Well it made me smile! It’s true though, William Hill have made Spurs 50/1 not to win a game all season. Although not really that likely, surely it’s worth it for the extra joy each time they don’t win?!

If you fancy that flutter on the above, then visit the William Hill website! Happy days

Anyways, I have been a bit shocked these last couple of days having read a few comments on forums/message boards saying that Gianfranco Zola should be sacked. I know, sickening.

People like that do my head in. 5 games into his career as West Ham manager and people want to get rid of him. Maybe it was a joke, highly amusing, but here nonetheless are my thoughts on the positive effect he has had on the team and the club as a whole.

Strategy and Tactics

The way we are playing football has changed. Under Curbishley many of us continually got frustrated at seeing the long ball being played. We seemed to get a few results here and there but it was long ball stuff. To the extent that The Daily Mail considered us the Most Boring Team To Watch in a pre-season round-up. Those were not good signs.

Under Zola, the players have imagination and a freedom to actually play football. Maybe I am wrong, but isn’t this what many West Ham fans long for, a team of players playing attractive football that is enjoyable to watch? The game against Bolton, didn’t show Zola’s intentions up by any means. I think that the players were set out to attack Bolton and play football. Unfortunately from experience he will learn that against Bolton you just cannot do that. They will simply flood the midfield and get men behind the ball. His strategy was correct, but his tactics were wrong.

As for the game against Hull, by all accounts we played some good football. It’s just a shame about the lack of finishing…something that is outside of Zola’s control? Completely. His responsibility is to work on it during the week on the training ground to get the players best prepared for an in-game situation. Once the players are out on the pitch though, their reaction when faced with a shooting opportunity is out of his hands. On the whole though, the team played good flowing football and showed real intent. In my opinion against Hull, Zola’s strategy was correct and so were his tactics. It was a lack of ability to score that cost us.

With continued work on finishing, I have no doubt that what we will see from his West Ham side is a team who are playing high quality football but also know how to win games.

Formation

I personally have been encouraged at Zola’s ‘revolutionary’ 4-3-3 formation…although more recently I have had to question it. Against Bolton, a formation like that is not appropriate. You need to make sure to pack out the midfield with bodies and spread the Bolton defence with proper use of the wings. Zola didn’t do that and it was noticeable. Unfortunately.

However when we are at home, so long as the correct defensive cover is in place, I feel that a 4-3-3 is suitable against a lot of sides…aslong as we are also going to play with that mentality. By correct defensive cover, I feel that if we are going to play Faubert/Illunga we need two fast, committed centre backs. We will never see Neill dropped, but he should be because he really doesn’t fit that bill! Far too often, both those players are caught out of position because they are being encouraged to push forward. We need players in positions who can correctly recover when either Illunga or Faubert are surging forward. Maybe it means bringing Mullins back into the side to act as a dedicated holding midfielder. Maybe.

Either way, to see a manager come into a new role with fresh ideas is brilliant. Particularly after a season and a bit of pretty boring football.

Injuries

Where have they all gone? What a difference from under Curbishley. I said over and over again that using injury as an excuse is worthless when they recur. A recurring injury to me stinks of neglect to the real cause of that player’s injury. Maybe it’s technique or maybe joint alignment, whatever the problem is do something about it. Curbishley just seemed to blame the injuries rather than rectify them.

Zola is different and it shows, my article about why West Ham needs sports science was met with a good debate. In the light of that, it is clear that the staff Zola has bought with him are far more apt to the needs of West Ham United. No more avoidable injuries popping up left, right and centre and no more excuses! It has meant that we are seeing players get a continued run in the team which is so important to the development of the team as a ‘unit’ or as a ‘whole’.

I for one am encouraged by Zola and what he is doing with the side. The people who are thinking he should be sacked because of lack of experience are probably the people who decided that supporting Spurs had no benefits and it was time to move on to better things.

————————————————-

Make sure to jump on board with the West Ham Blogs initiative to raise £5000 for the Bobby Moore Fund: Donate to the fund.

You can see how much we have raised on the right hand side of this page

Sam