That's more like it!

Great point, and a very decent game!

This was far from the panic stricken display at Liverpool. Even though we cannot claim that we controlled the game, we controlled the ball once in a while and the passing was so much better. One shouldn't be that surprised maybe, since Zola gave Parker some creative help by fielding Collison and Noble instead of Mullins and Faubert.
Prince H has given you a nice match report so I'll confine myself to comment on the "newcomers".

Hats off to Zola for having the guts to play Collison, and Collison repaid the faith by having a great game. His ability with the ball and total lack of respect for these high profile players is admirable.

Davenport also put on a great show! Even though I still want Collins in the team it's really impressive that Davenport can do his part in the defence. The "chemistry" between him and Upson may not quite have been there but that is not to be expected. They were playing Anelka, JC and Drogba!

Noble seem to have benefited from the times on the sidelines. This was one of his better performances this season. When he is at his best he is quite a nice combination of hard work and flare. Build on this son!

With the exception of Collins instead of Davenport, this will be the starting XI we'll see for quite a few games. But we should really try Sears in stead of Cole.

I am in denial!

After a first half where we for once had some possession and used the entire pitch, we decided to go back to our hailed "team effort" football as was seen at Anfield last week.
Basically the theory behind that seems to be to give the initiative to the other team and show off our present trade mark lack of a passing game and returning the ball as soon as we recover it.

After 30 minutes of not having the ball in the second half Zola decides on Di Michele!
We're not lacking a striker (oh well actually we are, but that's not relevant tonight) we are lacking people that are able to build an attack and feed the strikers (and then we probably need a striker).

If Di Michele had scored instead of hitting the only thing between him and the goal line, Zola would have looked like a genius but to me it was a lousy call. Get Collison in and Mullins out when there were still some time on the clock.

A pitch is about 70–80 yds wide!

I have to say it again, why don’t we use the entire width of the pitch?

Last night we saw three types of passes from West Ham players. One was the futile long ball towards Cole with little precision, and when it actually found its target (12 times) he immediately lost it (10 times). The second kind of pass is the one I talked about after the Sunderland game – a short pass to an already marked player, resulting in the immediate loss of possession. The third was the backward pass, sometimes combined with the features of pass number two…
In sharp contrast was the ability of the Liverpool team to deliver long passes with precision, but more importantly they knew how to find an unmarked player with a simple pass, constantly changing sides to pull apart the West Ham defense.

To find an unmarked player with a pass unfortunately demands an unmarked player, not easy to find last night, and that takes at least some (albeit not much) of the blame off Parker.
Both Faubert and Behrami were found in central positions for much of the game, not offering the possibility of the cross or the changing of side during the buildup (although one can argue that a long pass to Faubert would be a waste of effort).
Behrami works his socks off but I find his work paying off mainly when he chases the ball. Mullins will not be discussed in this context.

When an attack was launched on one side the ball was always going to be lost on that side.
We look like a team that practices on a 5-a- side pitch to improve the first touch but then fails to adapt to the bigger field during the game.

Granted, the Liverpool midfield were also working hard to cut off our passing opportunities, but we didn’t make it very difficult for them to do so.

Prince H’s post was spot on in my opinion, maybe Bellamy, in my humble view, showed what he can do even if the game was not in his favor. I don’t primarily mean his dead ball abilities, rather his work rate and his ability to find a way to charge at the goal over and over and over again – tirelessly.

Tip for next weeks training: Crosses!

Saved by incompetence

93 minutes of frustration yesterday!

First I must join the chorus of appraisals for Collins and Upson (and Neill!) but apart from that, what sticks in my mind is that there are at least 2 fundamental problems with the game we played yesterday.

First : The midfield lacks a passer that possess the ability to play the ball to someone that is not already covered.
Parker receives the ball and mostly dwells on it until the enemy midfielder is all over him and he needs to just “get rid of it”, resulting in a 5 yard pass. The poor fellow on the other end of that pass is then, for obvious reasons, not more than a couple of yards away from quite a few enemies, in addition to the one marking him, giving him no time.
For a couple of games I was blaming our 3 man midfield for not being able to get some width in the play. I still think that was one reason, but the lack of ability to open the game is apparent also in a 442 setting.
It was even more obvious yesterday since as soon as Sunderland gained possession they immediately played it away from that central congested area which allowed them to get possession of the ball in our half of the pitch. Thankfully they failed to convert it into anything useful…
This problem is of course intertwined with lack of passing opportunities presented by his team mates, but still.

Second: I wrote in a recent post that most defenders and midfielders know how to strip the ball from Cole. Apart from the fact that they really didn’t have to do that yesterday, since he lost it more or less on his own most of the time, it turned out to be true again.
Cole is over-used in these games. It seems like that the first thought of many players is “feed the Cole” but unfortunately he will not score, or deliver the ball to someone in motion, or keep it up long enough to let the team advance.
Bellamy was more or less invisible yesterday, and even though all players have to answer for their own shortcomings, he was not given much to work with. How many balls delivered behind the back 4 for him to chase did you see? I cannot remember more than one!

No, the presence of a below par target player ruins our and Bellamy’s game. If Sunderland had been any better in front of goal or if Collins/Upson had not been brilliant, this would have been called the catastrophe it was. We were saved by their incompetence.

We've seen the future - and it's bright!

We lost to an inferior team - again. Nothing good in that.
But there are several ways to lose and the way we lost yesterday may be one of the most painful but I rather have that compared to any other.

We outplayed yet another team and I think that it should be obvious to anybody that this is the way forward! There are things that must be changed, no getting around that, but to get on Zola's back would be a vote for a mediocrity!

I'm sure that there are managers out there, Curbs for instance, that would have made us gather more point from the last 6 games, but I want none of them!

Zola asks our players to play a very demanding game and as Zola pointed out already after the first few training sessions, the physical fitness is not the best.

Reverting to 442 helps, but we can all see that the steam runs out of most players come the hour mark.
I'm a little confused that Zola has not prepared the team for a slower type of holding game. We need it to gather strength in between periods of full-throttle football.

Following our first goal, Everton should be the team chasing and we can and should slow the game down a bit and take advantage of our ability to play passing football, leaving them to run their socks off to get the ball!
One episode that springs to mind is that after about 70 minutes, when it's obvious that quite a few players are tired, Green catches the ball, I think "hold on to the ball, let the boys get their breath back, but Green immediately starts an all out brake attack with 5 or 6 players running 60 yards like madmen to try to get that second goal.
That were the 5 or 6 men that "died" in the last 20 minutes.

The other reason for our breakdown is the mental game.
Several of our players have said that "Zola makes us not fear to fail" but that is exactly what most of the players do - they desperately fear they will once again fail - so they will. That's sports-psychology for you.

What is to be done about that then?
I'm not sure, we need someone to get the team to believe they can do it, and that should be the captain, but unfortunately he seems unable to do that.
The dominant midfielder is the second one to spring to mind, but Parker is one of the first to desert the midfield and fall into the lap of the back 4 when the tide starts to turn. Bellamy is the one showing most promise in this sense I think, Bu his position should be on the verge of offside and not running around in the midfield urging people to get back in the game.
Still, this is mental and should be able to change, maybe all we need is a win so we start to believe we can actually do it.

After 60 minutes I wrote: The kids are ready!
The way Collison comes in and shows everybody that he is the one for the central midfield in every starting lineup from now on, no matter who is fit, is just fantastic!
Sears shows that he is so much better than Di MIchele and should be picked every game if he doesn't need the rest. He and Bellamy enjoys playing together and this is just the beginning of that partnership!

With Collison, Sears and Zola showing what the future looks like we shouldn't be too depressed today. It certainly looks bright!

One hour of tremendously GOOD football.... (is not good enough)

24 games without a cleen sheet. 1 point in 6 games. Not happy days at Upton Park. Still I can't remember a better West ham since... ??? But now I'm talking about what we did outside the box. We dominated totally in the first 45. Totally. But we couldn't break the deadlock.
Sears had fun, and a shot that deflected on Howard into the woodwork. But not so much more.
In the second half Collison made his first goal! After a wonderful backheel by Parker he did not hesitate for one second. But at the same time that changed the game totally.
Everton woke up from their slumber and West Ham started to think how and if they could defend themselves, instead of continuing with their wonderful passing on the right side of the pitch. So I was not surprised when the cruel 1-1 came.
Lescott was totally on his own in our area! Can't say who to blame (Neill I guess, but...) but after that we conceded more after totally have lost control of the game, It took Everton four minutes to make two more. Both from Saha. Beautiful goals, but it should not happen. We left him totally on his own at both occasions. His second after a stupid misscross from Faubert. The midfield has a responsibility to to mark players. They did not. We seem to need more physio training. That is for sure. We lose games late on. This was a bitter loss. But still I see a future here. Parker guided Collison to a good game, and Bellamy Sears. Youngsters side by side with the more experienced ones.

Green 6 - Want him to dictate more in his box. Did not have anything more to do than to pick out the ball from the net. And you can't fault him for any of their goals.

Faubert 3 - Disaster! I usually see - or want to see - the potential in the Frenchman. But today he made one (!) of maybe ten crosses right, his defense was remarkable wrong. Seems to lack confidence, it's possibly the reason.

Neill 4 - Our captain is not our captain sufficent enough. Not on the field at least. And he is not good to mark his player in the box.

Upson - Had to leave the field early injured (not seriously though). Bad for us.

Collins 7 - Good game. Important for us. Strong and our only threat in the air. Likes his play.

Illunga 7 - Energy and good ideas. Plays safe, and still creates a lot. One of our better players today.

Bowyer 5,5 - The flank is not his best position and did not offer a lot forward. But I liked his raw style in the midfield which won a lot of balls.

Collison 7 - Wonderful goal taken. Looked mature on the field and dictated when we pushed forward.

Parker 7,5 - Strong! Geniously backheel. Worked hard. This is the way I want to see him. Strangly subbed late on.

LBM 6 - When Zola subbed him we lost a lot of energy where Arteta who had been quiet all day all of a sudden found space. He do a lot of mistakes, but still works and makes it hard for the opposition. Not a bad game at all.

Sears 6,5 - Wonderful first 45. Do really like to play with Bellamy. Could have scored at two occasions. Faded.

Bellamy 7 - So important for our offence. Still without a goal!

Subs:

Etherington 5 - offered very little.

Di Michele - Had no time to make any impact at all.

Football is a very cruel art! Still we can't blame any other but ourselves. We could not close the game in any way! Two more goals from us, or less cracks in our defense in the end of the match(es) and it had been three points!

So what is the conclusion: We need a win! That is for sure.
Now we really struggle in the wrong end of the table. We need to have a clean sheet, 'cause the team starts to shiver in every game after about 70 minutes... They know that we usually let loads of goals in at the end of the games.
But I want to see Zolas work continue, and I want to see young players like Collison and Sears - both of whom were two of our better players tonight - continue to play.

We shall not forget that for 60 minutes today we played very, very GOOD!

Surprising moments - but only one point

It's not always the players.... We get frustrated when we see some player on the field we dislike. We really try to see how bad the player is, watch every move with every doubt we can procure. Before the game today I had raised some doubt over some of the players - but for the first 45 minutes noone of these let me down. Instead they showed what faith can do to a player. Zola seems to give the players faith.

In the end we lost two crucial points (and although my article below speaks something else, I'm not happy with just one point - I think we deserved more) and some of the players looked in the end very, very tired. Still all of our "benchwarmers" showed glimpses today what faith can do. And not least; what a well-laid plan can do for them. If players know what to do in every single moment, they can rely on that and become better players for a better team.

Green 8. Some crucial saves in the end, but not so much to do.

Neill 7.5. Played very well today. He is not fast, he is not running up and down the line. Still very positive influence today. Played well against people like Downing which suprised me.

Collins 6. I'm very happy he is back and today he fought like a superhero. Had a lot of influence on the game. But it's early days for him and he looked very tired in the end (maybe that's the smoking?), he causes the freekick, and then makes the common mistake to jump in the wall when the opponent shoots. Mido scored under his feet.

Upson 6.5. For the second game in a row, he lets Collins shine in the box which worries me a bit. He should have the influence of a man who is in the national team. But otherwise. Very solid.

Illunga 7. No wrongs, fights hard. Good, but not spectacular today. Good teamwork and some good runs.

Faubert 6.5. Much more calm at RM. Made a good impression on me in the first half with much commitment and some decent runs. Was not as fast as Downing, but a close call. Seemed very, very tired in the end and even uninterested.

Mullins 6.5. Great - if unconvenional - goal! The involvment in the first half was astonishing. We are talking about Mullins for G**ds sake. But when Boro put on some more pressure in the second half (mainly with Arca) Mullins was not the man to keep the ball up and change the game. When we lost our central midfield, we lost our lead.

Collison 6.5 Happy for him. He had a good game, and did not look unsecure a single minute. His inexperience never shown and he made some decent runs, could even had scored twice (I like when the central midfield tries to reach for the ball in the box - we have not had that in any games this season... until now!). Like to search for Sears. Good spirit! He will play more for us from now on.

LBM 6. Had a decent game, and I really like when he fights so hard, wins the ball back and plays tough. Was involved in our goal. Well, he made mistakes too... but absolutly OK today.

Sears 6. Loved to see his good - eh, decent - collaboration with Bellamy. Sometimes their runs made Boro's defence dizzy. Not enough efficiency though, which cost us in the end.

Bellamy 7.5. We put a lot of pressure on Bellamy's shoulders. But he had a good game today, even if I think he needs another 4-5 games to reach 100 per cent. Sometimes he makes the completely wrong decisions. But he runs like hell.

Neither Etherington or Bowyer (both late subs) had any affects on the game at all.

23 games without clean sheet and counting.
Good to see Tristan on the bench. And good to see Zola affect the game and introducing new talent. Can't blame him for his choice of LBM either. In the end we had a good game, but were unable to keep up the advantage. The midfield stopped to play with the same intensity and aggressiveness. And we only managed to score once. Still... more happy today than in the whole of October.
Soon we will have Cole, Ashton, Dyer, Parker, Noble and Behrami. Not everyone could say they should start immediately! Everton - who were very lucky today - next!

Arsenal - Game Impressions

Disgust is a companion of every football fan.
Tonight I feel total disgust, maybe not for the fact that we lost to a better team, but the way we did it and that we lost our target player for maybe the next three games.

Arsenal was the better team, just like we were against Hull. But when Arsenal were unable to score they had something up their sleeve – Adebayor.

If Bellamy could convert and Phil Dowd had seen at least one of the three handballs in the area, things could have been different.

In the 70:th minute my note was “we look totally exhausted, no possession, just chasing the ball. Why does not Zola field some fresh legs?”
Yes why indeed. The whole West Ham team had been fighting hard for all of those 70 minutes and these 11 players couldn’t do it anymore. If this is a fitness thing or just what happens when you play a passing team with a lot of individual skill I don’t know, probably a combination.

An immaculate Green and the woodwork had saved us several times so far but in the 75:th minute Faubert tried to stop the ball from reaching the storming Bendtner but ended up placing it in his own net.
These things happen but we fought for so long and so hard and our hopes of getting away with it were rising which adds to the pain.

The second goal is also just one of those things that happen. We had to push.

Why did we lose?

Lack of technique!
Cole is a very good target player, and he has learned to receive, turn and advance. Now he also needs to get his technique up to par and maybe Zola can teach him how to receive, turn and not stumble on the ball… I stopped counting the times he lost possession. He is no great passer either. A couple of times he had the chance to play the ball to someone running into the box, but he hesitaded every time. To me it's better to try and fail in those situations. There aren't that many!

Anyway he will be greatly missed the next 3 games since he is the best target player we have.

Lack of fight for the midfield

The midfield fell back into the lap of the back 4. This was most evident in the last 30' of the game but was noticable throughout. Parker sometimes actually merged with the central defence. This let the Arsenal playmakers to do their job without any pressure.

Parker does a tremendous job and you just know that the yellow will finally come. He does however take too much time to deliver his passes and he needs to mix the 10 yard passes with some longer ones or a one touch pass at times. Having said that, the one touch deep pass that put Bellamy almost free in the 29' is a beauty and shows us that he has it in him, just need to get it out more often. There is much more one can do from his position.

The midfield ended up in the lap of the defence quite early in the game, still hesitating to attack the one on the ball. Maybe they were afraid to concede free kicks, but this allowed Fabregas and especially Walcott, while still on, to get way to close without being under any real pressure.

Mullins, he surprised me with some good intentions in an unfamiliar position and tried some offensive play I didn’t know he had in him. But was inconsistent and frankly this position need a better player. Behrami was sidelined as a precaution and greatly missed!
When the wind had been knocked out of most of our players Behrami would have kept on running. It’s vital to have such a player against a team that makes you chase the ball a lot.

Bowyer tried and while the game was still close he did some decent runs into the box. Also were OK in the defence, and didn’t plunge in and get fooled as I was afraid. Noble can learn a thing or two from Bowyer about movement.

Bellamy and Di Michele tried and showed some really good intentions, however neither of them have the ability to beat defenders one on one. There need to be at least one striker (or at the very least one offensive midfielder) that has this ability. In this team, the only one that can do that is Ilunga!
Bellamy worked really hard in the defence as did Di Michele. But that also and inevitably used up their strength and in the last 1/3 of the game they were too tired to do anything creative.
I thought this would be the perfect game for Bellamy, finally having some room for his pace. But why didn't Di Michele come of much earlier?

Why were we close?
The attitude was great! Everybody was doing whatever they could, and still some, to get something out of this, Hats off to the whole team for the determination.

Green showed us how good he can be. I feel sorry for him. He deserved to be the hero today!

Collins! I couldn’t in my wildest dreams believe that he would be this good in his first team comeback. I’m deeply impressed.
Upson was less dominant in the center, but maybe because he now had someone to share the responsibility with. Very good performance of both of them against a very difficult opponent.

Neill had a virus and I can’t see him get back into the centre of defence unless the injury list grows.

However there is no room for Neill on the wings either.
Ilunga did well against a lively Walcott and with one or two exceptions were in the right place at the right time. He was not as offensively inclined today but that just tells us that he knows when to do what. Still he delivered some nice passes and is good on the ball. As I already said, sadly he may possess the best technique in our side.

Faubert also had a decent game and didn’t loose the ball as much as he sometimes does. Neither did he go on mindless attacking runs abandoning his right back spot too much. He can't be blamed for the goal.

The 4-3-2-1 system used today almost worked, and if we had been able to get some possession so we hadn't been forced to run our asses off for most of the second half maybe we would have gotten away with a point.

In a way we deserved better!

We were great - where it doesn't count! Hull game impressions

This was a bad version of the Bolton and Fulham games.

We play way to slow to create movement in the defence and do not have the players with good enough “one on one” qualities to unlock a team playing “defend and break”.
We also don’t have a midfield that can provide strikers with anything creative to work with in this kind of game.
But then, the strikers do not move enough to create options either, permitting the enemy defenders to be in the right position at all times. That Hull defence were rarely troubled.

While Bellamy could still run he did offer a moving alternative for the ones trying to build the attack, otherwise it was pretty much like having 3 target players.

Etherington is completely lost in that center/right-side position. The time it takes for him to get the ball to his only useful delivery-foot permits the defender to either take the ball away or to get into a good position. Don’t get me wrong, I like Etherington but he needs to be on the left hand side.

Noble, what is his role? For this game it may be a rhetoric question since I can’t think of one that he tried to fill. Maybe his job-description is too unclear, we all know his potential!
He looks lost trying to cover defensive areas while not doing anything when he finds them but watching the ball (a bit like Lampard used to, on his off days). He has played some stunning passes in the last games, but in this his passes weren’t even decently creative and the attack lost pace when he was in possession.

Parker had an OK first half and then disappeared. That’s all I can think of to say about him.

Then there is the problem with Faubert trying to move forward into the vacant outside midfield position, only creating a huge hole behind him were Hull could drop the ball, forcing Neill to cover and stretching the defence to create other holes in front of goal when the ball was delivered into the box on the break.

For long periods of time, in the second half, we had 3 (when Sears came in 4) players waiting for passes that never were. If the problem is a midfield that does not create anything useful, is the answer another striker?

What are the positives then?
Well, Behrami has an impressive workrate and his delivery to Coles beautiful cross bar effort is splendid. According to Setana stats we tackled 14 times, it must have been all Behrami.

Cole has a new side to his game - receive, turn and move towards the goal. That is some addition! and obviously something encouraged by Zola. His first touch and effort in that cross bar situation is superb! I usually complain about his poor first touch, but it has improved immensely!
Ilunga, tried to do what the midfield didn’t - impressive! Some say that his defence is too weak as a consequence but I don’t see this. And if so, let’s again compare with Faubert who is out of position and still does not create much.

To sum it up, I don’t think I like the 4,3,3 system (please prove me wrong) not against this kind of a team and not with too many players asked to do a job that is not what he is best at (Etherington, Noble, Parker, Faubert).
We will now face teams that will NOT play on the break. That’s the final (?) test of this system.


I used the Sentana stats to compare notes with Zola:

Zola thinks we played well and I agree, we passed the ball nicely (Passing Success: Hull-78% / WH-85%) and kept the ball within the team, especially in the first half (Possession: 40/60). But we weren't dangerous (Shots on Target 1/1!, Shots off Target 8/8), and we had the same problem as in the game against Bolton, we had the ball were we couldn't hurt them (Territorial Advantage 52/48!).

Bolton match impressions - I told you so!

OK, I didn't tell you so, but some of my fears came true anyway.

You just know these things will happen don't you? People were talking "top of the table" not understanding that this is a century long jinx for West Ham united.

But West Ham almost had me fooled there for half an hour, dominating the game, making me think that we had Bolton by the bolts. But then there was Greens howler - enough said about that. 0-1

Up to that terrible minute there were so many positives, Nobles razor sharp deep passes, Parkers passing and Behramis work rate, Ilungas impressive over all performance.

But how on earth can we concede so many fouls in our own half of the pitch? We all know that set pieces are the number one Bolton threat!

How on earth can we lose the ball in the build up phase so many times in one game? I counted 8 times and I was pretty forgiving when counting.

What are the main differences compared to the Fulham game then?

Well, Etherington didn't really come into play as much but on the other hand Di Michele was better now. Cole had the same sloppy first touch as a week ago, Parker was dominating the center mid field again and Behrami worked his socks off today too.

The main difference was that Bolton punished us when Fulham failed to.

I dont think that this game was any worse, we just weren't as lucky this time.

With just a tiny bit of luck it could have been a different outcome.

If the soap in Greens hands had worn off before the 30' and Jääskeläinen had been just an inch misplaced for Coles beautiful attempt from just outside the box in the 50' we could have come away with something. But in a way that's beside the point.

The main point is that there are some fundamental shortcomings in West Ham United.

One is the lack of an alternative to Cole, another is the sloppiness in the buildup phase when we lose too much possession (Noble is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to me) and a third is that we lack ability to transform possession into finishes. We weren't sharp enough in the last 1/3 of the field, don't know why yet.

Apart from these, in my view fixable problems, our players showed an impressive attitude with everybody working hard for each other and and that can take us pretty far.

.