Part of being a West Ham fan is the commitment to backing the team through highs and lows, over land and sea.
It’s usually beneficial to try to find a positive in each performance, but when we’re staying up until 4am to watch back-to-back goalless draws, it does become somewhat draining.
So with a dearth of goals in reality, and a lack of ability to sleep at a regular hour, I thought I’d enter the world of virtual reality to remedy the scoring situation.
In a bid to see the ball hit the back of the net off a player donning the claret and blue, I took matters into my own hands by using this year’s version of a leading football computer game certified by the world governing body.
I set my team up following Sam Allardyce’s principles and available resources, and began taking on all-comers from around the world.
By the time I was six games in, and had only scored one goal from open play, I had found a new appreciation for Big Sam’s plight.
It is difficult to score with no one up front, although I didn’t concede many either.
To cheat a little, I brought Andy Carroll into the equation, and if we’re using this as somewhat of a gage, he will worryingly make little impact on our fortunes.
Sure, he’s a strong target man, but with a lack of pace at the highest level, we’re going to continue to struggle.
So to apply this testing to the latest news around West Ham, we would benefit from Tottenham Hotspurs’ Jermain Defoe or Chelsea’s Demba Ba re-joining the club.
It is also a concern that Winston Reid has picked up an injury, given he has been an integral part of the team keeping six Premier League clean sheets so far, (and three in the computer fixtures).
Granted, it is somewhat stupid to take my observations from a computer game too earnestly, but looking ahead to Saturday, it would certainly be considered a serious system failure if we fail find the net and win at Norwich.
