It was interesting to hear Alan Pardew’s views on the need to manage Andy Carroll’s fitness more carefully. Pardew went as far as to suggest that Carroll should be on a reduced schedule (not training Monday-Wednesday every week) to get the maximum game time out of him. Slaven Bilic has subsequently responded to this suggestion and confirmed that Carroll is already on a structured training programme, although he still trains daily with the rest of the squad. Bilic hoped that this new arrangement would continue to keep Carroll fit and available for selection for the whole season.
It is clear that Carroll is injury prone and that the club needed to devise some special arrangement to reduce the stresses and strains on his body. Only in this way, can he hope to stay fit and available for the course of an entire season, something he has not managed since he joined us from Liverpool. While the training is taken care of, would it not also be good policy to manage his playing time, alternating him between the starting line up and the bench? We have Hernandez and Sakho available and they should make this policy viable and practical. In this way, he will get regular physical respite and avoid the physical stresses that come with continuous playing. The end result should be that we get more valuable playing time out of Carroll and he avoids the regular, drawn out injury absences. Then everyone’s a winner!
I sincerely hope that Bilic continues to select the three at the back, with the wing backs pushing forward down the flanks. It suits our centre-backs, we achieve greater defensive solidarity and it also optimizes the attacking impact of Zabaletta and Cresswell. Fonte obvious likes the system and he put in his best performance in a claret and blue shirt. Reid was his usual solid, reliable self and Collins also did very well. However, I do wonder if there is enough pace in that particular three to counter the speedier attacks of some of the other PL team? In those situations it is likely that we will need Ogbonna’s pace at the expense of either Collins or Fonte. It should not be a problem against WBA on Saturday, where physicality is likely to be the order of the day, but it could be an issue in other forthcoming fixtures. In those circumstances expect Ogbonna to be drafted in to the centre of the three.
I was so please to see Andre Ayew make such a decisive impact from the bench on Monday evening. I know that some fans have been disappointed with Ayew’s form since joining the club. But make no mistake, when Ayew is on form he is a class act. He is that rare and valuable player, a goal scoring midfielder, who is capable of weighing-in with ten plus goals per season. I still remember his performance against us, at Upton Park in 2015-16. when his passing, vision and finishing destroyed us. If he can recapture that type of form and effectiveness, he will be a major asset for Bilic to deploy this season.
Finally, it was good to see Sir Trevor Brooking receive an award from the club on Monday evening to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his first team debut in a 1967 away match at Burnley. From the Hammers line-up it seems that it was a case of the glorious present (Moore, Hurst and Peters scored our goals in a 3-3 draw) meeting the future (Brooking and Bonds debuted and played alongside Frank Lampard Snr). I actually started attending matches in the 1967-68 season and it certainly made me conscious of my age! But what the hell, I am one of those fans who have had the privilege of watching the club’s greatest players in the post-war period (and very probably of all-time). In that sense, advancing age does have its compensations!
SJ. Chandos.