My lack of posts over the last couple of weeks is directly related to the sense of frustration at our last few performances. I wrote my last blog after the draws against Watford and Doncaster, hoping those two results would be the end of a disappointingly frustrating run which – yet again – saw us fail to take advantage of opportunities to cement our position in the auto-promotion places.
If I found the Watford and Doncaster results frustrating, you can imagine how I feel now! And I’m sure I’m not the only one who is growing a bit disillusioned with our performances…
I like to consider myself a realist when it comes to my football opinions, so I’m not being unrealistic when I say that five draws on the bounce simply isn’t good enough. The last few seasons have seen my support evolve so that my level of emotion varies with our performances. By the end of last season I wasn’t overly upset when we were relegated: it was what we deserved, and we had done nowhere near enough to survive!
Similarly, I have spent most of this season considering us good enough for automatic promotion and genuinely believing that we will achieve it at the first time of asking. The last few weeks have changed my outlook somewhat; an unbeaten run like this can’t be ignored, but our failings are now becoming more of a worry to me.
Big Sam can only blame the ‘rub of the green’ and ‘luck’ so much before it just starts sounding like delusional, arrogant bullwhip, and the Peterborough match is possibly the end of the line for his too-familiar post-match analysis. Fail to win tonight and there really is no one else to blame; blame our misfiring stickers all you want, but if you don’t play to their strengths then you won’t see the best of them. Baldock and Maynard are two fantastic goal scorers – natural predators of the game – but they are being wasted in Big Sam’s team. Anything less than three points tonight and Sam will surely have to better address his team’s failings.
It’s been said a lot and I’ll reiterate it here. I still haven’t given up hope on this season and I don’t want to sound too negative, but if we can beat Peterborough and Reading this week, then I’ll rediscover my confidence in Sam’s reign. There was a point earlier in the season where we looked efficient, well-oiled, hard to beat and nailed-on promotion chasers. Six points this week could re-kick start our dominance in the top two – anything less could mean the lottery of the play-offs.
Various staff have stated this week that two wins from two will put us back in serious contention, which is an exciting thought, but such talk brings back bad memories for me. Remember Avram Grant stating that we only need three wins from our final three matches to stay up? We all knew it was the talk of a desperate man, already out of his depth at our club. Sam is a proper manager who shouldn’t be compared to Avram, but this talk of six from six reeks of a situation that is getting a little bit desperate.
A win tonight is vital – but will be worthless if we don’t follow it up by beating Reading on Saturday; losing a further three points to them could mean we have to start cacking ourselves about the play-offs. But as I said, I’m a realist, and at least the play-offs could mean a rare day out at Wembley…
COME ON YOU IRONS!
West Ham News 24/7
Its not the team thats the problem. Its the formation and tactics. BFS hasnt got a clue. Cole shouldnt even be in the reserves. My Nan could score more goals than him and shes 100.
A day out at Wembley would require beating the team that finish 6th first and whoever it is, will probably be happy to have reached the play offs whereas we’ll be gutted to have settled for them so finishing in a play off position doesn’t automatically mean we’ll make the final!
I personally don’t think Sam is the man for us, our defence has looked decent this year, but is a good defence a team that concedes almost evert game nowadays? Most of Sam’s teams involve a big Striker up top which is understandable however Cole isn’t offering us this at the moment, Baldock looked superb at the start of the year he got injured and in 2012 the rare appearance off the bench.
It winds me up when I hear Sam say we had chances because I like to know when he had these chances because I’m not seeing them. On KUMB.com the other day they wrote an article called Striker Force Zero, between our strikers we have scored 20 goals that’s embarrassing considering the size of our club in this division and most clubs considering us as a premier league team. What they must do a training beats me as we are unable to put the ball in the back of the net in this league if we go up what will it be like next season?
Tonight i’d like to see Baldock start up to with Maynard by the sounds of it they done really well against Burnley you can’t blame Baldock for not scoring as he rarely has had a chance. Also I’ve not been too impressed with Nolan however he is our top goalscorer and I think we all expect to see another Parker, Noble does that job now, however what I’ve said all along i’ll base my opinion on Nolan when we are in the premier league to see what he can do when the pressure is slightly off of him.
If we win tonight and draw against Reading i’d be pleased Reading have a really tough run in we just need to win our own games though. If we finish in the playoff’s no reason why not we should go on and win it.
ECH, great post mate, I am in agreement with you that BFS is in last chance saloon tonight, for me it is not the result but his team selection and tactics that are causing the negativity and is now shown by the results. There is the train of thought that if it isn’t broken then it doesn’t need mending, this could well be a way of describing BFS’s thought process, however if you want success then you need to experiment, rotate, develop and evolve as a unit. Sam has alienated our promising youngsters, openly stated he doesn’t entertain flair or individuals and experimenting doesn’t help statistics. He has his way or the highway and so far his way has achieved the bare minimum our current squad should have achieved. I don’t point all the blame at BFS though, had the board secured the services of two decent winger in January then we’d have a balanced midfield able to get forward and service the forwards and also compliment our Skippers needs. Instead we are now missing the very inconsistent Vaz Te because he has been the only outlet of pace we have had wide left and also Faubert who has an absolutely shocking end product. Did we need Maynard when we had Baldock ? why spent how much on Morrison after Fergie had said enough is enough ? he now misses training and is no longer is the squad …. no shock there then … but why sign him when we were so desperate for two wingers …
The bottom line is, automatic promotion is gone now and we need to focus on getting through the playoffs, both Saints and reading have been playing great football and spent well in January in order to bolster their squads and are now reaping the rewards. Sharp double tapped for the Saints and Roberts has transformed Reading’s front line. What worries most fans now is the playoff trend that it is more often than not the most in form team go up rather than the teams that have fallen away like we have. The blame game needs to stop because quite simply BFS is burying his management career right now. He might be fine at a bargain basement team scraping for survival but twice now he has shown he has no eye for attacking football, the Geordies disposed of him very quickly and IMHO Blackburn got rid of him because after Mark Hughes the football he was serving up again was statistically ok but horrible on the eye. Now at Upton Park he is proving he is a very poor man’s bully, the trouble is the fans of West Ham are not interested in his excuses anymore, he has shown his colours and the are very very drab …. rightly or wrongly I hope we fail to go up and he moves on in the summer. We have enough quality under the right manager to walk this league … third is quite simply a huge failure …
Hi Tom, thanks for reading as always. You’re spot on, I try and remain positive (and I’ll always support my team through thick and thin) but third place in this league, with this squad, is failure. I wish Saints and Reading every luck because they have been fantastic and deserve to go up – same can’t be said for us.
Sent from my iPad
is anyone honestly being a realist here? southampton and reading are miles in front of us when it comes to class, attractive football, killing teams off and winning games comfortably, and most important keeping their fans happy and excited and paying back somewhat the ticket sales from the fans with good results. Lets have a look at west ham, the ticket prices are unbelievable for a championship match considering when you look at the football we play we’d be better off going church because its more exciting, and as for beating posh, come on lets be serious we should wipe the floor with them, and if we dont beat reading on the weekend u might as well kiss premiership football next season good bye. who can honestly see us coming out on top in the play-offs? not me i no that much. sorry but these past few years have made me really consider my options on which team i wish to follow and which team i wish to spend my hard earned money watching, west ham definitely is not one of them. I love football and for 30 yrs ive loved and followed west ham but ive no confidence in the club no more whether its the owners the manager or the players, i personally think we are beginning to see the end to our great club and if we’re in the championship any longer than this season i think we are looking at another middlesborough situation where the club will find it extremely hard to ever return back to the premiership. Also without the money from the premiership will west ham honestly be able to clear the big debt we are burdened with or are we looking at another portsmouth and leeds scenario? i hope not but the reality is that is very well what could, and quite possibly will happen, and to be honest i cant sit round and watch that happen to our once great club. if u go to west ham its like a grave yard now its so quiet, its almost like alot of the fans have accepted our fate and i find that really sad, but lets be honest if theres no fight or passion on the pitch then how can our owners players and manager expect us to have the passion and fight in the stands? things have changed so much with west ham the past few yrs and it really scares me when i see what our club is becoming. i hope something is sorted and changed before its too late but im starting to think that maybe its already too late.
to be honest, I wouldn’t be desperately upset at this time to see BFS leave… at the same time, I’d love to see a manager stay for more than 18 months.
The Posh tonight and Reading on Saturday are very big games in the sense of automatic promotion – but there still are the play-offs.
BFS has changed this club. This season, we have become hard to beat (home and away) – that has been the first rule of any decent club manager. The Championship for any team is a tough place and Sam has achieved this first rule. The problem is we also want to watch entertaining football – and for one reason or another this hasn’t happened.
Being the armchair supporter that I am, I shout at the TV, “Two up front! wide men! No Square pegs in round holes!” etc, etc… but I honestly think it takes time for managers to achieve that thing they are after. Sometimes you’ve just got to believe that the bloke in charge knows what he is doing…
BTW: what’s happened to westhamtillidie.com?
I think Iain had problems with his hosts and is working on a new, re-designed site. His Twitter account said it should be online very soon – hope so!
I’m getting withdrawal symptoms….
good result last night at P’boro, though first half sounded a bit ropey. The boo-boys are getting to Sam by the sounds of it…
Yeah great result! Sounds like we played really well in the second half. Really excited about the Reading match now, though I’m sure it’ll be torture. I’ll be sat across the corner from the Reading fans and I’m sure there’ll be a few edge-of-the-seat moments!
they thrashed us at their place (around the time of their up-turn in form). Sounds like the return of Vaz Te and Faubert have boosted the team last night.
I’d love to see BFS play Maynard and Baldock (oh, here I go… doing the armchair thing!)
Completely agree – Cole alone up top doesn’t work for me!