So, I won’t lie to you, that’s the most nervous I have been watching a game of football for a long while. It was a massive game, where a loss would have seen us slip into the relegation zone on goal difference.

We needed a huge performance from every player on the pitch today and in my opinion, we got it. It was an ugly game to watch and was distant from the football we have been getting used to under Zola, but then again, we won.

There are a couple of points that I really feel should be mentioned in light of this victory, starting with James Collins.

James Collins

The defensive side [of our game] was unbelievable. The four defenders, along with the midfield were fantastic – particularly Matthew Upson and James Collins, they were really outstanding – Zola

This guy today was absolutely immense at the back. The tactics from Sunderland were, correctly or not, clear from the start; to spread the ball wide quickly and early and to whip as many crosses into the box as possible. In all fairness to them for long spells of the game they deployed this tactic very well and on several occasions their deliveries met the wastfeul red striped Cisse. The rest of the time the crosses were met by our own thoroughbred redhead, Collins. Time after time he would meet their balls into the box, he was a force to strong for Cisse and Jones and a dominating presence that we have so lacked this year. (Not to take any of the plaudits away from Upson who was equally impressive).

I have mentioned it before that what we have needed at the back is a leader, a character and generally a presence. Neill, being both a right back and not very good, doesn’t offer this for us. Upson, clearly benefitting from his time with England, and Collins today for me showed where our backbone of leadership can and hopefully will, come from. It’s no suprise that with these two in this form we were able to keep a clean sheet, and long may it continue!

Jones and Cisse are both talented forwards, if a little ugly. They are a handful for many teams in this league and have been for us in the past. Sunderland set their stall out early on and Collins and Upson duly stepped up and responded, it was great to see. And about time too.

Formation & Style

Zola this evening switched his formation around to a more traditional 4-4-2. I personally think that had he not done this, it could have spelt big problems for us and a lot of credit needs to go to him and Clarke for being aware of Sunderland and their style of play.

Had he stuck with a 4-3-3 we would have easily been stretched as they continued to play their game down the flank. We would have had too few bodies in the middle of the park to break the game down and not had any width of our own when going forward. I don’t think that we should always play 4-4-2, but the time was right for it today.

The added width that we had in our setup meant Faubert and Behrami both playing, with the latter on the left side. I thought Faubert looked a lot more at home in midfield, and it would seem that wherever Behrami plays, he puts in 110% and is proving to be a very good signing.

I felt that when we was on the ball today often we found ourselves rushed by the eager Sunderland, but when we were able to obtain our compusure, we once again showed some slick passing moves. Crisp, pacy passing, but only at times; those times however we did carve out some opportunities for ourselves, it’s just a shame that once again our finishing went walkabouts.

For me though, today was an example of where game-plan and tactics were favoured over aesthetics. A real sign of a maturing Zola as a manager. Often since he took over we have heard comments like, “I want the players to enjoy their football”, or “the players played with a smile”. This is all well and good when we are winning comfortably. Which we haven’t been doing. Today however, I got a sense of Zola and his strategy waking up to smell the coffee and he sent a team went out there with a knowledge of our situation and that we had a job to do.

We did it.

It was by no means our greatest ever performance, but the balance seemed to be about right today. Something we have dearly missed.

End Product

There was once again one glaring problem with our game today (plus a few niggly ones), end product. I was going to name this section ‘finishing’ but unfortunately the problem spanned more than just finishing. Whether is was a cross or a shot, more often than not today it was wasted. Sometimes even the most simple of passes were wasted. It has to be sorted out because in the games that are coming up, a simple case of Behrami finishing the effort he put against the bar, could be the difference between winning and losing. With the league as tight as it is at the minute, that could also mean the difference between securing a UEFA cup spot or a relegation place.

In my opinion, this problem also stems from decision making. It would seem to me that if we were to sort out some of our decisions, it would help rectify the final ball or shot. There were plenty of occasions where I was screaming for the ball to just get layed off, or for someone to whip in a cross, and it never came. At times there was too much fannying about when a simple effort on goal would suffice. In my opinion, the man on the ball needs to make his decision quicker, if he is to do this, then when he attempts to execute whatever he has decided to do, it will be with purpose. No more half-hearted hospital balls, no more thinking about crossing but choosing to dribble into a crowd of players.

I personally see this as an issue that could easily undo all our hard work in games; take Everton and Arsenal as examples. It needs to be sorted.

In Conclusion…

I think that although a very scrappy affair today, it is these types of games we have to be winning. It was always going to be a hard place to go to and get any kind of result, so to come away with all three points, no matter how it was done, is a massive boost.

Liverpool won’t be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination, but it will be a different game played in a different manner. I would argue that if we can sort out our end product and decision making, that we could be in with a chance against the Scousers. I won’t go into what I think will happen if we don’t sort it out because it will just put a dampner on things!

Here’s to a hard fought victory, COYI

Sam

I hope you have enjoyed this post, if you would like to make it a little easier to read what this blog has got to say, then subscribe below to get the latest West Ham views in your inbox. Happy days, COYI!

5 recent posts you may have missed

Report This Post