West Ham United have always been the team that can surprise you in different ways. Wins against Liverpool and Manchester City at home during the first half of the season saw the hammers best run since the Premier League started. But with just three wins in the premier league’s second half to the season, just shows how a team can really go from surprisingly great, to surprisingly bad, recording just 3 wins since Boxing Day 2014.
The West Ham faithful can’t really make up their minds on Sam Allardyce. Big Sam’s words at the start of the season promised attacking football with plenty of shots on goal and a real flair to the style of play. Bold signings including a £12 million spree on Ecuadorian forward Enner Valencia, really showed the fans Allardyce meant business in the forthcoming season; and it showed. West Ham were giving the fans exactly what they had been waiting for, with 31 points from a possible 54, you would often hear the word ‘Europe’ being thrown around from pundits and supporters alike. But it wasn’t just the results that were getting bums in seats at Upton Park, it was the performances. Often the claret and blue army were sometimes disappointed with the players attitude and commitment when it came to match days.
The first half of the season seemed to make you believe it had all past with pace, goals and solid defending from the new summer signings. Maybe it was the old faces fearing their place in the first team, maybe it was fresh faces trying to make their mark on the Premier League, or could it of been the manager proving he had more in his locker than just ‘the direct approach’, however, one things for sure, West Ham United were quietly creeping up the league sitting comfortably in 3rd after a 2-0 win over Leicester City at home in December 2014.
But with the East London clubs recent run of form, the manager has been under some very heavy criticism from the terraces. Allardyce’s change of formation from an exciting 4-4-2 diamond midfield, with England international Stuart Downing playing with freedom through the middle, to a 4-3-3, which was favourably used the previous season, where the hammers finished 13th, has been the forefront of the debate around the Boleyn this season. The players themselves seem to doubt the system set up by the manager. Their body language and self-belief when faced with seeing out a result has been questioned due to dropping points to late goals this season;
‘It’s happened again,’ Sam admitted to West Ham TV after the 2-1 home defeat to Everton. ‘We’ve come crashing down and realised the level we are playing at and the mistakes you can’t make because they will be punished. There have been some hard lessons learned by the players – especially the younger players and the players who have joined us from abroad.
“They might have thought around Christmas that the Premier League was not as hard as they thought, but now they realise the tough end of the Premier League by how many times they have been punished for losing their shape and losing their concentration, not protecting what they have got. “That’s far too many leads that we’ve relinquished, most of the time due to our own deficiencies in terms of defending as a team. We were winning 1-0 and that should have been enough. It was about protecting that lead.’
Can Sam be blamed for having key players injured this season? Has he been forced into reverting back to the same style of football that people associate his sides with because of this? I would have to say no. Sam Allardyce is a manager who can keep a team in the premier league and leave them in a comfortable league position season after season but its not enough anymore.
West Ham United is a club that’s moving in the right direction. With the announcement of the Olympic Stadium being the new home of the future and owners who are fans themselves that only want what is best for the club, Sam is the man who will hold you back when a club with these prospects is destined to move forward. I have the upmost respect for Big Sam and i’m grateful for all his efforts at the club, but it’s now time West Ham United made their stamp on the league and give the fans a new era of football to look forward to.
