Former Hammer Scott Parker has been speaking about Slaven Bilic on Sky Sports Super Sunday, he said: “He’s come in and done a fantastic job, got some early results, which were probably a little bit false in where they were sitting in the scale of things in the league.”
“They are a mid-table team and they have some very, very good players.”
Parker, now at Championship side Fulham, played for West Ham after joining in 2007 for £7m. He played 129 appearances scoring 12 goals in all competitions.
On 31st August 2011 Spurs and West Ham both announced the transfer of Parker to Spurs, with the fee believed to be £5.5 million. Parker claims he was a boyhood Spurs fan.
I also agree with Bubs & Pens, Mosses is awful, Jenkinson is very average, dreadful defending by him and then Carroll for the first two goals, (Yes Reid got blocked off, but Carroll should have attacked the ball coming in from the corner not stood still and jumped). Song came on looking very down beat, and gave the ball away three times out of four passes. I don’t think Nobs was that bad, Reid & Kouyate played well and I felt sorry for Adrian. But without Dimi we do look a very average mid table side. Time to blood Antonio, drop Carroll and play Saks up front against Albion.
Good comments from Bubs & Pennsylvania respectively.
Just a few additional & complimentary comments to re-ignite the passion at West Ham!
Perhaps Slav has sown that he is ‘human’, after all. Our starting line-up against Spurs, was clearly not right (no further arguments needed)
Carroll should not have started!
Our best CF is Diafra Sakho, and in the absence of Valencia, Zarate is my second choice CF.
I believe, that in order to maximize our scoring potential (present squad, in mind), and assuming the employment of the 4-2-3-1 formation, then Sakho; Moses, Lanzini,and Zarate, should start the game. Note how much Lanzini’s game improved, when he was linked up with Zarate. All of a sudden, Lanzini, started to ‘sparkle’, albeit all too late!
Our central midfielders should be the pairing of Kouyate and Alex Song; Noble is simply not playing well enough to warrant him starting!. With Song and Lanzini starting, we have essentially 2 ‘play-makers’!
I have seen Jenks play too many good games,, so let’s stick with him; we need his pace and over-lapping capacity. I also believe (sorry, Bubs), that Moses played a fairly decent game against Spurs, and again, has the outright pace, that works in our favor.
Antonio, Obiang, and Jelavic , represent the ‘best’ impact players in the squad.
I honestly believe, if we had started the Spurs game with Sakho at CF;Moses/ with Zarate next to Lanzini; and if fit enough, Alex Song with Kouyate in front of the back 4, and then, had we scored first and early, then the result, against a very good Spurs side, may have been different.
No matter who we play, it is imperative that we ‘start fast and score early’. This serves to ignite further enthusiasm and motivation, needed in order to score again, before the opposition has time to re-organize.
Taking into account the quality & depth of the present squad (minus Payet & Valencia), and my and shared imperative to score ‘the all-important first goal’, then the question arises, ?; is the present 4-2-3-1 the best formation to enhance our scoring/striking prowess? Should we give some thought to a 4-4-2 (standard or in ‘diamond’ mode)?!
A ‘midfield 4’, consisting of Moses-Kouyate-Lanzini-Song, with Sakho and Zarate as our 2 strikers; this may be a very promising set-up, which is capable of generating fast-attacking soccer (consistent with the West Ham Way), with more than reasonable goal-scoring potential. Should Slaven choose to use such a formation, I’d moot the use of the same ‘impact’ players as suggested above (Antonio, Obiang, & Jelavic).
Final thoughts on a rather sad day for West Ham supporters;
I still remain optimistic; despite the 4-1 outcome against a very good Spurs team, this should not be the cause for making premature remarks relating to the suggested to our mid-table EPL finishing spot.
Assuming that Slaven, continues to ‘listen, look, learn, and apply’, we may still be able to stay near or around the top 8, until the awaited return of Payet and Valencia. Should my optimistic prediction reflect a reasonable scenario, then during the period encompassing our last 10-11 games, we could push on further towards a 5-7th position, allowing a Europa place just that faintly possible. Ambitious, you may well say? Maybe, but we must continue to hang on to our dreams!
COYI,
Maxie
Well put Bubs. I’ve been a bigger fan of Jenks then most but today he was plain terrible. I’d like to see Tonks back there again; we got some results then.
Some bad personal selections made it a bad day,
Carroll and Noble are no longer starting players,
Sakho is a centre forward not a right winger false stop,
We can not panic at the back and play ourselves into trouble all the time and have to make room with movement,
The other clubs have worked out our way of playing and need to mix it up more,
We made mistakes on everyone of there goals and our defence is not good enough to sit back waiting for the break,
Let’s pick teams to our strengths no Carroll up top then we will not just hit it big,
No Noble he is turning into our next Nolan,Song,Obiang and Poyet are better,
Antonio deserves his chance Slav,
Zarate and Lanzini still look good with Kouyate on the ball and don’t Panic
But what do I know
Jenkinson was diabolical Moses was Lazy great waste of money,
Poor performance against an in form spuds, hurts a bit but not the end of the world or our great start to the season. Keep the faith boys COYI!
Scotty is right, West Ham are in a false position – mid-table would be about right!