This won’t take long!
We are going backwards – launching long and refusing to play the most successful strike partnership we have seen at the club since Cottee and McAvennie.
Andy Carroll most certainly has a role to play but not as a permanent fixture come hell or high water.
Also we have been told by the manager himself that with so many games coming in such a hurry over Christmas and the New Year there needed to be some rotation…unless. it seems, your name is Carroll!
We have reached the point where it really is AC and one other – some rotation policy that! It didn’t work at Chelsea and it didn’t work today.
Diafra Sakho is unquestionably Carroll’s equal. Enner Valencia has pace to burn and on his days is electric but the manager does love his big man up front however unsuited – as was the case at Chelsea – the tactic may be to the game conditions.
These things are so self evident they don’t really need to be repeated but such is the obsession with AC under the current manager we are forced to do so over and over again .
The result of the Carroll love-in is that we launch long and the ‘to feet’ game which brought us all our early success is slowly disappearing unlike Carlton Cole who Sam Allardyce admitted earlier this week is “one of my favourites.”
That is pretty worrying and another example of the way things are going. ‘Back to the Future’ has been on the box about five times this Christmas.
Seems we are seeing another re-run at the Boleyn and it’s nothing like as entertaining!
Excellent article.The 3 points were there for the taking today but Sam has some notion of player tiredness.What’s happened to Valencia?He never looks tired.Only tired of warming the bench.Instead of being a top 4 team we are reverting to a team making up the numbers in the Premier league.I’ve said it before Allardyce is a dinosaur who cannot take West Ham forward in the modern EPL.
Repeating the same behaviour & expecting a different outcome is one of the first signs of insanity.
Very, very disappointed! 1 point from 9? Should have been all out for 3 points against a struggling team today! Cmon Sam, I was beginning to tolerate you! #coyi
Where was Zarate when we needed him? Come on we all knew this was coming,the only reason we aren’t in the bottom 8 is because AC and KN were injured and BFS had to play the new boys,why no Nolan today? ( can not blame him if he is not on the pitch)why was it so important to rush Noble back so quick against Chelsea and drop Song the most in form player and then rest him today?why bring on Jarvis when he hasn’t played all season please don’t say rotation,yes Roman is correct this game was for the taking and this is when you need game changers like Zarate not Cole,I think Sam has lost his way now and does not no Which way to turn,we need to go back to the beginning again and start with a front 2 that can make the opposition defence think ( sorry AC you work hard and put in the time but it’s all to easy for them to work out) I for 1 will give BFS 2 more games and then if he does not change I will lead the Sam Out charge again.
When Sakho scored our goal Carroll was no where near, this has Bern the case for weeks, he jumps for the ball and does nothing with it, is this seriously a £90-£100K a week player? but no Sam will never drop him, now we lose our True talented players to the African Cup are we going to go back to Sam’s old ways? the enthusiasm of the run of wind seems to have gone, what is going wrong, players tired is not good enough.
Well we are going to have AC upfront for the forseeable future with Diafra away.Spot on Hugh,one of the most exciting forward partnerships i had watched for many a year,two guys whos speed & movement clearly concernced opposition defences.We will now only see it if AC is injured i should imagine.Im damn sure two central defenders would rather get in a battle with Carroll than have to chase Sakho & Valencia all round the park.Its clear they worked well together,they opened up & shifted defences about with their runs.The defence is far more comfortable with a more static big guy up front no matter how much he gets into a tear up with them.Is a shame to see this situation,but it aint going to change while AC stays fit.I aint bothered to check the stats but it seems like we were far more free scoring while these guys played together.Maybe not,perhaps it just felt that way when we played the more free flowing football earlier this season.
As I said two days ago reverting to type, I told you so, the writing was on the wall even against Swansea. Fat Sam is at best blinkered and stubborn, at worst ‘bloody minded’. He will never, never, never move away from his one dimensional style of play. It doesn’t work. What’s not good enough Sam is YOU, not Zarate. This prehistoric style of play is utilised by the Stoke City of this league.They play this style,( Crouch plus one) and never rise above half way. We have languished in the bottom half of the table till the Sakho & Valencia partnership came to being. Now we are dropping like a stone to that level again because Mr Big ‘I Am’ Sam will not wake up to that fact that AC is not a team type player. He wasn’t suitable for Liverpool, and he isn’t suitable for the team we have now. We are probably safe from relegation, but what a waste of a great start to the campaign. 31 points before Christmas, now I can only see us getting 47 by May. A very frustrated and disappointed hammer.
I was glad AC was back thinking he’ll come on towards the end of games after Sakho & Valencia had ripped defences apart and when we lose players to the Africans cup he’d be able to fill in.what the hell’s going happen if AC gets injured just before they leave?, dread to think
In my humble opinion the next 3 games against Swansea,Hull and Liverpool are all winnable.If I were a board member anything less than 9 points would be unacceptable.Somehow I feel it’s not going to happen and the excuses from the manager will continue.We have the players but Allardyce seems to have no idea on how to utilize them.I’m in Australia and can see Allardyce’s short comings from here.Like Hammerman6 said what a waste to such a good start.I can sense the slide beginning.
After all the good football we played in the early games of the season – quick movement of ball and players – we have reverted back to too much reliance on the long ball up to Carroll. All that does is basically give the ball back to the opposition. Carroll should be an impact sub if the game is not going well. It says a lot about BFS when we know he would have signed Wickham (not Sakho) if he could have done. Zarate must be a better option than Nolan, but at least Nolan has been on the bench of late. We do miss Noble a lot as well.
Unless BFS Goes back to what was working so well I believe he should not be given a new contract. It may well be that he is not offered one if the slide in results continues and we end up in the lower half of the table after such a splendid start.
So frustrating to watch. Carrol was crap all game. Offered nothing to the team and yet valencia only came on because Sakho got injured!
Worst part is, when Cole came on he offered more than carrol did all game. Cole actually moved when the midfielders had the ball whereas Carroll stood there waiting for ginge to hoof it.
So frustrating. yesterday was like watching us last season all over again!
Sam as a player in the 70’s matches Sam as a manager 40 years later – go see this Bolton vs Newcastle clip of action… He’s stuck in a footbal time warp….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyckt3H6I6Y
Big Sam couldn’t live with Super Mac! Love it and Sam looking like Harry out of One Direction too.
Remember,Sam had to be lectured close season about West Ham expectations and football style. He didn’t want Sakho……He has made it clear a few times that West Ham fans are getting above themselves with what they expect…………..What we expect is a manager who attractive players want to sign for and a manager who’s a shrewdy with tactics on the field as the game unfolds.
im glad i found this blog i have long said we are going backwards since Carrol returned he is becoming ever present in the team and over the last 3 games i have not seen him offer anything of value to the team he spends half the game moaning that he has been fouled and the other half running round aimlessly im sorry to say this feels like the nolan factor again.
i hope this is sams last season with us so we finally get a manger who can change tactics half way threw a game and not all ways make like for like subs afraid to shake things up when the game is at a stalemate