Sack Pearly King Slav? – don’t be daft!
Daily Mirror sports writer MIKE WALTERS – a top bloke
NICE foundations, shame about the roof.
Most of the falling masonry, roof timber and brickwork has landed on West Ham’s defence after back-to-back 4-2 defeats, and admittedly the Hammers’ defence have not covered themselves in glory.
But a cursory inspection of the wreckage after the chastening results against Watford and West Brom suggests Slaven Bilic’s problems lie further up the pitch as much as the back four.
Leave aside, for now, all debates about the Hammers’ teething troubles at the new stadium They are not the first club to move home and find the going heavy – how many titles have Arsenal won since they moved to the Emirates?
The real issues are on the pitch, and if the manager cannot hear the alarm bells ringing billy-bing, Billy-Bonds, there is nobody at home in the belfry.
In truth, there was not a lot wrong with the first half-hour against Watford, nor the last 30 minutes at the Hawthorns, where the Irons’ intensity should be the benchmark, the minimum baseline requirement, from now on.
If West Ham can perform well for sustained passages in both games, it means application is the problem, not necessarily personnel.
And since the defence copped most of the criticism at the weekend, let’s not forget there were some fairly vacuous contributions elsewhere.
No arguments, Simone Zaza has a fine pedigree, but against Albion there was no mystery behind his withdrawal at the interval.
To put it politely, he did not put himself about enough. There are few games, at Premier League level, where you can expect the ball to be delivered on a silver platter by a butler. And Zaza’s attempted bicycle kick, when there were less complicated ways to capitalise on a decent cross to the far post, was self-indulgent posturing.
Dimitri Payet and Manuel Lanzini only hit top gear when the Hammers were 4-0 down and needed snookers. Enjoy all the fun of the flair while you can, chaps, but don’t forget the tracking back and other mundane chores that come with being a Premier League footballer.
West Brom were no great shakes, but when the Hammers left too many players high up the pitch, the Baggies – who had only scored six goals in their previous 13 games – were clinical enough, and ruthless enough, to exploit the gaps.
And your correspondent felt only pity for skipper Mark Noble, who was also hooked after 45 minutes of ineffective, barren scavenging.
After missing out on the England call-up he plainly deserved last season, he looks like a man who knows it will probably never come.
Answers? Right now, Bilic probably regrets selling James Tomkins without bringing in a replacement centre-back of similar quality, if not better, as an option when Winston Reid is unavailable. Arthur Masuaku will not have a worse nightmare on Elm Street than the one he endured at the Hawthorns, and since form is temporary but class is permanent, Adrian’s confidence will return in goal – preferably sooner than later.
And as a general observation, the gap between West Ham’s back four and front line looks too great at the moment. Bilic has nothing to lose by making the side more compact, and forming a more solid ‘block’ in front of the back four, because if Payet and Lanzini can’t find pockets of space to make their quality count, Michail Antonio’s pace will always be a threat.
Bilic out? Do me a favour – it’s only five minutes ago that he was the pearly king of East London for restoring the ‘West Ham way’ to claret and blue heartlands.
But it will be interesting to see if the Hammers defend from the front against Southampton on Sunday. We know there are goals in this team, but don’t yelp about keeping the back door locked when the front door is ajar and the side windows are wide open.