Let me start this column with a massive apology to Slaven Bilic and our team. When we were 2:0 down with 20 minutes to go I was cursing at the screen with all kinds of phrases and expletives in German and English which have to remain unwritten in order to comply with this site’s no-swearing policy. I expected our lads to completely self-combust and simply accept defeat after a bad day at the office. No big deal. It happens. That’s West Ham for you. I was literally out of the door to do some shopping, maybe going for a takeaway from the Greek tavern down the corner.
Then something happened I hadn’t expected in a million years: Moses went on a mazy and powerful run down the left and when he couldn’t score himself that man Payet again was right there to make people understand. As they say, we suddenly had a football game again. The supermarket and Greek tavern had to wait for the time being at least.
Not long after this (I hadn’t quite finished my jumping up and down around my living room with clenched fists yet) our skipper hit a beauty of a goal that appeared to silence every single Norwich supporting country bumpkin sitting or standing inside Carrow Road. While I had to continue jumping for just a while longer.
Could it really be ? Was a complete turnaround possible ? Unfortunately not, Emenike missing a so called sitter late in the game which other players might have easily put away, then again that’s easy to say from the comfort of your plush armchair at home.On the other hand the turnaround as it was certainly looked impressive enough.
Norwich had been cheeky enough to pounce on a very bad spell in the game for West Ham, 15 minutes littered with individual mistakes from us and the chirpy Canaries gratefully used that spell to rebuilt their own shattered confidence.
Playing against West Ham at that point looked more like an invigorating welcome visit to the local spa for the Norwich players and fans alike.
Until never say die West Ham took that game by the scruff of its neck that is and spoiled Norwich’s party by suddenly running riot in that spa, turning off all those Jacuzzis in a matter of seconds. The only Bubbles remaining were the ones blown by the away support. While I had to eat about half a humble pie after tthe game which slightly upset my tummy, so I was still useless on Valentine’s Day (another reason most probably being the fact that exactly one year ago my mom died of cancer as most of you know, so Valentine’s Day will have sad connotations for me for the rest of my days unfortunately).
Germany and Bayern Munich goalkeeping legend Oliver Kahn (despite the name apparently no relation to our very own WHTID Nigel), reacting to uncharacteristically losing 2:0 to Schalke in 2003, said in one of his most famous quotes back then “Eier. Wir brauchen Eier.” Which can be translated as “Eggs. We need eggs.” (Did anymone mention cake ?) What he really meant of course was that Bayern needed more aggression and determination out there on the pitch, more guts and character, more cojones, goolies, nuts, balls, flowers and frolics, you get the idea.
And all this is what my West Ham showed in abundance against Norwich in the latter stages of that game. It’s a bit of a shame of course that we did have that terribly sloppy passage of play which allowed Norwich to cruise into a pretty undeserved 2:0 lead. But we showed the kind of guts and spirit that makes me feel good about our team for the rest of the season and beyond.
Without trying to present this as a cheap excuse, of course injury-related fatigue may have been a factor overall, especially after that glorious midweek Cup encounter against Liverpool. I’m sure one of our stats gurus on here may be able to assist with some figures, but West Ham this season certainly have been on the wrong end of the Pysio Room treatment table consistently, Bilic has never had the luxury of choosing from a full complement of players so far, having to fix a hole or two in every single game: First we nearly had all our strikers out injured, then it was our creative heartbeat in Payet and Lanzini, now it is the defense which is down to the bare bones.
Still we hang in there. We didn’t beat Norwich which maybe on paper we should have, but we still pick up points and avoid defeats.
Most of the teams above us in the table have been much luckier in terms of suffering injuries than West Ham, otherwise I reckon we’d be right up there with the Spurs, Arsenals and Leicesters of this world.
Yes, I did get to eat that lovely takeaway from my favourite Greek tavern at the end of the day. For desert I also had that humble pie and I have to say without trying to sound too patriotic and Teutonic here: I do prefer my German butter cake with almonds or maybe a nice piece of Black Forest. The fact remains that I have to apologise to Bilic and his team, I was wrong to ever doubt our character after conceding two goals away from home against a side that had just lost five games in a row.
If Bilic will ever take me up on this (I understand the club hierarchy does read on here regularly) I will invite him for a nice cuppa and some Black Forest cake by way of an apology. As he used to play for German club Karlsruhe which is the area where the Black Forest cake is from, I’m sure Bilic would appreciate both cake and apology.
Either way I will never doubt this team again anytime soon, even if we should go down by two goals again.
It’s all still part of the learning curve, getting used to this new West Ham we have under Bilic and his coaching staff. I rather like it.