Once again Geoff hit the nail on the head with his article published on Thursday. Week after week we seem to be writing the same thing about the current state of the team, and the ongoing debate concerning the manager. The longer the winless run continues the further the pendulum will swing towards Moyes Out, especially with catastrophic performances like the one we witnessed last Sunday. There are still a number of fans, although the number must surely be dwindling, who are convinced that he should be offered a new contract, but it is hard to believe that they like what they see from week to week.
It is mainly pundits, comprising the same ex-players that dominate our screens and airwaves, and journalists who continue to support Moyes and suggest that West Ham fans are giving him an undeserved hard time. One of the latest to join in is Ian Herbert who took a whole page of Wednesday’s Daily Mail to tell us that ‘Moyes deserves a better exit.’ At least he seems to agree that the end is approaching, but suggests that we, as fans, are not giving him a ‘longer credit line and greater appreciation’.
He suggests that the calls for a manager like De Zerbi, who many feel would provide greater imagination and flair, provides a curious logic, given that ‘the supposed model manager’ has taken Brighton to ninth position in this season’s Premier League while West Ham are …. eighth. As far as the demands for Potter goes amongst the fans, he writes that he is out of work and very much available. But he adds the well-worn line that we, as West Ham fans, get thrown at us every week, should be careful what we wish for in Potter. In his view he is a coach lacking personal charisma who is no more a fit for the club than Moyes.
His defence of Moyes extends to trying to deconstruct the notion that with him in charge it has all been grey, solid, dull football. He makes the point that in Moyes second spell in charge the club have scored more goals per game than under any manager in the Premier League era, and only Bilic managed more goals per game than Moyes in his first spell in charge.
And then the heights to which Moyes has taken us are set out, as all his ‘defenders’ do. You know the ones – the club have managed five top seven finishes in the Premier League era and Moyes has been in charge for two of them. And of course the first trophy for 43 years.
We all know this so why is there a ‘perception’ among the fans that the football is dull? We want to see a team that provides more entertainment. We want to see a squad that can move the club forward, greater depth in all positions, so that when key players are missing, others can come in to do a job. For how long have we been crying out for additions in certain positions where the squad has been depleted?
We want to see better team selection, not full backs deployed on the left wing. We want to see greater ambition; we don’t want the team to try to hang on the slender leads when we have them, we want to see our team go for the jugular. We want a manager who can make adjustments during the game when it is necessary to do so not just continue to rely on Plan A.
We want a manager who will play the players in their best positions to get the best out of them. We don’t want four central midfielders lining up at the start of a game. We want a manager who will make less predictable substitutions. Why do we always have to wait until it is seemingly too late to make changes during a game that might affect the outcome? When we are behind we don’t want to see like for like defensive substitutions, we want to have a go.
We want to see better use of successful Academy players. Don’t throw them all in at once of course, but at least give them a taste when appropriate to do so. We don’t want players picked because they seem to be favourites who, on the odd occasion, because of their height will win the ball in the air, whilst at the same time lacking an inability to control the ball or pass successfully to a team mate.
We want to be entertained with flair and style. Perhaps we want too much. Be thankful for what we have they say. Be careful what you wish for. The grass isn’t always greener etc. etc. I’ll thank David Moyes for his time at the club, and for his achievements. His record is decent, but as I have written before, I believe that most football managers (with very few exceptions) have a shelf-life that expires. Has the ‘best before’ date already been reached or gone past?
When was the last time a West Ham team began a calendar year without a win in seven games (all competitions)? I’ve been trawling through the records to try to find out. In 1998/99, a season with Harry Redknapp in charge where we eventually finished fifth, we began the 1999 calendar year poorly, failing to win until the seventh game, ironically against Nottingham Forest on 13th February.
I’ve now found it. In 1996/97, again in Redknapp’s time, we went winless in the first eight games of 1997 before defeating Tottenham 4-3 at Upton Park. Failure to win at Nottingham Forest this weekend will see us equal that (unwanted) record.
Out of interest I went all the way back to the 1958/59 season to see if I could find any other winless periods of more than seven games at the start of a calendar year. I couldn’t find any so I went back to when we joined the Football League in 1919. The calendar year 1922 started poorly with a run of eight winless games, but despite that we still finished fourth in Football League Division Two in 1921/22. I did find examples of longer consecutive winless games at other stages of seasons. There are a few odd examples of 8, 9, 10 or 11 games in a row without a win, which not surprisingly included some relegation campaigns.
The longest consecutive winless runs I found were 12 in the 2002/03 relegation season (Glenn Roeder) – ironically the final 12 games in the calendar year (2002), and the biggest of all was the 13 winless games at the very beginning of the 1973/74 season. In fact that season we only won one of the first 21 games between August 8th and early December. But incredibly we rallied in the second half and lost only 3 league games from the beginning of 1974 to the end of the season and avoided relegation by one point.
1968/69 was an interesting season during which we had a consecutive run of 9 winless games twice. In the first half of the season the winless run came to an end when we beat Sunderland 8-0 (the Geoff Hurst 6 game), and then we also didn’t win any of the final 9 games but still ended up a creditable eighth.
With the run of games coming up surely the winless run won’t extend much further to match any of those I’ve referred to above? If it does then perhaps a new manager will be appointed sooner rather than later.
Under The Hammers 