West Ham’s record goalscorer of the 1980’s and all round legend Tony Cottee has some pretty forthright opinions, and he’s earned the right to voice them as the side he clearly still loves hovers perilously close to the foot of the Premier League table.
Speaking about Nuno’s frequent chopping and changing of the West Ham starters and substitutes, Cottee believes the Hammers boss needs to keep a more settled side so that his team know what is expected of them.
Reported by londonworld.com, Cottee believes there’s clear evidence of the prime components needed- a settled side to take the Hammers up the table:
“I think Nuno’s been sort of juggling around a little bit. He’s sort of tinkered with a back three or back five, if you like. He’s played four at the back, but we have been conceding goals.”
The londonworld report goes on to state something of the obvious:
Freddie Potts and Mateus Fernandes undroppable for West Ham
Suggesting Potts has become ‘the enabler’ allowing Fernandes to do his thing with a more expansive game further up the pitch, Cottee continued:
“I think I’d like to pay tribute to Freddie because I think Freddie has made a difference to the team when he’s played and he certainly knits it all together and he gives players like Fernandes a chance to get around the pitch and do what he’s good at.”
Quite where that leaves Soungoutou Magassa– unofficial man go the match last time out – isn’t clear in Cottee’s two man midfield. But there’s no doubt that the trio have between them revolutionised West Ham’s resilience – now Nuno needs to find a way to stop his fragile back line from conceding in every game. Or the Hammers will stay rooted in the bottom three.
The side haven’t been playing too badly but they need to do two things…..
(1) stop crosses from coming into the box at will, we allow teams to cross, but we can’t defend them.
(2) when we go ahead stop defending on the edge of our six yard box, our defence is better when we’re more aggressive and pushing up the pitch.