Two quick things first: I’d like to begin by saying how happy I am that the WHTID meet up by all accounts was a huge success. As I’ve had the pleasure to be part of two of those so far I know they are always a lovely added bonus to a matchday experience and from what I’ve heard there was a record number of participants this time and I know how nice it is to put some faces to names, so well done to all of you, I hope to be part of the madness again for the next meeting.
And secondly I have decided to still keep some (slightly abbreviated) updates on my local team Concordia as part of my column. That team is a pretty vital part of my life as it is obviously easier for me to follow their games in person than West Ham games which I can generally follow only via an Internet stream and on the far too rare occasions of trips back to London. Concordia are part of my life and experiences and so they will get mentioned on here. People can easily skip those references if they aren’t interested.
Glad that’s out of the way and I will actually begin with Concordia as that was the chronological order on Saturday as Concordia’s kickoff away from home at Dassendorf was noonish at 1:30 (Dassendorf by the way is a village in farmer/horse countryside about 20 miles away from Hamburg’s East End).
I thought I was clever by leaving the house two hours before kickoff for a nice autumnly drive on the Autobahn and beautiful country lanes baked in the October sunshine. What wasn’t so clever was me not listening to the traffic updates on the radio before leaving the house. So I ended up in a fierce traffic jam (due to construction works on the Autobahn) followed by further diversions in the countryside due to even more roadworks, long story short: I spent a lot of time in a car not moving very fast and arrived at the football ground virtually as the players entered the pitch – I was still on my way to find a nice place to stand with other Concordia fans when the opponents scored the first goal after a mere 40 seconds of play.
It turned out to be an eventful game as you can watch for yourself if you fancy in the video above. Concordia lost again, their second defeat on the trot. A proper mini crisis although Concordia are still top of the table, but the chasing pack are getting closer now which makes for a more interesting season overall – if you want to focus on the positive side to those defeats. Despite choosing a different route on my way back I ended up in more traffic jams (there really is a lot of roadworks going on in and around Hamburg these days) which meant that I lost the first 35 minutes of OUR game afainst the Mackems.
Welcome back to all my readers only interested in West Ham at this point, glad to have you on board again!
I watched some of the missing bits on MOTD and my overall impression was we played with a lot of endeavour and desire, but Sunderland made it hard to break them down.
In the end it took an injury time goal, helped by some of those Sunderland players switching off for a few vital seconds when we took that quick setpiece.
If you remember the way Reid controlled that ball (are you watching Zaza ?) before putting himself in a shooting position and finding that bottom corner of the net it’s hard to believe he is a defender by trade – that was a very well crafted goal indeed that any striker in the world would be proud of scoring.
Again I was very impressed with the link up play of Noble and Obiang – they seem to work really well in tandem and deserve to keep their place. Our midfield looks a lot more organised that way and doesn’t even miss Kouyate who is doing a superb job at CB right now – if Kouyate is happy there I would keep things like that for the time being.
Our play sometimes still gets a bit too complicated (yes Mr.Payet, I am talking about you!). Of course it is nice to score a wonder goal or walk the ball into the net, and I also like stepovers, fancy moves and the odd backheeler thrown in for good measure – but sometimes the easy/boring pass to the teammate next to or just ahead of you is the better option.
I just don’t think we will actually sign Zaza for the 20 million rumoured as long as that dubious clause in his loan deal remains intact. Zaza seems to need a lot more time to adjust to the Premier League or our style of play. His running, keeping hold of he ball and desire to do well, it’s all there. But a 20 million striker needs to score goals really.
And if it doesn’t happen soon I can see us terminating the loan deal early (what’s the point of keeping him if we can no longer play him unless we buy him outright ?).
Of course we cannot really terminate Carroll’s deal unless we give him a massive payoff, but in all honesty, I am at the point of wanting West Ham to do just that.
Don’t get me wrong: I know that Carroll does not get injured on purpose, it must be utterly frustrating for him as well, but come on: How many appearances in the league did he manage in 4 years at West Ham so far ? About 60 is about accurate. That’s 15 games a season. Not very reliable if you ask me.
It is one the most unintentionally fitting descriptions of Andy Carroll: He is indeed unplayable on his day! Either because he is available and terrorising defenders like no other striker with his heading ability and physical presence alone. Or he is unplayable because the manager cannot use him due to yet another injury.
It is a great dilemma that Andy Carroll is a very good footballer when he isn’t injured – unfortunately his body seems to disagree with his choice of profession.
His legs can’t seem to take the wear and tear of playing football, not at the top level anyway.
I’m not even sure he can do any kind of sports long term that calls for a lot of running or jumping. Which is a shame, but as a club we need to move on at some point I feel.
For the kind of wages West Ham pay him he needs to be available for selection far more often than he actually is. I’d be really surprised if Carroll was still with us next season.
When he actually plays I love watching him play, obviously. But his injury record tells its own story really.
I have read comments that Sunderland are such a bad team that we should have mullered them. I have to say that I still enjoy our wins immensely and I don’t take them for granted – and I hope I never will be expecting wins like Manchester United or Arsenal fans do on a regular basis. As a football fan I grew up on a rather slim diet in terms of watching my team win (West Ham, Hamburg SV, St.Pauli, Concordia). So the joy over celebrating a win is so much more special to me than it must be for those Manchester United or Bayern Munich fans who just chalk up the wins like clockwork and in contrast throw hissy fits whenever a team dares to snatch a point or even a win from them.
So whenever there is a win I am happy and sometimes I frankly don’t care if the game was a scrappy one. It happens. The Sunderland game was such a game.
In this case we tried to play football the right way and our lads looked up for it which is the most important thing – that Reid got us that late win was a very welcome bonus.
I’m over in London again for my longest trip yet, ever since I left Britain after my working experience in Barking 20 years ago. I will be in East London between December 9th and December 18th, nearly ten full days. Liverpool away, Burnley and Hull at home and, oh yes, the development squad will be playing Swansea on Monday Night at the Daggers’ home ground in Dagenham, so that’ll be my pre-Christmas football fix done and over with!
I love meeting and chatting to those who read WHTID (and probably even my column) over a pint or a pie, so feel free to do so. Maybe you’ve never had the experience of speaking to a German in the flesh and wonder what us Krauts are all about. Maybe you wonder why a chap from sausage country would support the mighty Hammers.
Hope to see you all then! And as for Chelsea in the cup on Wednesday ? Easy!
Muller them! COYI!