With the final game of the Premier League season upon us, West Ham United and Sam Allardyce have had a fairly ‘disaster’ free season for once!
Sitting in tenth is a position I didn’t think we’d find ourselves in. Sitting above the likes of established Premier League teams like Sunderland, Stoke, Fulham and Newcastle is a testament to the job Allardyce has done in his two years as manager. Allardyce of course has recently signed a new two year contract, and I think two years is a good amount of time for Allardyce to now show what he can do.
But where do we need to improve? Well, playing staff will need to be moved around. The likes of Maiga and Diarra look to have already made their minds up and I don’t blame them. Allardyce signed these two and I thought they would be key members of the squad, but something just didn’t work out.
Big Sam needs to sort out our poor away form too. 3 wins and the lowest amount of goals is a poor record, and we should be looking to improve on this. Allardyce needs to be a bit more adventurous, but on the flip side, he can only play players at his disposal. But this means summer recruitment is important.
We need more pace in the side. More pace makes a counter attack easier when playing away from home. So for me, an attacking midfielder and a winger is needed. We also need to strikers who can score, so if one is not doing the business, then the other gets a chance.
Finally, I would like to see Allardyce blood more of the youngsters in the first team. That was one of the best things about when we had Harry Redknapp – towards end of the season and when we were safe, youngsters got a chance to impress. This means less sluggish performances because they want to impress!
So I hope Allardyce uses the next two years to show us a glimpse of what sort of football our team will be playing when moving into the Olympic Stadium!