Scott Parker’s words at full time pretty much summed up the remainder of this Championship season for West Ham United following the side’s first away defeat of the campaign. The new manager bounce failed to materialise as his squad thew away chance after chance against their solid opponents who twice capitalised on the now-traditional lacklustre Irons’ defending.
Speaking after the game to BBC Radio London, a hoarse Hammers head coach declared :
“We gave ourselves a mountain to climb.”
Not only at Ewood Park, but in the 31 remaining games of this season. A six point gap between the Hammers in ninth and the league leaders is not yet insurmountable. But it is, certainly, a mountain to climb for Parker to turn West Ham’s dreadfully mediocre-looking squad into Championship contenders.
With so many leaks, it is difficult to know which hole to plug first in the slowly sinking good ship West Ham United. Goalkeeper, defence, midfield, attack – all are areas crying out for urgent post-Nuno repair.. But none are yet beyond salvage.
A tough watch – Scott Parker will have learned a lot about his West Ham squad
As many have commented, though, it’s going to be a long season.
Right now, half a season of the dour, drab, boring but solid wins for which Scott Parker received so much criticism from his time at Burnley would be pretty well received in east London.
Usually we curse the international break but I have a feeling this time around it comes as a huge relief to the manager, the squad and supporters, for very different reasons. Amongst supporters, optimism will no doubt resurface at some stage during the next fortnight as we convince ourselves that if nothing else, we have the right man for the job at the helm.
Whatever Scott Parker is getting paid, if he somehow manages to transform this group into his trademark mean, lean, tough side capable of grinding out one-nil victories week in, week out, frankly he’ll be worth every penny.
Possibly the worst squad assembled by various managers are what we are left with and we hope Parker can mould them into a promotion competing side in a matter of games,it’s not going to happen. We need to be patient and get behind Parker and the team.
Parker needs to change it up & think outside the current box bring in Areola, maybe Morato at center half for Kilman, break up this young midfield and play a holding midfielder Alvarez or Magassa with Soucek & a No 10, he has to make us a lot harder to score against & let Austbo, Pirio, Bowen and the no 10 take the responsibility for scoring
We’re miles off the pace, conceding at least two goals and often three to sides that are not good. Not a chance of doing anything until that fragility is fixed.
If it can be fixed then we’re contenders at some time in every match we overwhelm the opposition so there is ability there which only shows through at times.
There are still 31. games left to play , Parker and Noble have a couple of weeks to instil a plan into the squad , We are only six points off the top so the hard work starts now, our squad while nowhere near premier league standard , it can be moulded into one that is able to climb back into promotion battle( a few new additions in the window) It’s not over yet … keep the faith .
We can’t defend despite the resources we have. We only create anything from Bowen who got us out of jail at Cardiff. If we aren’t competing at Xmas then surely Bowen loyalty might run out and he will head off back to the prem. couldn’t blame him could you?
The other thing, unless we were desperate for cash, is I can’t see any reason for selling Potts who now seems to be doing rather well in the champions league.
Guess have to give Parker a moment to work with his players and know them.
Obvious shocker in defense but this was all mentioned in another article – for each goal, it was ‘did that really just go in?’, both goals such easy stops for a GK.
For the 1st goal, Mayers just beaten, it happens, but the rest was the keystone cops nobody attacking the ball, poor tracking back, some standing, others jogging back, etc.
Easy looking on, but would have kept Austbo on, as working well with Mayers and the LHS was actually working better than the RHS, even with Bowen. Solomon is a different style to Austbo, not playing well anyhow, since last international break – in my opinion. Could have brought on Ajala who knows Mayers well from academy days. I am biased though, Austbo was a danger, just want to see Ajala play besides Piroe, that combination might be interesting: speed, skill, 1st touch (inexperience) from Ajala, technical ability, awareness, eye for goal & experience from Piroe.
Defensive midfield was disappointing and caused the team a lot of problems I think. Going forwards, or defending it was not tight. With Magassa, Alvarez, Engels, Soucek there are options, youth and experience. Magassa was not excellent last time, but does not matter, he seems to have the attributes and approach to play well in that position – needs training. Magassa & Alvarez might be a nifty combination worth trying during the break?
Perhaps Orford best as a no 10m as we need an option, but on a pitch he falls back towards the backline so I’m at a loss there – good player, fantastic potential but not sure what his position is – guess that is just me.
Good luck to Parker finalising his preferred 11 options because going from this performance there is a lot for him, Noble & Prenderville to figure out.
Peter you will have to talk me through how the first is an easy save for a GK based on your expertise in this area.
Starting position isn’t great but those saying he should just catch it are just lazy comments without much knowledge of the position.
Fact is if the ball goes over the GK my question is why is their attacker standing there with a free header whilst Veltman (his man) and Mav standing there like a couple of spare parts.
He’s not a great GK tbh and needs replacing as he seems to lack any power in his legs to make up for his poor positioning but if you look back over the past 11 goals we’ve leaked it would be difficult to blame the keeper for more than 2 of them and even that’s with a critical eye.
Fact is the midfield offers no line of protection to our defence, and our defence, well you can’t really call it one.
I would seriously be playing Tommy with Mav at the back next game. It’s too much responsibility to expect the youngsters to step into this shower right now.
I think Mayers is a far better option than Scarles but if we’re being critical his poor positioning (way too tight to his man) enabled the cross for the first.
I’m as optimistic as the next Hammer diehard but I’m pretty much resigning myself now to the fact we’re probably not getting out of the Championship this season and that has all sorts of ramifications. The optimistic side chimes back in here saying maybe we do just need to be completely broken down and re-built and that it will benefit us to stay here until we’ve done so appropriately rather than getting back to the PL and spending 5 years just hanging on. Who knows? Interesting times nonetheless.