One of the most baffling decisions during our loss to Chelsea was that Big Sam did not utilise Carlton Cole at any point during the game. Iain’s game summary on the 4/6/0 formation backed up my theory two weeks ago that the system is not a workable one to use when playing at home. We need to play a minimum of one up top and with Carroll, Vaz Te and Petric injured that only leaves Maiga, Carlton Cole and Lee to choose from? Enough has been seen of Maiga already to realise he is way out of his depth so to bring him on after 40 minutes was baffling. Lee has returned from his loan deal at Colchester and to be honest I haven’t seen enough of him to make an appraisal. The few minutes he played on debut at Old Trafford earlier this year at least gave the impression he is not a target man. So that leaves Carlton Cole, after all, isn’t that why we gave him a short term contract until the end of the year – despite not being fully match fit. I was never a Carlton Cole fan but the move to get him back was based on the fact we could not get anyone else. However, Big Sam keeps on saying he is not match fit – so why not give him half an hour or more against Chelsea when the match result had slipped away from us? Why, with ten minutes to go did he bring on Matty Jarvis instead of Carlton? How is Carlton going to get match fit when he can’t even get a run under Saturday’s circumstances? That’s three questions in a row and whilst we might like to try and answer some of them, I really think Sam should be answering them for us.
It has been suggested that bringing Carlton back to the club was not what Sam wanted and it was David Sullivan’s choice. If that is the case it is an even sadder decision not to be playing him. Any truth in that scenario suggests that cracks will be widening in the relationship between owners and manager. The other tactic Sam has tried is playing Kevin Nolan for brief spells leading the line. Again, playing with your back to goal is not something you want to start doing at the end of your career, and to be fair to Kevin, it is something that is hardly going to work for him or anyone else who is not used to it.
So, in a nutshell, for the interim Sam has to play Carlton – like him or not. Many things are drifting away from Sam at the moment which is a shame. He has had two very good years at the club. If Andy Carroll was available at present I am sure we would not be in this predicament. However, the past few weeks have seen a number of players starting to drop their heads and just as importantly, the crowd is now starting to vent their frustrations at matches. I have been a fan of Big Sam at West Ham and I hope he pulls it all together. We shall see?