Blind Hammer considers the pressures applied by Burnley on West Ham and wonders if Sturridge fits the bill.
First, an apology is due to Iain for not posting for a few weeks. This was due to a variety of health issues too boring to go into here.
More importantly Noble’s scrambled penalty winner against Burnley on Wednesday offered some relief to a beleaguered Manager and Squad. It enable a narrative of dogged resolve against Manchester United in the league and Liverpool in the league to flourish, as against the negative narrative of despair engendered by traumatic reverses against Spurs Arsenal and United in the cup.
In many ways the match against Burnley provided a focused microcosm of the issues which have challenged us this season.
The first was the demonstration, especially in the second half, of the drained confidence, described eloquently by Bilic as “cramping” which has disrupted the pattern of our team play. The importance of this “ugly win” cannot be overstated. A failure against Burnley has increased this negative narrative to a deafening pitch.
Football is, as Bill Shankly observed, a game on a knife edge. It is a game of small margins, a lucky bounce or a gust of wind can make the difference between triumph and despair. A problem with collective self-assurance can be enough for a team to slip onto the brutal side of this knife and suffer demoralising rips in confidence.
So why is the squad shorn of confidence? Injuries to key players and inept summer recruitment are certainly part of the story. However we have also had a bad case of second season syndrome. Current and ex- players claim that we have been “found out” and the suspicion is that the squad know it. Early challenges were established by two of the world’s foremost tacticians, when both Chelsea’s Conte and City’s Guardiola both opted to play an extreme version of the pressing game against us. Other managers have emulated this tactic and a consequent difficult season has ensued. Our poor performances have been characterised by long periods deprived of possession, encamped in our own half, with defenders pressured into making mistakes. Cresswell’s injury and our failure to resolve our right back difficulties exacerbated this problem.
In the first half Burnley provided us with a different challenge. Themselves bereft of confidence away from home, they setup in a style reminiscent of tactics that teams deployed against us last season. They played deep, relying on infrequent breaks, ironically most obviously after we had forced a corner and then lost possession. It was not until the second half that Dyche resorted to the plan many of our opponents had deployed with some success against us.
Burnley’s first half tactics allowed us control with comfortable possession; Payet and Lanzini were just short of applying the incisive pass for a killer finish. Burnley’s defensive depth made shots from distance our most potent threat before Noble’s crucial penalty breakthrough.
However the second half revealed a different picture as Sean Dyche pressed his whole team 30 yards and more up to the half way line. Payet and Lanzini were more constricted in the areas they could manipulate the ball. Payet in particular was targeted with rough tackling and swarming around him every time he took possession. Our forwards were dragged away from attacking positions in their attempt to remain onside. According to my stadium commentator this reached ludicrous extremes when the linesmen deemed Carroll off side, but allowed Burnley to take the subsequent free kick 4 yards into the West Ham half.
West Ham’s attempt to break out of this press was frustrated, as so often this season by cynical early fouling of Payet and Antonio in particular. This allowed the press to safely retreat, conceding free kicks at a safe distance from goal.
A vital advantage in this game, was the presence of Carroll to provide at the very least effective hold up play, even he did not muster a particular goal threat. The ability of Randolph and other defenders to bypass the midfield and locate Carroll with clearances was a central factor in mitigating Burnley’s attempted press. They were also hoisted by their own petard, with their consistent fouling of Payet, Antonio and Carroll in particular. This broke up the game, made it scrappy and difficult for them to sustain pressure for protracted periods.
The Midfield press and offside trap is not of course a new tactic, but over time it has proved one of the most difficult to counter.
One way is to have an energetic midfield genius with pacey dribbling ability and extraordinary energy. I still revel in the memory of Alan Devonshire in his pre-injury pomp running, turning and terrorising defenders, suddenly conscious of the vast gaps behind them. However our most likely candidate for emulating this kind of role, Antonio has been asked to play from too deep a position, with too great reliance on his defensive abilities. A recruitment of a proven quality right back in January could release Antonio to exploit space behind defenders.
But where else do we need to recruit to meet this pressing challenge? It is starkly obvious that we need to recruit a striker. It is with some dismay then that I have heard of the constant rumours linking us to Daniel Sturridge. Quite apart from the fact that we need another injury prone striker like we need a hole in the head, it is my view that Sturridge, whilst a talented player, will offer us little to resolve the challenge of the midfield press. Sturridge is too similar in style to Zaza. It appears that Zaza’s “people” are now saying that they never believed Zaza would flourish at West Ham as apparently he has never successfully played the lone striker role in his life. He has always performed best, as a second striker playing off someone in advanced support. To my mind this description fits Sturridge perfectly. Conceivably Sturridge could flourish as a lone striker in a team of overwhelming midfield talents, playing sparkling football. We are, in contrast, likely to be involved in a scrap to ensure our premiership survival deep into the season.
If we could buy a fitter Andy Carroll this would probably fit our bill perfectly, but there is no point in repeating the summer experience of buying maybe players in January. This winter window may be one of the most important in our club’s history and for me Sturridge is a disaster waiting to happen. The only point in his favour is that he is a proven Premiership performer and this is a yardstick which should guide our business elsewhere in January. If we buy a striker they must be able to hold up play under pressure to help defeat the midfield press, if we buy other attacking players we need some with technique and pace to exploit space behind defenders. My hope is that Ayew will grow into this role though.
On a final positive note, the Burnley match was the first my daughter had attended at the London Stadium. She was impressed by and felt ownership of the ground and facilities and she pointed out to me how many young supporters were in the ground. I was proud of the atmosphere generated for a game against Burnley and realised how the future of our club lies not in the dead hand of those of us looking to the past but in the thousands of young supporters who would not have even got into the limited capacity of Upton Park. These young supporters are creating a new tradition in a new stadium. We must treasure our memories, but it is with this new generation of young supporters that our club can positively grow and thrive in the longer term.
COYI
David Griffith