MJTAC is delighted to have had the opportunity to catch up with the West Ham manager Chris Darwen following the Hammers most recent victory, the thrilling 3-2 win over Watford at Vicarage Road.
MJTAC: So Chris, firstly congratulations on your start as manager. You must be thrilled with how it is going so far?
CD: Thank you, and yes. It is good to see that the players are taking on board our ideas and we are seeing some good results, initially.
MJTAC: Your team is already becoming known for it’s attacking style. You’ve talked before in the media about wanting to play what you believe to be “The West Ham Way”. How close to the finished article are you?
CD: Oh, we are a long way away. I mean, we’ve only been here a matter of weeks. Sure, the boys are playing some entertaining stuff, sometimes too entertaining. There is no way the game with Watford should have finished 3-2, noway at all.
Darwen’s assistant, Alan Curbishley is also in the training ground office, and chimes up from his desk.
AC: Terrible defending. It’s all very well wanting to play good attacking football, but if we defend like that too often we will get found out by better teams than Watford.
MJTAC: Well you say that, but already this season you’ve seen off Liverpool and Athletic Club Bilbao in the Europa League?
CD: Well, firstly I think emotion got us through the Liverpool game. We didn’t actually play that well. It was the first league game at the London Stadium, it was our first game, many of the players debuts so everyone was really emotionally charged. Plus Liverpool play a frantic attacking game and we were able to take the chances they didn’t. I didn’t feel at the time that beating Liverpool suddenly meant we were going to be a top side, far from it.
MJTAC: But Bilbao, they are a strong side aren’t they?
AC: No disrespect to them at all, but I don’t think they’d finish top half in the Premier League. And we hardly battered them. We started very well, but by the end we were clinging on to that 2-1 like anything.
CD: I completely agree, the result was what we wanted but we only played for the first 20 minutes. And if you look at who else we have played in the Premier League so far – [Burnley, Middlesbrough, Hull City, Sunderland and Palace] – well, we’d be expecting to beat those guys really. So, we are definitely not getting too carried away. Christ, it’s the 16th of October for crying out loud. I’m sure Arsene would tell you it doesn’t matter how well you do in September and October, it’s where you are at after November that gives you a much better idea. Mind you, Arsenal are probably a bad November example…
MJTAC: OK, so looking at the games coming up, you finish October with Manchester City and Southampton in the league. The City game comes after you welcome CMS Poli Iasi to the London Stadium in the Europa League, and you also have Charlton Athletic in the EFL Cup. That’s a busy finish, no?
CD: It seems to be the way our weeks are, especially with the Europa League. City is going to be a huge match for us – the kind of game that will really give us an idea of where we are at. Don’t forget, we lost to United and we only lost due to two moments of brilliance from Ibrahimovic. Other than that, I felt we controlled the game. In fact, I would say that our one defeat this season has been our best performance.
AC: I’d agree with that. More shots on target, more possession of the ball but Zlatan scored twice in three minutes. But, Lanzini showed he can match anyone in the league that day.
MJTAC: He must have been a bit of a surprise to you?
CD: Well, yes and no. We knew he was a good player, it was more about whether we could adjust his playing position quickly and whether he would buy into it. It was pretty much a straight choice between him and Payet, and I think we made the right choice.
AC: Five Premier League goals in eight games from midfield? Yeah, I think so.
MJTAC: Why is it that he is finding goals easy to come by whereas Zaza, Boye, Calleri and Fletcher have all struggled? Not to mention Andy Carroll who is rumoured to be leaving in January?
CD: Well, you can have the exclusive on Carroll. He’s heading to Everton in January for £18m. He wanted to be playing more, and three weeks on I can see his point as the other guys haven’t scored as many as we would have hoped, but you can’t go about it the way Andy did. We want a tightknit group here, where any problems we have we sort out behind closed doors. He didn’t do that, and Ronald Koeman could not have called me quick enough. £18m for a striker that is nearly 30 and misses three quarters of a season? Yes please.
MJTAC: But Zaza and the others haven’t weighed in?
CD: You need to look at how we play. Our front two are not an out and out front two. They drop in, creating space for the midfielders to run through. Sure, Lanz has got eight in all competitions this season, but Obiang, Pellegrini, Ayew and Fernandes all have three each. So it’s not that we are not scoring, they are just coming from different areas of the pitch. I’m convinced the goals will come for Zaza and Boye in particular. Zaza is getting nearly 3 shots away per game, around 50% of his shots are on target so he is getting in the right areas. Boye, 5 and a half shots away per game? Crazy, it’s only a matter of time for him. He needs to start hitting the target, admittedly. And he is a young boy learning how to play in the Premier League. I have no doubt he will get goals, as will Calleri who was just starting to look the part when he got injured.
MJTAC: You said when you took over you were keen to get homegrown talent in the side, and ideally local talent in the side. Reece Oxford is thought to be one of the best prospects the club has had in a decade, yet he has hardly featured. Why is that?
AC: Hardly featured? He’s played 551 minutes – which is on average 45 minutes per match we have played. Hardly featured? Do me a favour. He’s also 17. We have to be careful, pick and choose his moments. He’s doing alright but he is a kid. We want him to be brilliant at 20, 21. That’s still three years away. The same goes for Joey Powell. We’ll use him and there, but he is another kid. There is no rush. We have a good squad, and the last thing we want is to be relying on these two boys, or any of the other ones, as the great West Ham hopes. It’ll get easier for them, but there is no rush at all.
CD: I completely agree. Everything is a balance. Sure, I want to play “The West Ham Way” and I want to do that with East End lads. But, it takes time. Even Sir Alex didn’t turn up in 1996, click his fingers and make the Class of ‘92 appear. It took six years for them to win the FA Cup Youth Cup and another few on that before them to be first team stars. We’re laying foundations here, and Rio [Ferdinand, U18 manager] and the academy are doing a great job right now.
MJTAC: You mentioned November earlier. Right now, after eight games, you sit in 4th. If you get 4 points from City and Southampton you’ll probably still be in and around 4th after ten games, which is nearly a third of the season. November sees Everton, West Brom and Leicester. This run should be able to continue, shouldn’t it?
CD: It seems like you’ve given us more points before these games have been played than we might well get!
MJTAC: Are you saying you don’t think you can get 4 points from the next two games and that you aren’t confident of the three teams in November?
CD: I’m saying you just don’t know. City beat Chelsea 7-0 for crying out loud. Have you seen their squad? Their manager? He’s alright, isn’t he! If they put out their EFL Cup side against us, it will be tough. Let alone their first team. Southampton, if they win their game in hand then they are one point behind us so I can hardly sit here and just chalk up a guaranteed three points against them. Everton, they’ll be fuming at the start they’ve made and it could all be different when we play them. Leicester are the champions – when did West Ham look at a trip to the champions and mark that up as an away win? And West Brom – no game against Pulis is easy. Sure, we could get through the next five unbeaten, but we could also get beaten in each. We hope that doesn’t happen, but who knows? The Premier League is tough. Outside of the elite, we are all fighting to be top of that next mini-league.
AC: And it’s not as if they are the only matches we are playing in that time frame. We’ve got that lads from Romania home and away, a local derby against Charlton, and then Saint-Etienne come here. That’s a lot of football in that run, and then we start December against Arsenal.
MJTAC: OK, so if you were to give your project a mark out of ten at this early stage, what would you give it?
CD: That’s a ridiculous question. He can answer that one.
AC: I’m not answering that. I’ve been sacked for worse starts, I’ve kept my job for worse starts. It’s about where we are at the end of the season. All we are interested in right now is Poli on Thursday…
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