Depending on what you read, Andy Carroll will be back in the first team within one or two months. With Andy back in the side it will give Big Sam a selection headache that he won’t mind having. Two wingers in Jarvis and Downing knocking the ball into the area with sharp crosses and a certain Mr Nolan ready for any scraps that big Andy will provide. All sounds good, after all, that is why Big Sam bought Downing in the pre-season instead of a proper back up for the injured Carroll. Now, we don’t need to be Einstein to work out from this scenario that this leaves just two other midfield spots to be filled unless Sam changes to a highly unlikely three at the back.
Recent form suggests Noble can’t be dropped and the power Diame brings to the side makes dropping him highly improbable as well. But then we have Ravel and Joe Cole amongst others to consider as well? Now I am sure injuries and suspensions will at times make Sam’s team selection fairly straight forward, and at least having all players to choose from will allow him to pick a side to “suit” the opposition or rotate the squad. The past two games against top drawer teams have seen West Ham play a passing game with a 4-6-0 formation. Flooding the midfield and using alternate players from the six to break forward has worked at Spurs but failed at home to City. One fact that is hard to ignore is that in both games we only secured around 40% of the possession despite having six midfield players. In other words we allowed the opposition in both cases to come at us as we tried to hit them on the break or via a set piece.
In both these games, our captain Kevin Nolan was found wanting in terms of speed and stamina. Playing off a striker is much more to his liking and with Andy back he will probably be allowed to do this. However, as we have seen before, when Sam plays this formation our midfield gets over run far too often. Kevin just does not have the motor to help the midfield out efficiently and stay close to Andy when required. We do however, have a player who can do both and to much greater affect. Ravel. His work rate is outstanding and he can get forward and score goals. He also adds another dimension to West Ham’s play with his speed and dribbling as we saw at Spurs. Whilst Nolan top scored with ten last season, three of them came in the last game of the season against already relegated Reading. Morrison has already scored four goals with thus far limited games.
If you read about Ravel’s rise, at least some part of the players turn around from problem boy to hero boy can be attributed to Kevin Nolan. The man has also played a huge part in turning around West Ham’s dressing room since the murky days of Avram Grant. You rarely see West Ham going down without a fight nowadays and Sam attributes much of this to Nolan’s presence both on and off the field. However, it is not just this season that our captains on field performances have not measured up. Until the Reading game last season, his form had been poor since the start of the year. So far Sam has not even looked like dropping Nolan but will Andy’s return force his arm – or will it cement Nolan’s place in the side even further?