This season at West Ham can be aptly described as a case of Jekyll and Hyde. The free-flowing, exquisite football that saw us in the top 4 on Christmas day has drastically deteriorated and we have subsequently crumbled into disarray. We are sat 9th in the table, and although relegation is thankfully out of the question, the teams below us are gathering pace and we could be set for a disappointing finish in the lower half of the table. In this article, I will illustrate the demise of our schizophrenic year.
Firstly, let me give you some stats since Christmas; fifteen games have produced just two wins, with six draws and seven losses. That equates to an embarrassing total of twelve points from the last available forty-five. And our misery has not been limited to the league as we were on the receiving end of a 4-0 thrashing from Premier League strugglers West Brom in the FA Cup.
And our last ten games particularly highlight our capitulation in the latter part of the season. We have dropped a staggering seven points from winning positions in our last ten games and the manner in which they are slipping away is ringing alarm bells throughout the club. In stark contrast to our pathetic tally of seven goals in these last ten games, we have conceded eight after the 80th minute! This may show that we have lost of our doggedness and fighting spirit, that we are culpable of a lack of concentration late on or that we are not resilient enough. Whatever the reason, consistently conceding late goals is frankly unacceptable at any level and we have been punished repeatedly for our failure to close out games or hang on to the lead.
Inevitably, and probably deservedly, the finger will be pointed at the manager under these circumstances. However, we cannot render the players blameless for our plummeting downfall. The early season passion and desire to play shook up the whole league with other teams treating West Ham as a very dangerous opposition. But this has subsided and, with the exception of a select few hard-workers, the recent performances have been missing any sentiment. It seems as if we are going through the motions, now Premier League safety has been secured and that might or might not be the fault of Sam Allardyce.
When Allardyce first joined West Ham, he was quoted as saying that one of his teams would never throw away a two-goal lead. I remember thinking at the time that it was a foolish claim to make – after all, Mourinho’s Chelsea threw away a two goal lead at home to League One Bradford this season. However, that quote is an archetypal example of Allardyce’s arrogance and those words came back to haunt him recently. And there is no worse place for it to have happened than Tottenham away; cruising 2-0 up with ten minutes to go, Danny Rose and Harry Kane ensured that the spoils were shared. Perhaps the emblematic defensive solidarity that Allardyce prides himself on is eluding him; the aforementioned recent late lapses unquestionably back up this notion. This may be evidence enough to suggest that a change in manager is needed at the moment.
MORE: Who should West Ham replace Sam Allardyce with in the summer? Here’s our take on the top names linked with the job.
