Okay, so I've had a few days to think about the dissapointing result, yet kind of pleasing performance against Reading. Against Peterborough fans were singing "West Ham United, We Play On The Floor!". This chant was heard clearly by Big Sam and he gave the fans what they wanted, football on the floor and we won 2-0. This was carried through against Reading and for the first 45 minutes West Ham produced their finest home performance of the season but West Ham being West Ham, we gave away two sloppy goals and went in at Half Time 2-1 down. The second half was not as good but we were still the stronger side and penalty and offside goal cost us dearly.
Anyway looking ahead to the Barnsley game there are plenty of positives to take out of the Reading game as well as many factors to learn from. Firstly and most importantly in my opinion was the performance of Gary O'Neil. He was very very impressive and looks to be back at his best after a tough start to his time at West Ham due to injuries. His vision and work rate was excelent but best of all was his set pieces. For me, Matt Taylor has been poor recently and his corners have not been as good as they could be. When Taylor went off Saturday, O'Neil stepped in and put in some very good corners, one of which we scored from. He should now be out first choice corner taker.
Another positive was Carlton Cole. He ended his goal drought and looked very good and up for it on Saturday. His footwork was first class and he seemed to be oozing in confidence. He took his goal well and played of Vaz Te well. I'll admit I have been critical of him this season but when hes up for it then I will say he can be better than Lambert. The problem is that he does not do it enough. Just look at the Millwall game at home, the Pompey game at home, Birmingham Away as well as Fulham Away and Man Utd in the Carling Cup last year. Carlton turned up buzzing and the whole team played well. He has the ability to shape whether we play well or not and it was the same on Saturday, he turned up, we played well but unfortuanely the result went against us. If Carlton turns up in our last 6 games, we will win them all and we will go up automatically.
There were some moments though that perhaps Big Sam got wrong, but hes only human and its no reason for him to get sacked. Firstly, Faye was injured against Posh and thrown staight back in against Reading. The first half he was solid but in the second half he was off the pace and gave away an uncharacteristc penalty. Maybe he wasnt ready to go back into the starting eleven and I would have started with Collins. Secondly, the midfeild lost concentration when Noble went off and Tomkins was moved into midfeild with Lansbury on the bench, surely a like for like subsitituion would have made more sense because Tomks is not a midfeilder and I do not like seeing him in there. We have to learn from this and against Barnsley, we will iron out the mistakes and move forward. 3 points is important and for the first time this season, we have a must win game if we want to go up automatically. Now the problem Big Sam has is his team selection. Do not forget we play Birmingham on Monday as well in a game where the likes of Faye and Vaz Te will be vital but they are not the fittest players. Does Sam risk playing our big players against the Tykes and risk losing them against Birmingham?
M Starting XI v Barnsely Would be (With the Brum game in mind)
GK: Green, D: Faubert, Collins, Tomkins, Potts M: Nolan, Lansbury, Taylor F: Baldock, Maynard, Carew SUBS: GK: Henderson D: Faye M: Noble, Vaz Te F: Cole
The team above is a risk but I dont think Vaz Te, Faye or Cole are fit enough to play 2 games in 3 days. Also Im not sure on the condition of Mark Noble so I would play it safe and bench him so he is 100% against Birmingham.
No comments:
Post a Comment