Cottee: “Difficult season if we don’t play two up”

Tony Cottee this morning told the West Ham faithful not to be overly concerned about pre-season results declaring: “We had our worst every friendly campaign before the 85-86 season and finished in our best ever position.”

Like manager Sam Allardyce, the former striker made it clear that the early games were solely about getting fit and that whilst the manner of defeat has been disappointing in some cases, nobody should be over stressed.

He said: “I remember the summer before the 85-86 season well. We had an awful set of results but an absolutely brilliant season. Let’s hope that’s an omen.

“We all understand the pressures that are on the manager to get a new system in place but I really don’t think we should be judging anything until the season – things can be very misleading in pre-season.”

However, Cottee made it clear that in his view the manager had to go with a two-up system declaring: “I’m a serious advocate of that and I think it must happen.

“I think we could go three at the back with the likes of Collins, Reid and Tomkins and there are plenty of midfield options and then a perhaps Enner Valencia and Mauro Zarate up top.

“We have the players at the club to make it work – it’s the manager’s job to sort it out and I hope he does.

“I believe we will be in for a very long and difficult season if we don’t play with two strikers.

“West Ham have become too predictable with the one striker. We all know that’s what Sam’s success is based on but I think it’s all been found out and we need a different approach.”