IF Sam Allardyce really wants to know the answer to West Ham’s current problems, he need only look in the mirror.
Instead of publicly blaming his players for failing to take chances (sorry, did I miss something in the Chelsea game?), he must shoulder full responsibility for the mess we are now in.
I know I sound like a broken record and, in truth, I might as well just cut and paste my last two pieces (from Sept and Oct) up here and be done with it. The all-our-eggs-in-one-basket approach to the ludicrous signing of an injury-prone forward for vast sums that must make us the laughing stock of football; the failure to sign another striker in the summer and then wasting another £5m of the non-scoring Downing; the embarrassment of recalling Carlton Cole (and, worse, not even playing him) . . . I stand by every word. Nothing has changed since my last gripes about Allardyce, except relegation is becoming a more realistic and worrying prospect with each passing game.
Depression deepens.
When Carlton Cole looked at the team-sheet at Norwich and saw he wasn’t starting against a poor team who had been smashed 7-0 at Manchester City the previous weekend, I wonder if he contemplated collecting his boots and selling them on eBay. He might as well give up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . “we’d be mid-table now and chasing a European place if only Carroll had been available,” the sadly delusional pro-Allardyce brigade will try and argue. Give over.
His unavailability should have come as a shock to no-one. As I keep banging on, Carroll has a record of injuries worthy of a walk-on part in Casualty. He was injured when we handed over that £17.5m gift to Liverpool, so to lavish most of his summer budget on the big man was a very risky and miscalculated gamble by BS that could yet have dire consequences.
Still, in accordance with modern speak, we can at least take the ‘positives’ from this diabolical, shameful situation: Big Sham is another step closer to the exit door and, for me, that glorious day cannot come quick enough if West Ham United is ever to go forward as a club again.
BS swears by his stats, so here’s one for him to ponder: Our first shot on goal v Chelsea was recorded in the 93rd minute.
And another for him to mull over: The day after the Chelsea fiasco, Cardiff City had 14 shots against Manchester United and were rewarded for their enterprise with a 2-2 draw against the reigning champions. Allardyce should have looked at that performance and the ambitious tactics employed by Cardiff’s ex-manager Malky MacKay and been squirming with embarrassment. It’s not rocket science, is it? You play a forward (or two), go at the other team, put them under a bit of pressure and, hey presto, you bag yourself two goals.
Chelsea are not in the form of Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. They are a team who, until last Saturday night, had been underperforming, winning just one of their previous five away league games and were very fortunate not to have lost their last home match to West Brom.
Yet compare Malky Mackay’s refreshing attitude to Allardyce’s ‘game plan’ for the Chelsea match.
*Start the game with NO strikers.
*See your team go 0-2 down.
*Make two substitutions in the 39th minute and put on a (useless) striker.
This man’s a tactical genius!
It must have been John Terry’s easiest game since he was playing for Senrab on Wanstead Flats.
Of course, it’s not results against top teams that will determine the fate of clubs scrapping at the wrong end of the table. It’s what we do against fellow strugglers which matters most. In this respect, the 3-1 defeat at Norwich (having taken the lead) was even more criminal and, ultimately, may prove much more costly.
The forthcoming ‘P45 Derby’ with Martin Jol’s faltering Fulham and the ‘Neckbrace Derby’ against Crystal Palace could have a huge bearing on West Ham’s season and the future of the manager himself. (Christ, the bloke at Sky who had the bright idea of showing the Palace game live next Tuesday should be shot, or forced to buy a season ticket at either Selhurst Park or Upton Park. He must be some kind of a masochist, especially now that the other anti-football merchant Tony Pulis has been inflicted on those poor people of South London. Still, the good news is Pulis is no longer a candidate to replace BS.)
It remains to be seen if the team will respond in the right manner but reading critical quotes in the media from their beleaguered manager is not normally conducive to a rallying effort in the face of adversity. To “waste chances”, as BS puts it, you first have to create them. And how the manager sets his team up inevitably affects their ability to create or otherwise. I shouldn’t think Joe Cole, for one, was over the moon about being yanked off before half-time, having been marooned on the right where he was never going to be at his most effective. Jack Collison was also humiliated in front of his home fans.
I fear, too, that Ravel Morrison, by far and away our best future prospect, will quickly reach the conclusion (if he hasn’t already) that he will never fulfil his obvious talent playing for a manager as negative as BS. How Mourinho and the Chelsea players must have relished seeing Morrison asked to play a role alien to him – backtracking and desperately trying to pick up advancing Chelsea runners, when he should have been running with the ball towards their goal.
In the last couple of days there is a growing change of mood among even BS’s biggest disciples. More and more sheep are removing their heads from the sand and waking up to reality. About time.
It’s one thing getting criticised by fans but if Allardyce loses the dressing room, then he will become a dead man walking.
So who would we replace him with? There are options out there: Di Matteo (a mate of Zola’s, so it’s doubtful that he would want to work for our board); Hoddle (England’s best coach, tactically clued up and puts out attacking sides, but is prone to paranoia and not popular with the media); Di Canio (fruitcake), Holloway (another fruitcake and his teams can’t defend), McLeish (no thanks), Curbs (no thanks), Coleman (just signed a new deal with Wales).
Whoever it is, the appointment should not be based on a quick fix, but one that will restore the club’s ethos and best traditions for playing entertaining, attacking football, while at the same time laying a structured foundation for the future. As at Barca and Arsenal and most other clubs, all the club’s teams beneath the first team should all be playing in fundamentally the same basic style, whilst allowing for tweaks to formations depending on the opponents and circumstances. How else can you expect continuity and progression of young players through the ranks? West Ham’s academy teams don’t hoof the ball.
Alan Devonshire has proved himself over many years in non-league football, so he would have to be a strong candidate. No experience above the Conference? So what.
Perhaps give him a go alongside a younger coach – Julian Dicks? – as his assistant. This way, Dicksy could seamlessly succeed Dev as No.1 when the time is right. And how about Alvin Martin as defensive coach and Tony Cottee to work specifically with the strikers?
These men have been there and done it for West Ham; they understand the history of the club and what it stands for (or used to). They know what most supporters expect for their heard-earned money.