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DS “new style” point packs a punch

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2923David Sullivan has a reputation for shooting off at the lip.

In fact most of the time he’s pretty restrained and getting a hard and fast public view can be pretty tough going.

Ok there were the well publicised Charlie Austin quotes which in reality were all pretty harmless anyway but he has yet, for example, to react to anything Sam Allardyce has had to say about his time at the club.

I doubt very much indeed that he will, even should there be inflammatory stuff in the upcoming book. It really isn’t his style – why does he need to?

Tonight, though, he makes what I found an amusing comment in his ‘From the Boardroom’ column on the official website when revealing that we are trying a new approach.

He says: “I think we’re trying a new style and we’re trying to pass it out of defence more. Sadly, we’ve only been trying it for seven games so you sometimes get errors like we saw on Saturday.

If it (Mark Noble’s loose pass)  had just been humped down the pitch that probably wouldn’t have happened but at the same token we wouldn’t be creating so much down the other end if we did that.”

Whoa! Sometimes you don’t need to get bang into someone’s face to make your point to do you? Were you listening  Sam because I certainly was and it put me in my place.

For last night I wrote in pretty damning terms that Mark really needed to get his passing act together if he wasn’t to find himself in danger particularly when Alex Song is fit.

But Sullivan makes a very good point indeed – we are now playing to feet all over the park and after four years of the other stuff it obviously takes some getting used to.

Point made  point taken!

Our pic shows the last minute equaliser against Norwich.

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

14 comments

  • Boys of 66 says:

    Wish it had been the winner 😀

  • TysonM says:

    If it was the winner i must have missed something,lol.Dont really care if we are trying something new or not,you should still be able to make a simple pass like that one Nobes screwed up no matter what style you are trying to instill in the team.It was an awful pass & Mark held his hands up to it.

  • HungryHammer66 says:

    I really thought that elevating Noble to club captain would be the catalyst to improve his game and sorry but what ever spin comes out of the club, he hasn’t improved, still makes school boy errors and really needs to step his game up, but I just don’t think he can and we will end up with another situation like Nolan when the club captain is only good enough for the bench.

  • JimmyF says:

    I think his limited abilities are going to be highlighted more & more as we try to play a different style.It aint an attack on the lad,i love his commitment & heart for the club,just dont think he is technically good enough.I was going to say maybe he should do the simple things & let the more gifted players try the flashier stuff but his pass was one i could have made to Tomkins.It was a bread & butter pass he messed up & it aint the first time this season he has been culpable.The second goal he should never,never have allowed Redmond to come inside,it was awful.
    Btw Hugh,i thougt we lost didnt we?? 😀

  • bubs says:

    If he needs a point made then he should be dropped for the next game
    Obiang and Kouyate should sit in front of the defence and allow Payet a free role and give
    Lanzini and Moses wide roles with Sakho leading the line,
    Mark should the wait with Carroll for his chance and practice his passing,
    Once all the players know they only keep their place if they play well and don’t make silly mistakes the team will become competitive and move forward

  • Hammerman6 says:

    Here you all go again. Most midfield box to box players will make errors passing. People with short memories will forget Song’s performances from Jan to May. More passes given away than completed. (I don’t go along with him being unfit either) as is commented if he was unfit then he should not have been on the pitch. How can you compare Obiang to Noble yet, he is only had a few games, and done nothing to remember.
    Look at what Noble has achieved this season alone, several assists and a goal at Anfield. Yes, he had a bad game against Norwich, but ‘one swallow doesn’t make a summer’.

  • bubs says:

    Songs performance was the reason the board took so long to give him his contract as well as his fitness,
    Would Noble get a 5 year contract at the moment ?
    I for one am not saying hang him just that he needs a reminder of life at the top,
    If he comes out next week and make another pass like that one and we loose to Sunderland
    You won’t be singing his praises,
    He has given away a lot of ball this year and we have given him the benefit as we have others trying to get to grips with a new style,
    Just because he is captain and one of ours does not give him a pass when he Fukcs up

    • Hammerman6 says:

      Not really singing his praises, just trying to look at both aspects of his game. He cocked up and put his hands up to that. He hasn’t gone around saying I created this, or scored there either. I just feel that a lot of people are very quick to lay blame. I don’t think Slaven Bilic would have any scruples about dropping him if he felt it the right move for the team. In my opinion up until Saturday, I feel he’s been OK.

  • Andromeda says:

    Funny that because Zola was trying to get his team to pass the ball out of defence too and Sullivan lost patience with him after a few months despite us staying up. Promptly appointed Grant and the rest is history.

    Of course Bilic has got a much better squad.

  • TysonM says:

    As i said earlier,for some people Noble is an exempt from critisizm while the same people will have no issue tearing other players a new ********.For ke Noble wont be in team by the end of next season,we are moving on,signing better players.He wont cut it in our team.Christ if i read one more dopey stat this morining to justify his inclusion i will cry,lol,i have nothing against the lad but i will still express my opinion about him without it being seen as a witch hunt or making him a scapegoat.Maybe i will go on a campaign to rag anybody who dares say anything about Cresswell,lol.Ffs the lad is local,thats fantastic but doesnt mean he cant have critisizm aimed at him.Some people are so f*cking precious about Noble but then complain about other players without a second thought,muppets 😉

  • JimmyF says:

    Haha,it is funny reading people saying Noble is a scapegoat just because someone writes something aganst him,especially when you read these same people moaning about other players,lol.So Noble gets moaned about he is a scapegoat but if other players get moaned about it is constructive critisism 😀

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