I have a confession to make. As I’m writing this on a rainy Sunday in Hamburg I struggle to keep my eyes open as I didn’t get much sleep last night.
No, not what you think (I wish). No erotic shenanigans or roleplaying games involved. I was just in a state of complete sensory overload after our fantastic 3:1 win at Palace.
Scenes from that game kept running through my mind over and over again. But my mindgames didn’t stop there.
i was thinking about the upcoming games (which always are too far away), about what formation we might use, what lineup, who to put on the bench, which players might link up well together, what Bilic might try to do next in order to replicate our away successes at the Boleyn too.
Whenever I tried to get to sleep Lanzini stole himself into the box of my brain again and smashed that ball over the line for our winning goal. To be followed by that delightful passing move that ended up with Payet sending a delicate chip over Hennessey as if they were playing in a schoolyard, not on a Premier League pitch.
THAT game was very much the West Ham way. I’ve rarely enjoyed watching our Hammers this much since I saw my first game back in 1996. Positive.
Trying to play the right way. Passing the ball. Making positive substitutions. Keeping patient even with the man advantage. Believing in your players and trusting them to win the game. Wanting to win the game. Respecting the opposition without fearing them.
The mesmerising thing is: Even if you disregard our entire starting eleven from the Palace game, we could certainly still field a starting eleven from the players we had on the bench on Saturday, currently injured players and some youth players as well and still have a very solid or even exciting Premier League team.
Starting with Song he should be the best of the bunch of players who haven’t yet featured or not featured as often as they would have liked. Apparently he is back in training now and should be ready in 2-3 weeks. A fit and healthy Song should be the perfect foil to link our defense with the more attack minded of our midfielders.
Song should add experience, have a very solid pass completion rate and help us to win the ball and keep the ball for us time and time again.
If he does play that is as competition for places is fierce in our current squad these days, in every position.
Pedro Obiang was one of our more marquee signings in the summer. That he hasn’t featured much is testament to the quality our lads have shown so far.
At the start of the season I would have predicted Obiang to be a regular starter. Then again, I would have said the same about Angelo Ogbonna, another player who arrived with great credentials. And Michail Antonio was a bit of a coup when he came to us from the Championship on deadline day, one of the paciest and most skilled young wingers in England and a future star in the making.
All of these guys will not only need to work their socks off in training and show the right attitude to play themselves into contention, they will also have to rely on a teammate to play a stinker or get himself injured before a place in the starting eleven becomes vacant. Add to that the prospect of several youth players knocking on the door of the first team (Oxford, Burke, Henry, Page, Lee, Poyet) and you get the idea.
It’ll require a bit of tightrope walking from Bilic to get the balance quite right. Every player wants to be out on the pitch, wearing that shirt obviously. You still need to keep the spirit and atmosphere in that dressing room on a constant high.
Our league position should help on that front, same as the fact that we are the second highest scorers in the league and play some great football in the process.
Not only can we enjoy this situation in the here and now, it will also help us massively to keep our best players and attract new signings when we need to upgrade and improve our squad in certain positions. Players will love to come and join the West Ham transformation and they will be happy to strut their stuff under a positive and forward thinking youngish manager like Bilic. We really do have our West Ham back now with some fantastic results and a glorious current league position on top of that.
I can’t stop salivating at the thought of our options once all players are available for selection. This team can only get better once team chemistry starts to kick in and our lads know instinctively where to their teammates will be running next and when they want the ball. Ask me to name a weak starting eleven for West Ham and I simply couldn’t do it.
This must be one of the most exciting phases in our proud club’s history and it’s great fun to be a Hammer right now.
With the Chelsea game coming up I am very optimistic we can at least get a point while a win for us obviously isn’t out of the question either.
I’d love us to get a deserved, out and out professional win over Chelsea to give Mourinho something to moan about again and some of those pundits to sit up and listen.
What kind of lineup do I expect ? Some tough choices ahead. But here’s my take:
Adrian in goal.
Back four with Jenkinson, Tomkins, Ogbonna or Reid (whoever is fit), Cresswell.
Noble and Kouyate holding
Attacking midfield with Lanzini-Payet-Zarate.
Sakho upfront.
Bench: Randolph, Collins, Obiang, Antonio, Carroll, Valencia, Jelavic.
Let’s hope Bilic keeps our team improving and playing some more football that’s pleasing on the eye AND on the scoresheet. It can be done, even if you don’t have 150 million to spend in the transfer window. And you also get to stay up without even paying much attention to the issue simply because the approach and attitude is different.
Teams that play well regularly rarely get relegated. Teams who score the second most goals in the league rarely get relegated.
Bilic summed it up perfectly on Saturday: “We were patient. But we wanted to win. Happy Hammers!”
Indeed Slaven. Indeed: COYI!