Guest Post by RoHammer
A lot has been discussed lately about the (apparently) imminent appointment of David Moyes as West Ham manager and I guess that was inevitable. Sam’s time seems to be at an end and for better or worse the board seem to be looking for a replacement.
When we draw the line my only conclusion can be that Sam has done his job and we are in a better place for it. So there’s not gonna be any maliciousness from me. I will say though, that at the end of the day I will be happy with the change. Not necessarily because Moyes will be a tactical genius for us or bring youth through or whatever other arguments have been made (which are positives but not the be all end all for me)… but because I genuinely hope for a change in mentality within the team.
My biggest concern and complaint against Sam will probably always be that he doesn’t seem to have a winner’s mentality and doesn’t seem able to convey belief to the players. Of course this may well be a matter of personal perception and I may be wrong. But when accounts appeared of how Sam divides the season into chunks of 3-4 games targeting a certain amount of points from each chunk I became increasingly worried that he will not be able to take us any further.
It’s one aspect of Sam’s philosophy that hasn’t been mentioned much but personally I find this approach fundamentally wrong. It’s all well and good doing the math in your head points wise as a manager but when you make a point of telling your players you are targeting 6-7 out of the next 9 available points (for example) you are basically telling them that a) you don’t think they are good enough to win at least 1 of the following 3 games and b) that you’ll be happy enough with 6-7 points… so then why would you expect the players to give 100% for the win when you send them out there? Doesn’t it seem counter intuitive? And don’t you end up basically throwing games… look at Arsenal and Forest last season or Chelsea this season to name a few. I would much rather have a manager that takes each game as it comes and asks the players to give their all for the result… if they fall short on the day so be it but at least you’re not telling their subconscious that it’s ok if they fail before a ball is even kicked.
I may not be an expert in sports psychology but in my experience from participating in both individual and team sport competitions at various youth levels I remember coaches always making a point out of convincing the players that they COULD get the win… that they WERE good enough and that their hard work WILL pay off.
Because of this it is my humble opinion that Sam’s approach may very well have been one of the biggest pitfalls of his career and as the cliché goes… he has been his own worst enemy … never quite getting there at the end of it all.
Whether Moyes will bring an improvement in that regard (if indeed he is appointed) remains to be seen but I hope he does. The human psyche is a powerful thing… if can help or hinder… about time we had it on side no?!
Thanks of reading.
P.S.: I know y’all were missing a post on the manager and/or potential replacement as they’ve been so scarce over the last few days… so here you go ;)