Given the signing of Carew, one of Piquionne or Cole is surely on his way out and, for me, there is no contest on who it should be. The big complaint about Cole is that he does not score enough goals - but he scores more than Piquionne who netted 9 from 31 starts last season compared to Cole's 11 from 27. Cole is also younger and is much more intimidating physically. I bet the Cardiff centre backs smiled when they saw our starting 11!
Carew is unlikely to be ready for a couple of weeks given he has missed pre season and I hope Allardyce now opts for Cole paired with Sears up front in a 4-4-2. Freddie is not a winger and was woeful on Sunday. It is now time to back him as a striker or to ship him out. If Sears isn't the answer, then Hall should be given his chance.
30 comments:
Totally agree. Cole could have walked off into the sunset, but he stayed for whatever reason, so if nothing else, you have to applauded his attitude.
Oh come on HF you can not honestly be suggesting that Sears or Hall are the answer to our 20 goal a season striker problem? Sears has proven himself to be a talentless dud over a full season in the championship already with palace and Hall is just a kid, a talented kid yes, but a kid all the same.
I think we have three problems:
1. we need a fast 20 goal a season striker. The need for this has been plain and clear to any hammer with half a brain since we sold Bellamy and the board have never stumped up the money it would take to get one in. Now I know Bellamy wasnt a 20 goal a season striker (before you point that out HF) but we need someone in that mould. My suggestion would be Gary Hooper from Celtic. He's fast, he knows how to score goals and he would work perfectly with Cole. I think we could get him for about 5 million given Celtic's money troubles so if Gold and Sullivan just sell super Scott or actually put their hands in their pockets for once we could get him.
2.We need a defender. I do not trust Reid or Tomkins at the heart of our defence over the course of a season. I know everyone likes to go on about how promising Tomkins is but I'm not convinced. Every time I see him he makes at least one mistake per game. Ive read that we are after McCartney who can play centre half so that might just cover it but I would still like us to go and get another commanding centre back to play with Faye. I would suggest another Celtic player for this slot by the name of Majstorovic. He is a big man who dont take any sh!t. I think he would be perfect.
3. We need to adress the Parker and Noble problem in midfield. I posted in a previous thread how important I see this problem to be as they just dont press the ball high enough up the pitch. I would sell Parker as he just doesn't know what to do with a ball at his feat. I would like to see Barton brought in to replace him but that might be a little unrealistic.
I think if we can deal with these three problems then we'll get automatic promotion because contrary to what everyone is saying there isn't a lot of quality in this league. Teams just work very hard so we will have to match their effort but if we can do that we should have too much quality for them. I just pray that Sam and sugo can see these problems.
Johntan, I was talking about the next couple of games. I don't see Sears or Hall as the answer for this season sadly.
Completely agree HF, and it's sad to see. I wold love for these critics to show up when Carlton gets a run of games as I hope Allardyce will afford him.
Saw this joke the other day: Allardyce say's to Wally, "What's french for lazy cnut?", to which wally replies..."Piquionne!"
To be honest, if I was Piquionne on sunday I would have got bored of all these long balls that were being played to me against taller defenders, and even if I win it, i'm heading it on to no one as i'm a lone striker. Look what happened when Piquionne got service hit the bar and set up Nolan who should have headed in.
I think Carew and Cole with Barrera and Taylor on the wings would be 10 times more threatening than cole and Sears/Hall or Carew and Sears/Hall. Imagine being the opposition centre halfs and seeing that your gonna have to defend against decent crosses coming into those two. It would be terifying.
Totally agree HF and Stani. Strange it is possibly the first time I agree with both of you at the same time!
The question is whether Sam learns from his mistakes or whether he is another Avram Grant (albeit less pathetic).
Totally right about Sears not being a winger. Either use him as a goal scorer (which he can be) or, as you say, ship him out.
I don't think Carew is the answer to our attacking problems. Shane Long may have been. But it is no use crying over spilt milk. It is just that, once again, the milk was intentionally spilt by messers Gold and Sullivan!
I think Frank Nouble is better than either of Sears or Hall but Sam already said it is unlikely he will see a ton of action. Reports today we are going for Lafferty from Celtic. Good goalscorer and young, hopefully can help us out. However the main problem is we need a left back and we need it NOW! Still can't believe we loaned out Spence, thought he coulda done the job better than Illunga.
John Carew's record (in the Premiership) is one goal in three.
So if we assume that it will be better in the Championship over 46 games we ain't far off our 20 goal a season man.
Good signing.
John V P
Upson to stoke!
I guess you missed the bit where he trod on the ball and fell flat on his enormous posterior.
Stani, I totally agree with you. I actually saw zero reason to spend so much money on Shane Long as he is a similar player in style to Cole. And if Cole is given a run of games I believe he will do the job. I still dont know why Cole didnt start, but we were not at training. Same with Barrera.
Sav, NOBODY in sport...ANYWHERE..will ever be more pathetic than Moron Grant. Not possible.
If we struggle to score why do we constantly start one striker? Sorry but Parker could sit and I'll be fine, his little circles he does on the pitch don't really get me going. But who knows maybe the game plan for this month is to play players we'd like to sell (PARKER! GREEN). Both are over priced garbage.
"you don't pay the hooker to screw you... You pay her to leave!!!"
Allardyce has been in this business long enough to separate wheat from chaff and he will get the balance of the side right. However I don't believe that it is going to happen overnight.
Relegated clubs often find it difficult to hit the ground running. Despite the undoubted quality in the club's playing ranks, there is still the issue of confidence from the abysmal past two seasons which will have to be worked through. There is a hangover from our relegation which is going to affect the way this team prepares and approaches each game. The burden of expectation on the players cannot be doubted - and yes, they will have to front up with the goods, and Allardyce will be impressing upon them the importance of putting last season behind them. However, with a new gaffer and some new signings, we are going to have to be a wee bit patient for it all to gel together.
I for one have every confidence that Allardyce, with all his experience and man-management skills, will get the best out of this team. I never once had that faith in Grant.
Be patient. It's a long season not to be judged by one game. Let's give them time to adjust to life in the Championship, build up their confidence and get into that winning habit.
Only then will we begin to see the kind of West Ham that is worth paying to watch.
12:30 you are so gracious... Johntan types 457 words - your reply? a couple of sentences - you really know how to inspire people don't you?
USA Dave, I have to agree totally with the comment you made about Avram Grant. If you think how hard it must have been for G&S to find probably the worst coach in England ever to replace Zola ...
Still this is all history now (or a very bad dream). I do expect Sam to be much better and as I have stated many times before, if G&S were to have Sam replace AG a few games before the end of last season I have no doubt whatsoever that he would have kept us up. But the top priority for them was to avoid the contractual obligation to pay AG compensation if they were to fire him before the end of season than saving West Ham. Not that they wanted us to get relegated, but thinking that if we do, it may be a blessing in disguise as they would be able to do a Birmingham on us (getting rid of the high salaried players and cashing in on assets). For this to work however you need to be able to come back immediately otherwise you may go the Leeds way. It is all about priorities really and I am not at all convinced that the main priority for the 2 Davids is West Ham. It may be secondary. The main one is making money!
what's the point of having a blog if you can't be arsed to monitor it - totally the wrong attitude - if it's all too much for you, get someone to give you a hand.
Wow, you must be addicted! How did you get through the 48 hours I was away following the funeral of my father in law?
My commiserations to you and your wife HF! No problem taking 48 hours off from the blogg. Come to think of it, quite I often I feel that 48 hours are just not enough! Just kidding!
We don't want to hear about your father in law - wtf has he got to do with this blog and west ham? muppet.
I didn't think you thought this blog was worth reading anyway. See you are back again! Trapped by the game and being driven crazy by the day! Seek help mate, you need it!
23:30 - show some fcking respect will you either that or just fcuk of this blog
LOL Fred, ignore him or treat him with the contempt he deserves.
Oh I see so it's ok for you to rubbish Scott Parker when his father dies but you don't like it when it's a member of your family?
What how is it rubbishin scott parker all he did was Parker wasnt a saint like you were making him out to be cuz he played they day after his dad died. im pretty sure jack collison did what parker did aswell
Yes Fred but you can't even string a sentence together at the best of times - god knows what you'd be like if your father died, and to be honest that's the point. SP player well the day after his dad popped his clogs, whereas HF losses his father-in-law and can't manager to even run a blog for Christ sakes.
LOL How can I run a blog when I don't have access to the internet? Parker couldn't have played well if there wasn't a game could he? I wasn't upset in the slightest but my wife needed comforting. Women! No fibre!
mate its called rush typing. I got a gcse b grade in english so im pretty sure if i took my time i would be able to put a proper sentence together easily. by the way you might want to change that to played average instead of player well after his dad died. you sir are a cnut and when it comes to funerals i would rather attempt a nice sappy speech and make a fool of myself then not to say anything at all so your point is disproven :)
B grade - well I never! Perhaps if you received an A grade you might have learnt to use capital letters at the beginning of your sentences.
mate do I care if I use caps or not on an online blog where slang dominates the internet
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