West Ham are still reeling at the dirty, nasty and true accusation that we parked a bus in front of the goal at Stamford Bridge—well, okay, we’re not reeling. Mainly we’re all still laughing at the video of that genius post-match interview of Sam Allardyce responding to Jose Mourinho’s totally un-hypocritical opinion of our tactics.
Yes, Jose. We drove a bus to Stamford Bridge and we got a point—and can you really blame us for doing it when it’s the only thing we could do, and it worked?
Our defending since losing Winston Reid to injury has been abysmal, and we have let goal after goal slide into our net – including, in our best week, having 11 goals scored against us. We’ve been on a bad run lately, and no one expected to get anything from a fixture at Stamford Bridge—so instead of having another defeat handed to us, Allardyce decided not to let Chelsea get anything from it either. I believe it was the right thing for the team to do, much to the distaste of Mr Mourinho.
Jose moaned: “the defenders, they did not put one foot outside the box” and thank goodness they didn’t! Normally, when goals are scored against us most of our defenders are nowhere near the box. When they are outside the box it’s mainly to give away free kicks right on the edge of the area. The only place those players needed to be on Wednesday night was in the box.
Chelsea had 39 shots on goal and didn’t manage to score—and while we weren’t actively attacking, I do disagree with his complaint that we were just “kicking long balls to nobody” as a stalling tactic. Jose, we are genuinely trying to go forward when we do that. We’re just really bad at it.
We went into a game against one of the ‘top’ teams in the league in which we would need to strongly defend in order to get anything out of the game. We defended so well, for once, that we actually got a well needed point in our quest for survival and managed to be the first team this season to keep a clean sheet at Stamford Bridge.
Forgive me, but where exactly is the problem with our tactics for that specific game?
Is parking the bus providing entertaining football? No, normally it isn’t. Attempting a full on defensive stance against relegation rivals and teams we should beat is irritating, frustrating, and—almost always—fruitless. It’s not exciting football.
However, on Wednesday night, I was on the edge of my couch having the sort of heart palpitations normally reserved for Class A drugs (so I’ve heard.) I’m shocked the neighbours didn’t call the cops about me yelling at the computer during the longest four minutes in the history of football. Was I entertained after watching us claw out a desperately needed draw at Stamford Bridge? Of course I was.
Cheating to get results doesn’t belong in football – but focusing solely on defending in a game in which you must defend to survive? It’s not a bad thing, and I don’t think we had another option against a team with that calibre of firepower up front.
We earned that point at Stamford Bridge. Hard luck indeed, Jose—but for the record, I “don’t give a shite” about your complaints, either.
Very well put Emily, and doesn’t Jose sound like Wenger all of a sudden ? LOL.