A real high, followed by a new low

It was quite stirring to see the response of supporters in the 38th minute of Saturday’s game vs. Palace. The response of BOTH sets of supporters.

It’s not often I have anything positive to say about opposition support at Upton Park, but the acknowledgement of Tombides’ passing by Palace supporters was superb. The irony is that this joint show of support by home and away fans was the highlight of our season at Upton Park for me.

I've gotten not an ounce of joy at Upton Park this season apart from the 3-0 win vs Fulham. That is how dire this season has been, especially at Upton Park - an unmitigated disaster, even if we are likely to avoid relegation.

It is simply unacceptable to lose twice in a season to a newly-promoted side - especially one that looked dead and buried last autumn. It shows how far backwards we have moved this season.

This time, nobody can blame injuries. We have close to a fully-fit side. Something most teams don’t have at this stage of the season. What we DON’T have is any creativity at all. We have become not only the most boring side in the Premier League but the side with the most predictable “attack” and the side that is easiest to defend against.

What we DON’T have is determination. I see few players giving 100 per cent, such as Matt Jarvis, Mark Noble and Adrian. But I see too many loafing or sulking, like Andy Carroll and Mo Diame. It is appalling to watch.

People will point to Palace’s run of form and of them being hard to break down. That is no excuse. It was OUR home game. And we needed something from the game, even a point, to ensure our survival. Now, we are left dependent on other teams’ results , which is a horrible way to end a season. And no platform to build on.

We face the very real prospect of ending the season with six straight defeats, even if I’d like to think that we could scrape a point vs WBA and Spurs. In truth, we were very fortunate to come away with three points against Hull and Sunderland.

If you look at it player by player, it’s depressing. Ravel Morrison, a player of such promise languishing - though in truth Sam Allardyce probably can’t be blamed for that. Jack Collison is now a shadow of what he was whilst James Tomkins looks bereft of confidence.

Pablo Almero is making schoolboy errors. Adrian is playing well but is unwilling to come off his line for corners. Stewart Downing, having had a good season overall, is now struggling. Ricardo Vaz Te, having been due back months ago, is still seemingly not fit. Joe Cole looks utterly past it.

Diame looks as lazy as ever, whether he plays centrally or out wide. Kevin Nolan, after a brief revival has reverted back to anonymity and, diabolically, Carroll looks like he just couldn’t give a funk. Sulking, arguing with referees, moaning at a lack of service and playing the absolute worst football of his career. This, in a World Cup year.

You couldn’t make it up. We are being outfought week in and week out by teams with worse squads and poorer finances than ours. It is embarrassing. Some will say that it’s too easy and too convenient to point the finger at the manager; I disagree.

Some will say that Allardyce has performed a miracle in keeping us up, especially with our long injury list. Again, I disagree. We are extremely fortunate to be on 37 points. To me, the buck stops with the manager, and I do not see how this club can move forward under the stewardship of Allardyce.

Sam appears to have gotten away with it this season, just. But he has been found out. If he remains manager after this season, we are going to be continuously involved in a relegation scrap. For which there is no excuse, given the amount of money invested in this club by the current owners.

Let’s start with the issue of injuries. ALL clubs have them, no exceptions. Yes, our injury list was worse than most. But that it was what you assemble a SQUAD for. Allardyce did no such thing last summer. We were left absurdly short of striker cover as has been repeatedly documented. And also short of cover at centre back.

And, perhaps with the benefit of hindsight, short in central midfield as well. All of which was Allardyce’s choice. He chose how to spend our transfer money and who to spend it on. And he did so very irresponsibly. So I have limited sympathy regarding the injuries. You make your bed and lie in it, especially if you are someone as arrogant as Allardyce who antagonises his own fans.

Typically, critics of Allardyce will focus on his tactics and the boring nature of our football. That actually doesn’t tell the full story. I have no issue with tactics that WORK. If the tactics WORK, and win us matches, or at least avoid us LOSING matches , I will accept and even support such tactics,no matter how dreary they are.

We are in a weak financial position and hence must focus on what gets us points , not what looks pretty. But the problem is that Sam’s tactics AREN’T working. Which makes watching such dross intolerable. We have lost six of the last eight matches ,including matches where we were in a position to get something from the game at half time.

If you strip out the excellent February that we had, which included some good fortune, the tactics clearly aren’t working. Yet, in the wake of such poor results, Allardyce has shown limited or no appetite to change either personnel or tactics.

If Carroll is an isolated figure at the moment then Allardyce should be willing to bench Nolan or to play two up front with Carlton Cole, or both. Instead, Allardyce changes nothing and we remain incredibly easy to defend against. Compounded by the fact that we do not have a single reliable midfield goal scorer. Clearly something that the manager failed to consider in the close season.

Which leads to the next issue - that being the inability of Allardyce to attract good players. Why would any quality forward want to come here when all you get is scraps unless Carroll is injured? Why would any small, quick forward want to join us when Nolan, despite having no pace, occupies that spot?

West Ham under Allardyce is a team that is perpetually papering over the cracks, to basically just “survive” from one season to the next. Yes, that is partly due to our finances. But it is also due to a manager with a very limited, narrow, inflexible approach to the game.

Being hard to beat is important. And yes, we have kept 13 clean sheets,though none recently. But to be hard to beat, you must offer SOMETHING in attack. And we simply don’t. Which again makes it hard to attract players who can turn games or win matches. Allardyce’s ethos simply doesn’t attract players with that sort of match-winning quality or mentality.

How many of our players ever look like they really WANT the ball, apart from Noble? The best players don’t want to be perpetually having to win or draw ugly. If you listen to his media chats, they’re always about exposing the opposition’s weaknesses, rarely about maximising our strengths.

In other words, it’s an approach based on capitalising on others’ mistakes. Not on creating our own opportunities through quality. The truth is that you cannot survive too long with only the former.

In the end, West Ham fans deserve more than just Premier League football. We deserve being able to attend matches without the constant fear of relegation year in and year out. It’s not too much to ask for, really, for a club of this size and history.

No West Ham supporter expects European football or to win cups. But we do, rightfully at this stage, expect to be well clear of relegation scraps. Do we even realistically expect to ever finish above tenth in our current financial state? No. But we do have a right to not be put through this relegation scrap year in and year out . We do have a right to expect lessons to be learned from mistakes.

Inevitably, the next question is who I would propose to replace Allardyce at the end of the season? My answer is that there has got to be SOMEONE more capable of moving this club forward than him. Is it McKay, Laudrup or someone else? Who knows? But our owners need to give it a long, hard think at the end of this season, assuming we stay up.

Limping our way to the Olympic Stadium is not a business plan. The owners are doing all they can, in my view. But they need a manager who is up to the task.

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