Blind hammer considers if Bilic really understood the “West Ham Way”
Many of us will have had a heavy heart at the departure of Slaven Bilic. There was an enormous amount of good things about the man. He was intelligent, genuinely passionate for West Ham, and tried to embrace the culture and philosophies of the club. I believe he did believe in what he thought was the “West Ham Way”.
However I also believe the key, eventually fatal weakness in Bilic’s approach was his flawed interpretation of the “West Ham Way”.
As a lifelong Hammer I too believe that there is a West Ham Way but I ALSO BELIEVE THERE IS A widespread MYTH about what it is.
For me there are 3 main components. We can all agree with the commitment to attacking, entertaining football. The second accepted component is intelligence and innovation. Younger supporters may not realise how much of modern football tactics were born on the fields of Upton Park and Chadwell Heath. For example, the near post header was a West Ham invention of the 60s, executed with great effect by Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. Harry Redknapp used to joke that West Ham invented the near post header as he did not have the strength to cross the ball to the far post. The squad of the late 1950s and 1960’s produced an astonishing amount of innovative Football tacticians from Malcolm Allison to John Bond, Ken Brown, Dave Sexton to Phil Woosnam and Noel Cantwell, and of course Harry Redknapp had a long career at West Ham and many other clubs. John Lyall Billy Bonds, Frank Lampard Snr and Ronnie Boyce came from the ranks to serve the club in notable senior coaching and Managerial capacities. Greenwood and Brooking had critical roles at a national FA level. Incoming players like Bryan Robson and Bobby Gould were amazed after their arrival when their eyes were opened to new tactical ideas.
What I will never accept is that the West ham way is about mindless gung ho attacking football. Arguably our greatest ever exponent of the West Ham way was Bobby Moore, a defender. This third defensive aspect has also been part of our great tradition. The perfectly timed tackle, the composed break up of play as well as passionate last ditch defending is also celebrated. For every Trevor Brooking and Alan Devonshire we have had a Billy Bonds and a Julian Dicks, for every Tony Cottee and Frank McAvennie we have had an Alvin martin and tony Gale. In my youth on the Chicken Run we used to cheer just as loudly, if not louder, for the committed tackle in defence and midfield, as it did for the exquisite pass forward. Those players not prepared to put in a defensive shift would soon know about it. The West Ham of yesteryear also reflected this commitment in recruitment. Despite our legendary failure to recruit Gordon Banks West Ham have twice broken the world record transfer fee for a Goalkeeper, recruiting first Bobby Ferguson and then Phil Parkes. Our campaign culminating in the success of winning the European Cup Winners Cup in 1965 was built upon the composure of a Bobby Moore marshalled defence marching through the ties as much as any attacking brilliance. Lyall’s tactical smartness in the 1980 win delivered the Cup because of our defensive nullification of Terry Neill’s tactics rather than playing Arsenal off the Wembley pitch with our attacking flair. Our 1975 win was based on restricting Fulham as much as Alan Taylor’s goal scoring streak of a lifetime.
. Our Academy produced stars like Defoe, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Frank Lampard. However it also produced the more defensive talents of Rio Ferdinand and Glen Johnston. Paul Ince developed his skills as a resolute tackler as much as his other passing and shooting skills. Paul Allen played as the youngest player in our 1980 Final because of the tackling tenacity and running he offered, as much as his creative talents.
Our tradition then is not just about developing attacking capacities and tactics. It is also about defending with intelligence, commitment, passion and skill. It is about building from the back, certainly, Bobby Moore was a trail blazer in that respect, but we should never celebrate a false, mythical tradition of giving silly goals away.
I will not dispute for a moment that we, have in reality, over the years have had defensive weaknesses. We have at crucial times failed to rectify these weaknesses. We certainly have never celebrated this weakness as a tradition. Brooking and Moore both criticised the club for not recruiting more to strengthen defensively. To suggest that players like Moore, Bonds, Gale and Martin would have been unconcerned about conceding goals is a travesty of our tradition. Players like this would never have shrugged their shoulders and said we simply have to score more than them. Our finer tradition of success relied just as much on sound defence as it did on attacking excitement.
So not recognising this need for balance between defence and attack was the key strategic error when the club embarked on its recruitment strategy over the summer. Bizarrely, despite our long running defensive weakness, the club analysis concluded that we had “flirted with relegation” because we did not have enough fit attacking flair. On the contrary the real problem then and now is that for large period of the season we concede at least 2 goals a game, fatally undermining confidence and providing a mounting for our attacking resources to climb.
For a while, last season, I thought Bilic had solved this shocking defensive record by playing 3 at the back. Unfortunately he never believed in this more secure system. He abandoned it as soon as he could. His self-proclaimed “dream team” and preferred formation had no hint of 3 at the back and relied on expansive attacking potency rather than any plan for defensive solidity. In the end, partly because of injuries, he ran out of defensive options, personnel and ideas. The tragedy is that this was all entirely predictable.
Our concern over the summer with replacing injury prone striking options completed ignored our similarly injury prone central defensive choices. Fonte arrived with an injury record. Obonna missed half a season with injury. Read also has periods of injury and Collins has not in my memory ever completed a season without injury disruption. I forecasted in multiple articles over the summer that our baffling reluctance to address this would result in Cheikhou Kouyaté having to spend a large parts of the season playing out of position, either in central defence or at right back. You did not need a crystal ball to foresee our current predicament.
The problem cannot be simply put down to weak recruitment. The irony is that Bilic, a defender who served the club with such distinction in his short stay, proved incapable of coaching and organising our defence. When we conceded 3 against Brighton people were shocked. I don’t know why, it is a defensive weakness we have had for nearly 2 years now. A year ago we conceded 4 at Home to Watford whilst leaking 4 goals away to West Bromwich Albion. This defensive frailty is persistent, and not only against top six sides. Whilst we looked most vulnerable to a break last week against Liverpool when we had a corner, this merely echoed last season’s performance against Hull. Then they repeatedly caught us on the break after our corners. But for the woodwork, and poor finishing WE WOULD HAVE SUFFERED a similarly heavy defeat then. The unpalatable truth is that we have been vulnerable on the break for over 18 months now. Swansea and Andre Ayew exploited this in our penultimate Upton Park game.
The reality is that against all sides, not just top six sides we have leaked goals. Southampton was on a goal drought not just before but also after we played them. Against us they managed to score 3, this is still the majority of goals that they have scored at home this season. We encountered a Newcastle side bereft of confidence and reeling from defeats to Huddersfield and Nottingham forest but leaked 3 goals to them. In Bilic’s last 3 games at the London Stadium we conceded 10 goals. We have the worst defensive record in the Premier League. This problem has nothing to do with the new Stadium but existed even at Upton Park. The last glorious season at the Boleyn masks the fact that most of our best results came early in Bilic’s tenure. Then, arguably, the defence will have inherited much of the previous regime’s discipline. Even in that season, we were, after January conceding goals at an average 2 a game. In the last 2 games at Upton Park we conceded 6 goals, 4 against Swansea and 2 against Manchester United.
I was desperate for Bilic to succeed and hoped he would sort out the defence. In the end I think the most competitive league in the world defeated his ambitions for an exciting side which would thrill.
Safety from relegation now supersedes all other considerations. When thrilling football returns to West Ham, and I must believe it will, it must be based on defensive solidity. The cream of the world’s footballing talent will not simply sit back and let us play. We will have to earn this right. We will need defensive grit, determination, organisation and not a little skill. This will pay the highest respect to the West Ham way.
COYI
David Griffith