I’m still not sure how West Ham managed to play so well on Saturday and come out of it with zero points. Nowt. Nada. The first half was some of the best attacking football we’ve played so far this season, but we couldn’t capitalise on that and score more than one goal. Once again, our lack of strike force was holding us back, and crosses were not met by a claret and blue shirt in the final third.
But who was to blame? The eleven men on the pitch or the manager Sam Allardyce? I would say it’s a bit of both. You could argue that the manager can say all he wants before matches and at half time, but once those players cross the line onto the hallowed turf, it’s all down to them. The obvious man to blame would be Jussi Jaaskelainen, as he was the culprit who gave away the penalty which spurred Norwich City on to take all three points. I do feel a bit unfair doing this, as his saves have kept us in a lot of games this season, and for the most part he is a quality keeper. We also conceded a stupid free kick that led to the second goal, which was given away by James Collins. Essentially, it was like a different group of players turned up for the second half.
Captain Kevin Nolan said that the players had nobody to blame but themselves: “We’re under no illusions, that was a very disappointing result. We’ve got to take it on the chin — whatever anyone wants to throw at us, write or say about us now, we’ve got to take it as a squad.
“It’s a long old season but we know we’ve got to turn it around pretty soon otherwise we’re going to be in a dog-scrap come the end of the season.”
Saying that, we just didn’t have the options in terms of impact subs to turn the game around once it had started to go wrong. And that is undoubtedly down the manager and board for not bringing in enough back up in the case of injuries – Andy Caroll’s has left us badly exposed.
You could also say that in the last few games, Allardyce could see that we’d got into the right positions but hadn’t been able to capitalise on it, but hadn’t done anything about it. We set up shop in the same way, and perhaps could have introduced Carlton Cole earlier, or focussed on being more defensive once we had that 1-0 lead instead of trying to coast to victory.
People may scoff at my suggestion of Cole, but he actually does a very good job defensively – even if he can’t find the goal at the other end currently! Sheer bad luck also has its part to play. Speaking after the match, Big Sam said that in his previous two seasons at West Ham, he had never seen four direct free kicks scored against us.
What do you think? Should the players hang their heads, or is Big Sam to blame? Leave a comment or tweet me at @alwaysintune.
I blame Sheffield United.
Fed up with players – but usually Nolan – taking responsibility off the field for a poor performance instead of actually doing something about it on the field. Even if there is a managerial ineptitude surely there should be greater pride and commitment shown by the players. But given that few players will ever hang about too long after a relegation I suppose one shouldn’t be surprised. As for Gold And Sullivan they must be gutted. I don’t blame them for not getting a decent striker for Carroll, afterall so much emphasis was placed on Carroll’s anticipated role as a sole striker…why would any half decent striker want to join us to join us merely to warm the bench? That said it was pretty obvious that Carroll was an accident waiting to happen. For that, Allardicci has to take responsibility. He’s ultimately to blame, but I really don’t want yet another managerial change. Greenwood and Lyall really cared about WHU. Bonds too. Redknapp and Curbushly as well, afterall long serving ex-players. Roeder, maybe, Mccari, Zola, Grant, Pardew not a jot. 5 managers in 90 yrs upto 1989…since then 9 in 24 years. Loyalty? I’ve got more loyalty and pride in being a Hammers fan in my little finger than most of our recent players and managers ever had. Allardicci can still show he cares but his post match comments after Norwich sounded like a dead man walking! bereft of ideas.
Having watched the game on Saturday I just could not believe that the same team I saw play so well in the first half (but only scoring once) could turn in a depressing performance in the second half. Who is to blame both the manager and the players why because we have a manager who with the two David’s spent all our transfer money ie fans money that go and see there team West Ham play week after week selling out in most games pay for sick note Andy Carroll knowing that he is injury prone and then do not invest in another striker but also making it clear that if you come to West Ham will be second best behind AC.
So all the good strikes including foreign players that you have to log on YouTube to find out who they are, are not willing to come to a club to be second best and that means your value goes down rather then up as that’s what football is all about now
I also felt so sick, I could not believe my eyes when I saw our own Karen Brady introducing the inept Chancellor George Osborn at the Tory party conference stating how wonderful he is and what a wonderful job he is doing for this country. This shows me how out of touch our top people at our club are really are they must be clueless in decision making and taking our club where we the fans want our club to be.
I have been shocked to read we are being linked with yet another wide left player, all of us supporters have been advocating the purchase of a second central goalscorer aka Jordan Rhodes, a Right winger Robert Snodgrass and another Centre half Liam Rigewell or Scott Dann. The purchases we have made have not bought balance and depth to the squad, this in turn is causing us problems in my opinion.
I don’t think big Sam is to blame it is our owners that don’t spend big money like big teams and the big teams ARE ALWAYS AT THE TOP OF THE TABLE EVERY YEAR AND WE HAVENT BEEN IN THE TOP 10 SINCE Curbishley was manager. I like big Sam I think he’s a great manager for the club he is not to blame you cant keep blaming the manager hes doing his job all we need in January is decent strikers.
if we spent big money in the transfer window we would have been in the top 10
we shouldnt underestimate the way we played 1st half against Norwich. it was a delight to watch. possession football. playing it around field beautifully. it was impressive. arrogant even. … the only thing that was missing was the end product. the cutting edge. … Surely nolan missed a couple, and questions should be raised. and the game should have been dead a buried at half time. … ok, sht happens. you deal with it and move on. You go out second half and you boss the game again. against a very poor norwich side. And win the game. … Its difficult to know who to blame. Big Sam? I insist that Carroll’s injury was known secretly before we signed him. Even the potential severity of it. His absence and lack of alternatives would be Sam’s fault imo. The 2nd half substitutions were his decisions. And the complications with Diame, who’s clearly in a lull for some reason (?), could be attributed to Sam. Also the decision to put C Cole on the bench and not an in form youngster. C Cole hasnt shown any reason why he deserves to wear the shirt again.
…. But going back to our first half performance. … It was truely a joy to watch. And credit to Sam must also be given. playing a 4-6-0 can be perceived in 2 different ways – defensive or attacking. “Attacking” as it is for barcelona and it was for us against tottenham. i like the formation and the way we played first half was the west ham i like watching. The squad is full of midfielders and to play such a system it needs to be. …
i insist our problems are not that we lost the game. it’s just 1 game. but that in our squad we have no potent strikers available (obvious). we’re 1 CB light. and we have some players sitting “on the ramp” waiting to be launched out the club for poor performances eg. jarvis, c cole, maiga, diarra, taylor…