So, Sam Allardyce decided to sack off our 4-6-0 formation against Fulham, and it definitely paid off! The Cottagers were a sorry sight and West Ham took full advantage, beating them 3-0. Carlton Cole even kept up his record of scoring against Fulham – it’s 7 in 6 against them for him now!
After taking the plunge and you know, actually playing a striker, I’m wondering when Allardyce will make his next key decision. And that’s the decision to drop Kevin Nolan. For me, it has to be done – at least until Andy Carroll is back in our starting eleven anyway. Nolan looks off the pace this season, and he hasn’t made up for it by scoring his usual goals from midfield.
You could see the difference when Ravel Morrison came on. His run made the goal for Joe Cole, and although he was a bloody good impact sub, you can’t help thinking that he would be a lot more effective over 90 minutes than El Capitan Kev. Morrison is just a different class and I think we should utilise him while we still have him!
Big Sam still seems delusional about Nolan though, saying this before the Fulham game:
“The only thing that Kevin’s been missing is the goals that he usually scores. That’s a big loss to us and to him because that’s his main game.”
“His only goal came in the first game of the season. He’s always had spells where he’s not quite scored as many as he’d like but it’s on top of everybody else as well, so it gets highlighted more.
“Like everybody else he needs to find the final third finish to increase our goal tally.”
He sadly also said he had no plans to drop Nolan, as he “drives the team on.”
For me, Nolan should be dropped against Crystal Palace, to be replaced by Ravel Morrison. What do you think, should we stick with Nolan or is it time for him to make way? Leave me a comment or tweet me at @alwaysintune.
I think we all know, now more than ever after the Fulham game that Ravel playing off Carlton Cole will be so much more effective than Nolan playing off Maiga/no one.
We should start with the team we finished with against Fulham. Palace will fly out of the box against us & we should be ready with an equally as quick counter attack. Our second goal against Fulham happened so fast that I nearly missed it. If we play that way on Tuesday then we might be a couple of goals to the good before half time (fingers crossed).
After seeing how much more creative we were when the substitutions were made late in the game, i would like to see noble and diame in the middle, cole, downing and ravel as our attacking midfielders and cole leading the line. I dont see how No0lan can justify a position over any of those.
Its a no-brainer but Sam and Nolan are tied to the hip as we all know ( similar to a bolt-on!!) and who in our set-up is in a position to point out the glaring blind -spot in sams mentaility? Could our dynamic duo take the risk or would the thought of a big pay-off negate this thought? We all pray for a result at Palace but with it will come more outpouring of Sams justification for his tactics. All right we cant have it both ways so the points it is!
Good post, agree completely.
I’d love us to start with the same midfield we finished with against Fulham. know they were tiring, but we had so much balance and promise flowing.
Joe Cole, Morrison, Noble, Diame, Downing.
Looked brilliant.
Loved Captain Kev, even last season when he wasnt scoring, but without AC to play off he seems to always be off the pace and not on the same wave length as Maiga or whoever else up front.
I totally agree , nothing personal against MR Nolan i like him but the second half on Saturday was so much better after the changes, one thing i think BS needs to do is drop maiga too sorry but i do.