Where should the finger of blame be pointing at West Ham?
This season has been a disappointing one for West Ham. Sitting three points above the relegation zone, they are trapped in an intense battle for survival with the likes of Hull, Burnley, Wigan and Wolves for the last remaining tickets to the Championship. Last season West Ham finished ninth, so they have definitely regressed this season. But what are the reasons for their current demise?
West Ham basically have the same squad as they did last season, with James Collins the only notable departure from Upton Park last summer. The likes of Guillermo Franco, Mido and Benni McCarthy have arrived at the club to bolster the strikeforce, and Alessandro Diamanti has impressed in midfield. It’s not injuries to key players either, as West Ham’s spine of Carlton Cole (21 games), Matthew Upson (24 games), Scott Parker (25 games) and Robert Green (29 games), have all stayed healthy for the majority of the season. Are the players not motivated enough to repeat last season’s form, because you don’t suddenly slip from a top-half side to relegation candidates overnight.
Maybe the management of the club is to blame. Gianfranco Zola is a nice guy and is well liked, but lacks the necessary experience at this level. If we look at Zola’s stats in charge of West Ham, he has won 3 out of the last 14 league games and has a 28.6% win ratio overall, the lowest of any boss at Upton Park in the Premier League. Zola’s tactics have also been questionable at best. In the 4-1 defeat at Chelsea last week, the Hammers boss dropped top scorer Carlton Cole for the game, preferring Mido and Ilan up front. I know Stamford Bridge isn’t the easiest place to get three points, but surely a manager should be starting his best player for the game?
There are also the debts of approximately £105 million hanging over West Ham. I know off the field issues like the clubs debts don’t directly affect the team’s performances on the pitch, but there has to be that lingering doubt that every player may be up for sale in the summer to ease the debts, as well as the rumoured pay cuts that every player will have to take in the summer. However, this debt hasn’t had a direct effect on the team, as no players have been sold purely for financial purposes. There was also talk in January of a £100k a week player signing for West Ham, so their debts cannot be that serious yet.
Are the new owners to blame? David Sullivan and David Gold only bought the club in January, rescuing the club from financial oblivion. Sullivan and Gold know how to run a football club from their time at Birmingham, where they left the club with virtually no debt. But Sullivan in particular has brought some negative attention to the club recently, publicly saying that staff will have to take a pay cut without informing them and threatening to sell the likes of Valon Behrami and Alessandro Diamanti, against Zola’s wishes.
I have outlined the issues for West Ham’s poor form this season. Why do you think West Ham are struggling this season and have regressed from the previous campaign?
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The reason, as always, is really a lack of investment. Over the past eighteen months or so the club has lost half of its first choice defence – Lucas Neil and James Collins – and its best striker – Craig Bellamy – and didn’t replace any of them. As a result we have been painfully exposed.
Our first choice team is pretty good when everyone is fit and in form, but there are few options for the manager. Upson has been poor this year, and James Tomkins has had an up and down year (as you might expect from such a young player). Ilunga has been in and out of the team. That’s the whole of the defence (given that we don’t have a proper right back) and there are no experienced alternatives available. It’s not surprising we’ve conceded a lot of goals. It was crazy to start the season with only one Premiership quality striker, and although Carlton Cole has had a decent year, the burden has been too much for him, especially given the number of goals we concede.
Zola’s decision making is strange at times. He persists with the hard working but limited Kovac, who is ok when we need to keep games tight but who holds the team back when we should be looking to pressurise weaker teams. Diamanti is in and out of the team and rarely plays in his best position on the left. When he does he is our best player. He puts too much faith in Jonathan Spector to fill in at the back, when he would be best using one of the younger players.
I sometimes think our players feel they are not good enough to beat good teams and not bad enough to lose to bad ones. not a recipe for a good mental attitude.
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