Last night, I began to run out of options. Both with the team and a very (very) small minority of the West Ham support. Particularly a handful of people behind Robert Green’s goal in the second half – your vitriolic and spiteful hatred towards your own players is vile and abhorrent. It literally achieves nothing.

Here are my worrying observations of our tacticts, our team, our confidence and our manager.

Tactics: 4-5-1? At home? Against West Brom?

Hearing the lineup was unusually pleasant. A starting XI including Piquionne, Cole, Dyer, Barrera actually sounds OK. It’s got the makings of an exciting, attacking 4-4-2 with two pacy wingers and one inventive striker on form.

Seeing the lineup however was a completely different matter.

We have to keep it simple, we have to play to our strengths.

We were at home, to West Brom. Not to take anything at all away from the way West Brom have performed so far this year – they’ve been at times a real breath of fresh air. Who goes 3-0 up at the Emirates after all? But they’d lost two on the trot the incentive had to be with us. We were at home and desperate for a result. There was no other option than to take 6 points from this week. Again giving West Brom the respect they deserve, but it’s the sort of game we do have a chance of picking a win up in.

You do not start the game with a formation that says we’re scared of losing and are happy with a point.

It is not acceptable. It’s not the way forward this season.

I understand that the role of Piquionne was to be our right sided midfielder when defending and to push forward to join Cole when we had possession going forward. We’re not Barcelona Avram. We don’t have it within our team who are low on morale, to play a fluid/liquid system where players such as Barrera, Piquionne, Boa Morte & Dyer each have a variety of responsibilities. We have to keep it simple, we have to play to our strengths.

Dyer. Pacy & tricky.
Barrera. Pacy & tricky.
Piquionne. Striker. Our goal threat.

It makes absolutely no logical sense, whatsoever to stick our main goal threat (exlcuding Parker) on the wing & effectively out of the game for large portions.

We have to keep it simple. We have to play to our strengths.

It’s almost like when tickets are cheap they give us a cheap performance (Newcastle, Bolton, West Brom) but when tickets are full price (Spurs) they’re out there to give us our money’s worth (of course that’s not actually what they’re doing, but it does feel like that sometimes).

That’s just how we started the game and played for the first half. The second half was a little different as we saw Dyer pushing forward a lot more to support Cole. It became a lot more attacking and we started to carve out a few more opportunities.

At least, we did for 10-15 minutes.

Move. Move. MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE!

One of the most frustrating things for me last night was a complete lack of movement. Which was quite ironic seeing as the system we had set up required players to be mobile and switched on the whole time.

There were times when the whole team were static. Not pushing forward and sitting in our own half. At home, 1-0 down, to West Brom.

In fact if you look at the moment immediately before Parker’s goal you’ll see that our entire team bar Cole who was roughly on the edge of their box, were way back on the half way line. As great as Parker’s goal was, we were so fortunate that he showed the initiative to burst forward from midfield and actually move. No-one else seemed to want to take that upon themselves. Once again, we relied on Parker.

Parker – different role.

Just as a quick aside, it’s clear that Parker has a very different role this year. And I do like it.

Louis Boa Morte & Herita Illunga

Quite amazingly, these two still keep getting picked.

Herita Illunga has been a significantly worse player, with apparently significantly less interest since he earned a contract with us. He was once again completely missing when we conceded the second goal last night. No matter how much you look at it the left back has to be responsible for not picking up Ibanez. The time he had to put that ball in the back of the net was horrible. But sadly, not unexpected.

Louis Boa Morte has had his fair share of stick over the seasons. He works hard. But is rubbish. Simple as that really. He is wasteful in possession, he can be a liability in a tackle and doesn’t have a role in the side. Is he there to attack or defend? Often, he’ll do the hard stuff but fail on a simple 3 foot pass – or, as we saw last night, pass the ball off the pitch either for a throw or a goal kick. It’s basic basic stuff that is beginning to cost us.

These wasteful, frustrating mistakes, or going AWOL each time a cross comes in from the opposing team’s right flank are beginning to cost us games. Everyone makes mistakes, I get that. But it’s becoming predictable each week who’ll be making them and making them consistently. Has to stop.

Carlton Cole, confidence.

I actually feel for Carlton a little. I’ve often been a critic and it’s fair to say that for a striker he simply does not score enough goals. However the tactics that Avram played last night completely isolated him. He had very little chance to impact the game in a way I reckon he’d like to.

Still, however, we cannot be relying on a striker who needs confidence if he’s going to put in a good shift. We can’t have him moping around the pitch not scoring.

Obinna was on the bench last night and Piq was on the wing. I’m sorry to say it Avram but those two have to be starting ahead of Cole when he’s a ‘feeling sorry for myself’ mood. We literally look toothless with him up front on his own. And I don’t think it’s his fault.

Avram: “From my experience, if we continue like this then the points will come”

It’s fair to say, that if we can’t pick up points off Bolton, Stoke, Wolves, West Brom, Newcastle and maybe even Blackpool, playing this system then it’s hard to see where the three points will come from. It’s not points against Arsenal or United that we want, it’s not even a cup run. It’s points against the teams around us.

I understand that confidence plays a huge part in all of this and confidence is clearly very low. It’s low on the pitch and low on the stands – I’m not sure which breeds the other but us fans are there every week, and are vocal in our support but last night showed that if you start a game negatively then the fans are going to struggle to be as positive as we can be, because we’re not seeing it reciprocated on the pitch.

4-5-1 at home to West Brom. You look at that and you can predict how the game will pan out – it happens each week and for me personally it’s becoming very difficult to get behind and support that system. But I’ll be there on Saturday and I’ll be there at Anfield. I’ll be there at United and by the looks of things, I’ll be there at Scunthorpe next year.

Of course, every new system does need time but for me it’s just not working. It may change, but right now it is not working.

Please do not take this post as knee-jerk or definitive, it’s what I saw last night and I’m worried if this is what the future holds. Thoughtful opinions always welcome

COYI

Update: What Kieron Dyer has said through the Official Site is spot on in my opinion – it was also great to see him play 90mins!

Is this good or bad news for us?

(there’s not much else I can say really – so long as it doesn’t mean that Milner will be next to leave, followed by Parker)

IRONS

Here’s a brief round up of today’s team news, followed by a link to my new live Twitter discussion feature (or if that’s what you’ve come here for, then CLICK HERE to get chatting)

West Ham

- Carlton Cole is the latest to be added to our injury list. He won’t be around until sometime into the New Year.
- Upson is out with a hamstring injury, although will be back for the trip to Birmingham
- Behrami has had to have some more surgery on his knee. Although not major and will likely return during before Christmas.
- Noble has recovered from a calf strain but now has a cold
- Jimenez has picked up a ‘muscle problem’, whatever that may be. Even the official site is not sure whether either will be considered today.

- Diamanti has returned to full training
- As has Dyer who also has a couple of reserve games under his belt – scoring a brace in one.

Manchester United

- Jonny Evans, Rio Feridnand and John ‘O Shea all miss out
- Other than that, they have no fresh injury concerns

- Edwin van der Sar returns between the sticks

All things considered….

So odds are not in our favour today – infact you can get 13-2 at PaddyPower for a West Ham win. Great.

However, as I like to remain an optimist, I’m confident that if we get big performances today from the likes of Parker, Franco, Green then we can give this a good shot. Parker has been outstanding so far this year and has been a rock for us in the last couple of games. Franco is proving himself to be an intelligent, passionate striker perfect for alongside Cole. Without Cole however, I’m confident that if you put the pace of Hines alongside him that we can cause some problems amongst a significantly weakened United back line.

I can’t see us keeping a clean sheet and chances are Giggs will probably bag himself one, as he always seems to do against us.

We should see some goals today and if our boys really step up to the plate then we may come away with more than just a pat on the back and a “good effort” from Zola. In fact I think we could really suprise a few people today – particularly, as I say, their backline is weak. If Vidic decides that it will be a walk in the park and Franco and Hines (or whoever) are pumped up for it, then anything can happen.

However…

If we’re not up for it, or decide to do anything other than play with an attacking mentality, then it could very well be am hammering. Unfortunately. But let’s not dwell, three points it is from me.

IRONS!

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Twitter users: It’s time to trial my new conversationally based mathday feature! Please click on the Twitter logo below, drop tweet deck (or whatever) for 90mins and make this page the hub of all things West Ham v United (or CLICK HERE to get chatting)

(If you’re not a Twitter user, then you can still click on the logo above to get a feel what people are saying about the game. IRONS)

Perhaps it’s just me, or is every single newspaper in the country writing a story about how we are selling all of our best players and keeping all of our fringe players in the January transfer window? Harry Redknapp at Spurs is more than likely to be after most of them at some point or another, we’ve now rejected a £12m bid for Bellamy from a team whose front line cost approximately £30m. It is true, that Spurs are desperately in need for a bit of class in their strikeforce, but as far as I care if they value Pavlyuchenko at £14m, then Bellamy must be worth at least £50m.

It’s good to see that the Harry turnaround is really in full swing now – all the best down there Harry, you fit right in. Enough about Harry ‘the money-grabber’ Redknapp and Spurs wanting all our players, it’s giving me back-ache.

Like I said earlier, all the talk is about how our entire team needs to be sold just to remain a football club, so in an attempt to clarify a few things here and there, here are a couple of quotes I’ve picked up over the week:

Zola:

“The commitment is to improve this team so we’ll try to keep all our players, everybody at West Ham wants to take this team to a better level.

It’s not easy because we have very good players in our team and big clubs are looking for good players.

There’s also the financial thing but the club tells me it’s not a problem”

Good, next…

Rob Green

“These things happen in life, but we’ve been assured as senior players that there won’t be a fire sale from the chief executive and we’ll just have to wait and see.

I’m happy playing for West Ham in the most exciting league in the world. What more motivation do you need?You don’t want to go out and have a bad game, and I love playing for West Ham

You look at the team and everyone who gets out there wants to play well for West Ham. There’s not many unhappy faces, if any, in the camp.

But there’s not much I can do about it. All I can do is keep playing well. I want to play for West Ham, all the lads do

Spurs and Bellamy

“Spurs manager Harry Redknapp underlined his determination to sign Bellamy by doubling his original £6m bid but the Hammers are determined to hang on to him” – Mail

Zola Again

“As far as I’m concerned the club is on the same line we want to keep our best players.

Yes we will try everything we can to keep them obviously we have a project, an ambitious project and we need good players to achieve that.”

They are all quotes that I have picked up from the last 7 days and from what I can work out it is a very different message to actually what the media are trying to stir up. It will be in the best interest of BG to try and hang onto these players because when it comes to selling a club, a team with these players (Upson, Parker, Bellamy, Green) in it is far rosier than a team without.

To clarify to the media, the players in question when we say we will be offloading fringe players are Louis Boa Morte, Faubert, Gabbiddon, Davenport (unfortunately), Quashie, Spector and preferably Carlton Cole. What you have there is a lot of players, a lot of wages and I would think at about £12m in transfer fees…that should at least pay-off Sheffield United with a bit of change I would have thought.

So either we are being completely lied to once again, and if that is the case there could be trouble because we won’t take to kindly to that. Or Zola and the other senior players are speaking the truth and we can look forward to us holding onto these players in the new year and actually pressing forward.

COYI!

Sam

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I spent 80 of the 90 minutes getting ready for what I was going to say in my report….words like exceptional, tenacious and entertaining kept popping up in my head (although “not quite good enough” came up after another poor touch from Louis Boa Morte). I was ready to put pen to paper with a report singing the praises of Zola’s tactics, his faith in Collison and Sears and basking in the quiality football he has got West Ham once again playing.

I am stunned.

One Dimensional Football Wins Games But Not Fans

I may offend some Everton fans with my next paragraph or so, but frankly I’m too fed up to care. Everton were poor rubbish today and yet on paper have come away with a convincing victory. For 80 minutes, they were second best and looked childish compared to the football we were playing. They were one-dimensional and had no imagination. However, just like Bolton, they have left Upton Park with a 3-1 victory.

Perhaps it’s the way forward this boring, one-dimensional football. In fact, it seems pretty simple. If I’ve understood it correctly having learnt from the best, Bolton and now Everton, all you have to do to win games is possess a quality striker and then stick men behind the ball. Play badly, win games….easy.

Actually all things considerd, perhaps we should bring back Curbishly. Stick Carlton Cole and Louis Boa Morte up front and all our problems will be solved.

That Ladies and Gentlemen, was a joke.

With Pace, Intention and Direction

Because the reality is our football today was exceptional. We dominated the game and created chance after chance. We attacked with pace, with direction and with a real intention. These are things that, after our spineless performance against City early in the season, I could never see happening again. Parker, for 80 minutes, was phenomenal. Bowyer played out of his skin. Collison and Sears were outstanding. Bellamy run himself into the ground.

As far as I am concerned, the same things could be said for when we played against Arsenal a few weeks back.

Unfortunately, just like the Arsenal game, we just cannot seem to score. What a difference a 15 goal a season striker would make to our team. I realise that seems like a glaringly obvious thing to say but the truth is, is that in almost every game under Zola we have made the chances for a striker to put into the back of the net. He just hasn’t been there.

Cole is not good enough and I don’t believe we will ever get 15 full games out of Bellamy or Ashton, let alone 20 goals.

The goal we did score today, showed to me what we are capable of. Once we won the ball after being on the back foot, we counter attacked with a real enthusiasm and creativity. We knew what we wanted to achieve and we did it. And what a reward for Collison’s hard work to get the goal that he did.

The trouble is, Parker layed the ball off to him and Collison scored. Neither of whom are strikers.

I am obviously frustrated that we are not getting the results that our performances have deserved. Despite what I would consider a vast improvement from what we had to endure under Curbishley, there was however a few clear problems that I would quickly like to mention:

Concerns

- Green’s ability of command his area (or lack of) is a problem for me. He didn’t have much to do today, but what he did do hardly filled me (or the defence) with confidence. We need him to be more than just the best shot stopper in the country and start being a genuine presence for crosses and corners etc.

- Our defence. It was obviously a shame to lose Upson early on, had we not done so, perhaps the scoreline would have been different. We are a very small team and it was noticeable today that Collins was the only player who could seemingly win a header. We need to have a bigger arial presence as not only will that help us defensively, but also going forward.

- Faubert as a right back. Not much more to say than it is not really working. Admittedly today, the decision was forced on Zola with the loss of Upson, but unfortunately the role of flying wingback just doesn’t suit him. As a defender he is poor and his final ball leaves a lot to be desired. I would however keep him in the side as his pace vital.

- Louis Boa More generally. I would never and have never booed him off the pitch, but he is simply not good enough. Yes, I know he works hard, but if I wanted someone who would work hard but offer nothing else whatsoever as a left sided forward, I would bring Julian Dicks back out of retirement. We need a lot more from a player in his position and he needs to go (still) in January.

- The way we crumble as soon as we concede is a huge concern for me. It happened against Bolton, against Arsenal and now against Everton. This has to stop and is my biggest worry.

- As previously mentioned, our lack of actual end product in the final third.

It is clear from our results (which unfortunately are what count) that something has to change. For me however it is not our strategy or our imaginative, forward thinking. Neither is it the pace in which we attack or our slick passing. Those things for me are hugey encouraging to see as a season ticket holder. We have to add height and depth in defensive and be more commanding from the back. I get worried every time the opposing team goes forward these days. We need to not let our heads drop as soon as a goal goes in and also hold our ground if that does happen. When you play that well for 80 mins and concede a goal, it destroys you as a player but we cannot just fall to pieces like we have done today.

How important does this make our next game against Pompey?!…it’s a great time to play them and a victory next week could prove a crucial turning point in this poor run of games.

Sam