Ok, first things first; I am not going to give you a full detailed match report on the Spurs game, we all have opinions on systems, players etc, and quite frankly most match reports are dull, people who saw the game can form their own opinions.
My first observation when I saw the starting line-up was simply what has changed?! The system/formation looked exactly the same as last season and other than a change in personal in a couple of positions I saw nothing to suggest a new exciting attaching approach to the game.
Now I like Carlton Cole, always have done, fully aware he is a bit of a marmite character with the fans, however, even when I saw Carlton was leading the line on his own I did let out a sigh of disappointment (well maybe a swear word or two!) Carlton, can’t do this job he is not Andy Carroll and never will be and it frustrates the hell out of me that Allardyce chooses to persist with Carlton in this way. After the red card for Spurs it was the perfect opportunity to go with two up top, a system which suits Carlton’s game better. At half-time Allardyce could have dragged of either fans favourite (joke) Kevin Nolan or Ricardo Vaz Te, both who had been pretty ineffective in the 1st half, however, in fairness to Nolan, he did win the penalty. The fact Allardyce did not do this I feel proves that his mentality will never change, basically make sure you don’t lose the game, which is fair enough, but come on! Spurs were down to 10 men and we were causing them problems, throwing on either Mauro Zarate or Enner Valencia at half-time I believe would have seen us win the game, I may be wrong, we will never know, but come on let’s have a go for crying out loud!
Cheikhou Kouyate looked good, an upgrade on Mohamed Diame who I reckon could now be doing the off. Aaron Cresswell really impressed me at left back, comfortable on the ball, showed a bit of skill and he looked good both in defence and going forward. Our fleeting glimpse of Valencia excited me, he looked quick and pretty strong and caused admittedly a tiring spurs defence some problems.
Mark Noble put in a shift and despite the penalty miss you cannot fault him, was also the best I seen Stewart Downing play in a while. Joey O’Brien was solid, why Allardyce took him off it a bit of a mystery, was he injured? I read on another forum that Guy Demel was brought on because of his height and the fact that Spurs were out-numbering us here?! Not sure if I buy that one!
CJames ollins made his usual rash errors and as soon as we went down to 10 men, you could see what was going to happen! 0-0 would have probably been a fair result given the way Allardyce approached the game, however, had he showed more positivity I believe we would have won the game, despite the penalty miss, as on the day Spurs were poor.
So how do I see things going over the next few weeks then? Much the same I would say, however a couple of defeats to Crystal Palace and Southampton will make things most uncomfortable for the two Davids, but they have dug their own hole here and if they showed some bottle at the end of last season then The Boylen Ground would be a much happier place.
COYI
Completely agree, Sam will never really change, and in friendlies as well as weekend he dies not seem. Interested. What had he got to lose, only gain if sacked £££££
Don’t blame Allardyce. He has one objective. 40 points and safety. He does what it says on his tin. He always plays safety first and happy with an away point. Gold and Sully will have to remove him if they want to see the best from the squad that’s now assembled at West Ham.
Fully agree.the Davids are completely at fault and nnever learned from avram grant.they take mo notice of the fans.don’t they understand no fans no club.bfs is killing this club.
gold and sullivan have not got a clue about who would be the right person to bring back some form what we call decent football to upton park.west ham fans are not demanding a team to win the PL,we just want to watch a good game with the odd bit of excitement,but this is rare as snake fur at the moment.sam is the 13th highest paid manager in the world and all we get is boredom and expensive bench warmers.
: Ian Tilbury , Your so on the button with your review of the Dudley Dinosaurs tactics, at the Jurassic Upton Park Arena, As soon as the Lasagna Mob went down to 10 men i thought Zarate would play just in behind C Cole exploiting the space made available by the sending off of K Naughton which would have kept Splurs on the back foot.
We were promised entertainment, but Bfs bottled it alright, we had a opportunity to put pressure on the there defence, especially as we were at home, but Bfs showed a Dinosaur will never change tac when searching for victory, and we paid the price by having Collins sent off 10 minutes later, but never fear my West Ham (not) United faithful, if he continues to produce dire results like Saturdays maybe our wishes will come true and we can finally extinct Barney the Dinosaurs from our once great footballing club that now plays Hoofball the wrong way…….
Thanks for feedback guys, glad we singing from same hymn sheet!
I been going west ham since the late 80’s so have seen plenty of rubbish over the years, however, the difference being these teams played to win! Had the pleasure of watching cottee, mcavennie, dicks, bishop, di cannio etc. we are realistic as fans we don’t expect league titles just a good footballing side and enjoying watching our team. The media makes out we are unreasonable as fans and this really bothers me as it not the case, week in week out we support our team but at the moment the enjoyment is being sucked out of it for us,
Given the outrageous money in the game I can’t see it changing as every decision is focused by money, sad state of affairs, modem football hey?!
At least you tried to be fair, that’s the plus for this read, but again let’s stab the Manager in the back time, there was a time West Ham fans would support the team and Manager, that seems a distant memory now.
I never Liked Curbishley as a player or as our Manager, did I let people know this, you bet, but on one site and one thread and maybe one or two times, I don’t like the fact we are moving, I did not like how it was done, now we got a rented place which will never be ours, I said my point, then I got on with supporting the team in anyway I could, do you think the players or Managers do not read these kind of sites and even if they do not there will be enough hacks on here to tell them, just to see our club react to this kind of provocation to wind the fans up and Manager. Now days they don’t need to do such stuff, as people like you do a good job for them.
All I really wish for is the na Sayers would give the club at the very least five games before the knives come out, not sure if am I’m the only one who’s not so happy with younger generation of supporter, who have to wait for nothing and expect football clubs to be the same and they are not. If you don’t like the manager personally, that’s one thing, but please let the rest of us just try to enjoy the season and get on supporting whu.
Garbage ! If something needs to be said then say it. We are angry BECAUSE we love West Ham and hate to see our club playing in a totally negative and dull manner. You may be happy to watch thoughtless tripe…most of us are not !!!
well said and in a nutshell.
What a load of tripe.
Valencia and zarate should of been brought straight on when spurs went a man down our wingers could of then moved up and attacked accordingly but true to his style fat man sat back still with only our carlton up top..
The fat ignorant soon to be rich one has to simples.
If the 2 D,s cannot see that he is taking them both for mugs then they must both be blind. He will never change look at the history except his beloved Bolton, hang about for a couple of years get the team safeish play the same dire hoofball piss fans off get sacked and cop the compo payoff.
The cash that went on Sakho should of been his pension fund.
Get rid now, Sack the Walrus
I don’t really see how I was stabbing the manager in the back? Just putting an opinion across. I am just asking the question as to whether he the man to take us forward? Oh and I always support the team, have done for 25 years now, taking in 3 relegations amongst loads of other shite. Love the club and always will