By Pete Ellis
Rome wasn’t built in 90 minutes.
Although from the reaction to last night’s game, some would have you believe it was certainly destroyed in that period.
The Hammers were underwhelming and lost to a Saints side that grabbed a goal, got a man sent off, and said “if you think it was tough versus villa, you ain’t seen nothing yet”
Another slow start has bitten us on the backside. We have got away with a few, but thinking you can do that to a Koeman side is pretty naive. He was always gonna target the return game with us as one to put a Herculean effort in.
The game has been covered in detail, but some of the reaction has been the usual knee jerk, toys out of the pram rubbish we as West Ham fans have laughed at over the years from other clubs. Man Utd fans having a hissy fit that they won five in a row but no six was only a draw etc.
Are we suddenly the elite of English football? Do we have a divine right to slay all that dare stand before us?
No, not yet, although the tweets and posts you see would have you believe we have just witnessed our relegation from the PL.
I take it with a pinch of salt but there are some that see it as a far more serious issue and are far more worried and annoyed than they need to be.
Yeah, it hurts when we lose. It’s hurts more when we play badly, and it’s not something that makes our weekends more enjoyable, BUT, this “useless lot” we have playing on Saturday, and the “naive idiots” in the dugout, were the heroes versus city, the masterminds against Bournemouth and Villa only days before.
My point is, we are not suddenly world beaters after a few wins.
Winning doesn’t make us title contenders in much the same way as losing does not make us relegation fodder.
We are annoyed, we are frustrated, but we have a gaffer that will demand a reaction.
Have a whinge, have a moan, but we have never been further away from having to push the panic button in my view.
Payet has been dug out by some. How dare the guy not get a 10 rating every game and turn out to be human!
This is FIFA 16 after all (isn’t it)
It’s been really amusing for those of us with a level head, to see all this over the top panic/reaction.
I always take these Ott moments, as a great opportunity to have a Twitter/Facebook cull. It’s quite useful to see the ones that throw the toys out of the pram and block/unfreind, not because they have a different view to me, but because clearly logic has packed its backs and left with the kids, common sense and reason.
I have no desire in engaging with a brick wall.
Anyway, I will be following this awful team, and clueless manager again this week when we play Liverpool.
Should we not make it through, I will be disappointed, but again, I won’t have a meltdown, and I’ll quickly move on.
We have endured much worse than a 1-0 defeat away at 10 man Southampton so my powder will be kept dry for the time being.
Now, chin up, cheer up, and back the lads to turn over the scousers this week.
COYI !!!!
It gets a little embarrassing when you see the absolutely clueless tweets floating around, digging out the team because we don’t win EVERY game.
Not sure what some so called Fans want, Southampton are a fair side, and give credit to the fans as anyone there will know the ground rocked, we need to do that Tuesday, we never got started in that first half, in the second when they were one down we seemed then to start panic shooting? did not think the two striker substitutions made one inch of difference? once again and he gets knocked so much by our own fans Mark Noble gave his all.
What the fans want is a team that go out with commitment and work hard. It was very similar to the Villa game showing no effort until a player was sent off.
I do think the players had there minds on the forthcoming cup game with Liverpool and I’m sure you will see a different attitude from the players and i expect a win.
As far as the players go Reid is the most consistent and rarely gets a mention contrary to Song who is totally overrated. How many times does he hold on to the ball and lose it? The answer is countless times. I do think Payet and Cresswell link up well and playing him in the centre is not a good move which was proven with very few crosses.
Great article Pete Ellis. We let a game slip away from us, just as Arsenal, City, Man Utd & Chelsea have all done this year. Even Leicester have lost a couple, but you can be sure that Bilic will be on the case & this is still a successful year for us. We have one of the best squads we’ve seen for many a year, a good manager who will sign a new contract long term & owners that are whittling down our debt whilst improving our playing standard by investing in the club. It couldn’t be better & you can be sure that the team will get some good results this year yet. It ain’t over til it’s over as Lenny said. We are quite capable of having one of the best finishes to a season that we have ever had still. Plenty of games left yet. I trust Bilic. He’s no fool.
Very good article. I think most west ham don’t mind losing as long as the effort is there. I just feel over the last 3 games we gave the impetus to the opposition by some strange decisions from the line. Let me give you an example against Liverpool we brought on Jelavic and JOB for two players that were injured. We gave Liverpool the impetus to win that game which lets be clear they should have – by these decisions. Secondly yesterday we started the game with a system that had Antonio playing wing back and one up front. When you play 5 at the back the idea is to lay two upfront and 1 in behind. Firstly Antonio is not a RB and secondly I could not see the benefit up front. Then for some incredible reasons they take off Moses ! And why leave Song and Noble on. We should have moved Payet to the middle with Noble and put Valencia on the left and Moses on the right with Carroll (who barely touched the ball) and Emmenike through the middle. Imagine if Payet had got the ball instead of Song. We pay managers a serious amount of money and they should be seeing this. I told everyone Byran is not top standard and yesterdays performance just went to onvince me further.
Well you seem to have nailed it, don’t know why Slav is even discussing his future at the club when there’s someone as knowledgeable as you waiting to step in.
As I said before the game no target an allows wing backs to push forward and we start on the back foot unless we get a break,for once we could not come from behind,
We were a good side for 80 minutes against a team unbeaten for 5 games who have plenty of flair,
Result alone great entertainment good football,
Slav has been great but needs to learn we can’t give away the impetus from the start if he is not going to start with a normal CF the players have to come out of the blocks fast,
The problem with Payet is he needs the ball early in the right areas,Song and Noble trying to impress to keep their places must realise they have not got the class and final pass of Dimitri and their job is to win the ball and give it and go,
Yesterday we panicked with 25 minutes to go shot from anywhere,
But I am still a happy hammer and we can now beat a poor Liverpool side and go to Blackburn and win,
Start a new run in the league put the skids under the Spuds,and still go into Europe either through the league or cup,
Come on out there you can’t win every game stop knocking our side that is safe going into the OS as was asked of them and just think how much entertainment we have had this season more then the last four years put to feather
COYI
Excellent post. Sums it up perfectly. I’m glad common sense still prevails and the majority of supporters realize this is a marathon not a sprint to achieve all our goals.
Don’t worry – one more point and we’re safe!
Job done!
Dare to dream my friend!!! Haha
What’s JOB done now ?
One more point and the BFS fans cut their wrists, Shame
Cup run now is so important and we could go all the way
Well said Pete, some of the hysterical overreaction has been unbelievable! We are only on the first step of a long journey, what is truly amazing is what a giant first step it is proving to be. Come on Irons fans everywhere and get behind Slav, trust him to get things right most of the time, and show the team some love!
COYI!
Of course there was a lot of negative posts/tweets straight after watching the game. It was like pulling teeth. Wouldn’t it be boring if everyone said ‘oh dear never mind chaps, can’t win them all’. Fans are passionate & always will vent their frustrations on social media. What ever way you look at yesterdays performance, no one can say that they were playing well. So yes it was only one game & all teams have off days, doesn’t make watching games like that any easier though……
Respect Pete. Excellent article; timely reminder about where we are climbing out from, where we are – realistically speaking – and what needs to be done to further build and secure. Selective amnesia knows no bounds, mate: just recall, this time last season we were in the mire; losing in humiliating fashion to Forest in the FA Cup, losing on aggregate almost to double figures to Man City, and a technically witless manager and coaching team.
Now what we are witnessing, as Pete reminds us, is another phase in the re-shaping of the team, and more importantly, the club as a business ‘brand’, whether we like that ideology or not. The Club is in the hands of people who understand business, have a realistic financial-ruthless streak, and genuinely love the Upton Park traditions, realities and mythology. In this day and age this is good news. So what is there not to like? Well, as Pete concurs, losing of course. No Iron enjoys losing. And, first and foremost, we will continue to lose, perhaps when we shouldn’t as at Soton, while we strive towards consistency. So, Slav et al need to be cut some slack, and the players, too. Given what we had to ensure last year, we are experiencing transformation for real. Overnight we cannot hope for more. This thought alone would have been a ridiculous luxury this time last year when until we had what Mourinho referred to as Barbarism and we nicked a point from Chelsea, we were one on favourites for the drop. And this is the measure of the new squad – still in flux – and the coaching team that has a clear philosophy (just like Big Sam eh?) . With players of huge potential returning, it will be yet another challenge for Slav and the coaching crew to strike a playing & performance balance that works for this group of players.
Down with you in this matter, Pete. Get behind these players even when they give us less than we might hope for. They need time to gel, to get their collective acts together. At last we have unmistakable potential in this Hammers squad. COYI
I like this bloke. May we have more of him, please? Sensible fellow.
Thanks for that
Will try and put a regular blog over to Hugh. Just so long as he is ok to check my disastrous spelling and grammar !
I would say I was one to react strongly yesterday, I was damned annoyed that once again we got off to a slow start, then passed the ball aimlessly for 70 odd minutes never trully looking like scoring. I certainly don’t blame the manager, I don’t think we are a bad team, I do though think the team needs to look at itself because it seems heavilly reliant on Payet to do it all, my reaction came from a place of wanting to see players playing to their ability instead of shuffling a ball aimlessly to one another in a sea of mediocrity and monotiny. I want to see players playing the West Ham way, driving opponents back and opening teams up, when they have their foot on the opponents throat, crushing it mercilessly and killing them off so they fear us. I don’t think that is too much too ask.
Lets see it against Liverpool COYI!!!!
Sometimes “**** happens” but it makes the next win feel sweeter.Roll on tuesday night.