For the second home league game, the fans have left Upton Park wondering, why didn’t we win this one?
The obvious reason was because we lost but it is how we lost that is the main cause for concern. Against Spurs on the opening day, we didn’t take advantage when they went down to 10 men. The team just kept their shape and carried on playing as if Spurs were still at full force. With the substitutions Sam made during the game, it looked like he had settled for a 0-0 draw from early on.
Maybe in Sam’s world, 38 nil-nil draws would be the perfect season. He could boast forever that his team kept a 100% clean sheet for the entire season and the best defense in the entire history of football. Never mind that they also never scored a goal, that small fact could always be sugar coated by the man himself with other stunning statistics.
So after our fruitfull trip to South London and a victory over Crystal Palace, every fan was expecting a good result against a Southampton team that had sold all their best players during the summer, purchased a bunch of players most people had never heard of and were there for the taking. When the team was announced before the game, it was a surprise to see that Carlton Cole was playing in the main striker role again.
I like Carlton as a person; I even follow him on Twitter. He tries every game, how I long for a shot to hit him somewhere on his body and end up in the net but at the end of the day, would he get into any other Premier League team’s starting eleven?
Why Sam does not start Mauro Zarate AND Enner Valencia is a mystery? Maybe Sam believes Valencia is not match fit. Valencia should have been substituted at half time and given a full forty five minutes to see the speed and intensity of what he will experience this season (we have harder games than Southampton at home coming up). By the time he was on, with a little over ten minutes to play, the game was lost and it was only a token gesture.
Allardyce has a way and style for his teams to be set up and play, He has done it at all the teams he has managed, from Preston to us. He will put a spin on all the good that he has done at every club and, in his mind, his next job should be manager at Barcelona. But Sam is a modern dinosaur; he cannot change with the modern game. His mind is still locked to when he was playing as a defender at Bolton, Sunderland and Millwall. Like they say “A leopard won’t change its spots.” What we have seen for the last few seasons, we will continue to see with Sam in charge.
I went to our local pub to watch the Southampton game with a few West Ham mates. I could not believe how slow the entire team was. There was no-one showing any effort. It looked like the entire team had given up. I have seen some bad displays over the years but that game was something I could not believe I was watching.
Maybe there is major problems in the dressing room and they have decided as a group that they want Sam out. Makes you wonder what goes on behind closed doors! But there’s games against Hull, Arsenal and Liverpool coming up and I dont expect too many points from those three game. All for now. Mick
