Busy Saying Nothing
I wouldn’t normally watch a pre-match press conference except that the international break wilderness left me desperately needing a fix of West Ham related content. No surprise though that it was again a waste of everyone’s time. The whole process is a charade. If a manger has something smart or insightful to say about an upcoming game, he’s not going to tell the whole world about it in advance. And it must be the shortest of short straws for a reporter having to travel across London knowing that any probing question will be stonewalled by a low block of pointless platitudes: “working hard”, “trained well this week”, “no easy games in this league”, “we’re not where we need to be yet”.
A handout of current injury and fitness updates would quite easily do the job.
Nuno’s major revelation was that the players had been exhausted from playing 11 games in the opening 42 days of the season. A cynic might question whether that should be 11 halves of games as his team are rarely competitive over a full 90 minutes. But nobody asked that question. Still, he assured us ‘the group’ had made good use of the time and had been focusing on all the things that hadn’t been working well – but not slow starts apparently.
The Academy of Slow Starts
I’ve never been a fan of Friday night games. The build-up, anticipation and then following West Ham games has forever been the weekend anchor that the rest of life revolves around. Playing your game before it has really started renders everything else lopsided. Like having dessert before your starter or opening your presents on Christmas Eve.
On the other hand, evening games under the lights will often generate the kind of magic that even had Nuno’s eyes light up in the presser. Obvious then that returning from a three-week break, faced with a London derby, in a packed floodlit stadium, the Hammers would start the game with all guns blazing. How wrong could we be?
The mother of all shameful statistics from Friday was that West Ham managed a meagre two shots in the opening 70 minutes – both well off target. And not a single shot between the 28th and 70th minutes. How can that be in a passage of play when you are already a goal down – no matter how terrible that penalty decision was?
Weirdly, this is not a new phenomenon. Its roots can be traced back through all the ages of the dinosaurs. From the late Moyesozoic era, through the lesser Lopeteguian and Potterian epochs and into the current Nunolithic age. Periods of great upheaval, tectonic friction, shifting tactical plates and complex mutations. But precious little progress in terms of forward movement or attacking lifeforms. A succession of cautious coaches inhibited by an evolutionary refusal to take risks.
The result is a team which is rarely on the front foot. Wracked with caution. Waiting to react to the mistakes of others rather than making their own things happen. Fearing mistakes and wanting to gauge opponents before daring to act. To the outsider or newcomers, this is the game we now play. It has been baked into the clubs DNA like a hereditary disease – the new West Ham way. And just as it was impossible to draw our way to survival last season, it will be a lost cause this time around for automatic promotion. How Nuno managed it at Wolves is increasingly puzzling.
Split Personality
Three weeks of planning and preparation and the best the manager could come up with was the return of Tomas Soucek. No-one can dislike big Tom. His commitment and effort are second to none. But he cannot be part of any midfield hoping to dominate games. The Championship may lack the technical execution of the Premier League and the first touches maybe far heavier. But teams are packed with athletic, fast and strong players. Soucek is too one paced to prosper in that environment. Without doubt he can be useful in both boxes but is unfortunately a passenger in between. Very useful to have on the bench, not as a starter.
By no means was Friday’s poor showing all down to Tom. Or any other individual player come to that. When a team only performs in one half of a game and where you ae regularly forced into making half-time substitutions it has to be down to preparation.
Nuno has one of the best – if not the best – squad in the league yet he seems not to know how to use it or what the team’s identity is meant to be. The playing style lacks consistency or cohesion, communication and leadership are in short supply and mental resilience is flimsy.
Whether these repeated failings are primarily down to the manager or to the players is a reasonable debate to have. After all, we only get to see the results played out on the pitch. For me, in the micro-managed world of modern football, it’s the gaffer who must carry the can. We’ve already seen this season how less talented opponents have used motivation and energy to outplay our more illustrious stars. This forms part of a team’s culture and always starts from the top. Successful teams have players who buy into the manager’s plan and understand their individual parts in executing it. It’s not currently happening under Nuno’s watch.
The Season Pointathon Update
A second successive draw made it a total of 11 points dropped in the league so far. The haul of 16 points from nine matches averages out at 1.78 points per game (ppg). Assuming the end of season automatic promotion target is 92 points (or 2 points per game) this leaves West Ham off the pace requiring a revised ppg until season end of is 2.05. Eminently achievable in theory but not with Nuno’s current game plan.
From what we have seen, the challenge of the Championship is intensity, not quality. This is where we are lacking and what needs to address urgently.
Ironically, if the players had been practising their last-minute penalties properly, we might still be unbeaten and three points better off by now. Not really deserved but fine margins, I suppose.
Outlook Changeable
Well done to Nuno for winning the September Manager of the Month award. As long as he understands it was for results rather than the nature of the performances that sat behind them. Success in football invariably drowns out all other noises but only the rosiest of claret and blue filters could disguise the reality of how much room for improvement exists.
Apart from the questionable tactics, Nuno’s management style – which feels churlish to me but is usually perceived as uncommunicative – is a huge worry.
His job is to do the best for West Ham using all the resources available to him. If there is conflict or he has difficult players to deal with, then it is his responsibility to resolve matters and extract the required levels of performances, even if he doesn’t get along with certain individuals. Ignoring players or freezing them out for the sake of his personal comfort or hurt feelings is not acceptable.
This behaviour is not unique to his time at West Ham and has followed him from club to club. His current refusal to use Alvarez or Magassa when the team is crying out for a specialist defensive midfield player should by itself be a sackable offence. Let’s see what happens on Wednesday as the circus moves on to Sincil Bank – or the ProAmpac Stadium to give it its full title – Google Rating 4.4ì “Beer prices are fair, with some quality ones”.
The last time West Ham played Lincoln City in the league was during the Hammers 1957/58 Division Two promotion season. The game in December 1957 ending: Lincoln 1 West Ham 6. A repeat would be most welcome.
The Imps have yet to win a home game this season (drawn two, lost two) but have won three times on their travels to sit mid-table with 11 points from nine games.
COYI!
