Sam Allardyce is in the biggest blip of his West Ham career right now. After two seasons of relative success, he finds his West Ham United team near the relegation zone, following a 1-0 defeat to fellow strugglers, Crystal Palace.
I very doubt the pressure is going to get lifted this weekend with an Away trip to Anfield against a very much in form Luis Suarez and Liverpool. We haven’t won at Anfield since 1963, and if I’m being honest, I cannot see this changing at all on Saturday.
However, win or lose, I am behind Big Sam. He has lead a club that were in a terrible position after relegation under Avram Grant, and he has made the club stable. He has a good squad of players, who I feel always want to give 100% every game. The club is stable financially, and despite our precarious position, the owners have backed us in the transfer market.
Allardyce has been terribly unlucky with the injury to Andy Carroll, and this has had a massive impact on the team. I am sure the medical staff were happy that Carrolls initial injury was going to heal up (excuse the pun) relatively quickly. You cannot anticipate what happened to him. At Palace on Tuesday night, I couldn’t moan at the starting line up. Carlton Cole had scored so deserved a chance from the start, we started with Diame and Morrison, and we replaced McCartney with Rat. Apart from Collins, Tomkins, Noble and in stages, Morrison, every other player was poor. That is beyond the control of Allardyce. He took Nolan off early to the boos of the supporters, moved Diame into the middle, and for me, that was Diames worst game since he joined us.
I trust Allardyce, purely because his record shows that he has dealt with situations like the one we are in. I believe that with the addition of a decent striker in January, our fortunes will change. With the return of Carroll, Reid and Vaz Te to come also, the squad will hopefully look a lot stronger.
Finally, I don’t think the football that we have been playing has actually been bad either. From time to time, we still get the big hoof from Collins, but in time, players like that will be replaced. I know this article is going to split opinions across the board, but this is my opinion, and I have faith that Allardyce will turn it around – whether the Chairmen do is another question altogether!
COME ON YOU IRONS!!