performance is ignored. It is far more important to look at the “performance” goals of a match.
A team can play superbly and lose and equally can play poor and scrape a result. This largely depends on factors such as the quality of the opposition.
I get the feeling that many West Ham fans judge purely on the end result and a loss is immediately a “@$!&” performance.
I can almost guarantee that if West Ham had played exactly the same way and maybe lost 2-1 the same fans would be on Big Sam’s back again.
The fickleness of a football fan is something unlike no other. Last week we were in the pits of a disaster and Allardyce “had to go!” after a convincing win with a bit of fortune (Ricardo Vaz Te’s goal), suddenly the West Ham world is a better place.
I for one feel that the result against Tottenham pays of the optimistic fans who back Sam Allardyce through his previous seasons, and who don’t want to ditch a manger as soon as they hit a rough patch.
We’ve rarely had stability at West Ham for many a year and with Big Sam at the helm it will stay that way, just remember that when we next lose at home (it will happen, that’s football!). Also a good performance and a poor result doesn’t necessarily demand a re-shuffle of the coaching staff.
People calling for Sam’s head has not come from the last few matches, or results, it has come from an accumulation of the type of dross he has been producing over a longer time. Most of us will put up with that if we are getting results, but when it means we are no scoring, and in the bottom three you will get a reaction. I am willing to admit I was one calling for him to go, but even his most loyal supporters must surly admit it looked like he had no plan B. It shocked me, and its clear the players are definitely playing for him. You wont hear me call for his head for a couple of months…..FICKLE?, not me.
Firstly, relegation places after first 6 games is more or less irrelevant. League tables aren’t particularly accurate until AT LEAST 15-20 games.
I would also suggest this is already “plan B” as “plan A” would have been around a certain record signing.
Calling a man’s position to be reviewed who has won promotion at first time of asking followed by a top half league finish, and after just 6 games of the new season was embarrassing.
Reckon you should be a Spurs fan with an attitude like that .
Who are you referring too, Peter?
I concur….
Our fans are an embarrassment at times, but this is modern football. After the 1st 2 games everyone was pretty happy, 10 ten finish etc. after 6 games, we’re useless, gonna get relegated, sack the board and the manager!
We have been promoted at the 1st attempt (when be were easily the poorest team in the league the year before) and tenth in our 1st year back. The fans calling for Sams head also seem to have deluded recent memories, thinking we only ever played intricate passing football in recent times. Probably the same ones calling for Sam to be sacked last year and pdc appointed as manager?!? They will also be the 1st ones crying and getting their thongs in a twist if we sack Sam and our new manager inevitably gets us relegated before the OS move.
Modern football is a joke, get rid if our manager at our peril at the moment. I don’t even want to think about the next manager until we are safe and sound in the OS as an established premier league team. And even then, if we are top 10 very year there is no need to change the big man
Exactly this. What’s the rush to win the Premier League?!
Spot on!
I’ve always thought “Deluded” was the best way to describe this modern football Phenomena!
Maybe I’m too long in the tooth and seen it all, but I believe a lot of these fickle fans are deluded and haven’t accumulated enough football hours or knowledge to understand that progress is a step by step process.
What some of these people want is instant success. If that’s what they really want then they should stop pretending to support the club that they constantly undermine no matter who is in charge & go and support manure, chelski or citeh, where money and success can be achieved instantly. Or if they like a good moan and enjoy feeling that they are better than they really are, go support the spuds who are just as deluded.
Either support the club or get lost. I do wonder what these so called fans would have done to Johnny Lyall if he was alive (RIP) managing the club today under the chairmanship of Terrance Brown?
Why is it so many of you know-alls revert to telling people who they should support just because they have a different opinion than yourselves. Iv admitted on a couple of sites in the last few days I was premature in suggesting Sam should go. Let me just explain, I to am old enough to remember when we played proper football, and entertained, that’s likely to be my problem. What I don’t need is people like you telling me who I should support, discussion is meant to be the way on discussion sites, keep your advise to yourselves….. PS, I wonder how many of you super brains without hindsight were beginning to doubt Big Sam before Sunday.
Look up fickle in the dictionary. After a season or so of underachieving I could understand, but 2 – 3 games????
That’s what I class as fickle and you could hardly call that support!
I’ve seen enough managers & chairmen to know a little better!
Did you then?…..Look up the word Fickle, im a football fan commenting on a discussion site, don’t really have time to check the meaning of every comment I make…. 2 or 3 games you say?, if you read the whole of my posts, you would of read, I mentioned my thoughts were concerning the last couple of seasons.
I think we should just wait until Xmas and see where we are. Yes it was a great result on Sunday but one result doesn’t change everything. We should be fighting for a top 8 spot, I think that’s realistic. BTW, I,m never going to Spurs again, there were some very horrible people on the train home who were just looking for trouble with any WHU fan, don’t need this at my age. COYI
Hahaha why should we be challenging top 8? we have been in the league 1 year, have enormous debts that we have struggled to service and due to this we have been outspent by many teams that finished below us. We cant even be classed as an established premier league team after ony 1 year surely!