I’m finding it hard writing about Zola at the minute. Not because I’m frustrated with our football or his methods, but actually because I have been very impressed with what he has bought to the club.
Missing, quite clearly, from our game is our lack of ability to actually get the ball in the back of the net. One goal scored in our last 3 games and 6 conceded. However I don’t feel that our style of football in any one of those games warranted those kinds of statistics. Our passing has been on the floor and our movement quick. Personally I thought that tonight, we took the game to Arsenal and when we attacked, we did so with pace and intention.
I am encouraged to see the ideas that Zola is trying to implement and I am fully behind the changes he wants to make. I can’t help but think however that sometimes he needs to see beyond his own team sheet. By that I mean that I would like to see a consideration of the team we are playing make and effect on our tactics, although not necessarily our strategy. We can change from a 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 and still have the same strategy, its just that the tactics have changed. So maybe against Arsenal tonight we should have played 4 across the middle in an attempt to subdue a very strong Arsenal midfield. The extra man may have helped to break down their play and maybe also release an extra man when we are going forward. It just seemed that a 3 man midfield was having to work their socks off to contain Arsenal. For most of the game they did it very well, but the fatigue really showed in the last 15mins, incidently when Arsenal scored both of their goals.
Faubert’s Own Goal
I am a big fan of Faubert. I know, it doesn’t seem to be the thing to say these days. But I really cannot help but think his own goal tonight proved to us that playing him out of position like this is not paying off. It was a mistake like that really could happen to anybody but you can go a long way to avoiding it by not playing a midfielder as a full back.
Zola’s intentions by playing Faubert there are clear; we attack quickly from the back and use the wings. The downside as we learnt tonight is that when called into a very simple defensive duty, we are always going to fall short. To avoid the own goal, he very simply had to have an awareness of the Arsenal players around him. As much as I don’t really want to say it, but had Lucas Neill been there, I don’t think the ball would have ended up in the back of our net.
On the topic of Neill, it was good too see a manager in the West Ham dugout not play a player based simply on the fact that he is a ‘name’ or is paid more than the others. It was right to drop Neill as a centre half and bring in Collins. Who alongside Upson had a very solid majority of the game.
Carlton Cole’s Sending Off
Not really much to comment on here apart from the fact that the referee got it (along with other decisions tonight) horrendously wrong. It does however mean that our next game will be without Cole and I personally am excited to see the change of dynamic within the team because of that. We will see…it could be a revelation!
A Footballing Team
What Zola is seemingly trying to mold is a footballing team. A team who play together and who work for each other. It is so evident in the way we are playing that his footballing ethic is having an effect on the team. Parker in central midfield today was exceptional. One of his best games in Claret and Blue in my opinion, my man-of-the-match.
We have the ball on the floor and we are working together as an XI-man unit. It is so refreshing to see a West Ham team play this way after a year and a bit of Curbishley. Sorry Alan, but it’s true.
If only we had a player like Dean Ashton to put our chances in the back of the net.
Yes, we have just lost 3 games and yes, we are probably going to struggle with a result against Manchester United. I think however that as soon as we find our scoring boots we could be onto a winner with this system.
I just hope it is sooner rather than later…maybe Tristan will be the man to do it?!
COYI
Sam
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Wore these to every game this year. They may not be lucky, but they're comfy:
Agree with all your comments. I know we lost but it wasnt a thrashing and I think the team are playing more as a unit. Parker was on top form his pass to release Bellamy was pure class.I also think Zola got the squad and tacticts pretty spot on.I do agree that Faubert is not a good enough defender to play right back and that we are missing Ashton but I reckon if Tristan finds some form him and Bellamy will work well together.I think we should all keep our faith in Zola and things will come right!!COYI!!
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There were some positives to take out of the game against Arsenal and it was good to see us keeping the ball on the ground and starting to play some good attacking football.We definitely need a strong attacking midfielder to play alongside Parker and need another option than Cole who in my opinion cannot control a ball and cannot score enough goals to make him the striker we need.On a different note I thought the officials for the game were sub-standard especially Phil Dowd who again demonstrated his incompetence once more – It’s about time the Premiership put a stop to amateurs officiating in a professional sport and made them accountable for their actions or lack of.
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I thought you guys played great. Some very Arsenal like passing and ball control. Zola has you on the right track, just believe, all will be well
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why do you lot keep going on about phil dowd?
do you feel the result would have been diffrent with another ref?
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also every ball that went in the box,you lot screaming for handball?,what was all that about?
if that was handball i’ll chew my feet off.
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You certainly played well, but enough about the three man midfield. It was a 4-5-1 and Cole was mostly isolated – when he did win headers they fell neatly to the Arsenal defence.
West Ham looked like the away team for most of the game, not usual against Arsenal’s movement, but they really didn’t create very much at all.
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goon187 wrote:
The shouting handball everytime the ball goes in the box is just a joke…we tend to do it if the away fans shout handball a lot, purely out of sarcasm.
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[...] I was very disappointed with a recent article and a few forum posts suggesting that Zola deserves the sack and that maybe Steve Clark should take over. I am not going to go on about my reasons why as for the minute I think I have sufficiently covered them in a couple of my recent posts (The Sack For Zola? and Arsenal Match Report ). [...]
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[...] loss to Arsenal, I commented that there was one thing missing from our game. You can see the post here, but in a very brief summary, I basically mentioned that the football we were playing was exciting [...]
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[...] loss to Arsenal, I commented that there was one thing missing from our game. You can see the post here, but in a very brief summary, I basically mentioned that the football we were playing was exciting [...]
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