Well, at least the end of the season is going to be interesting for us West Ham fans. I watched the 2-1 defeat to Hull yesterday, and half of me couldn’t believe we had just lost to one of the worst teams in the Premier League, while the other half insisted that this is West Ham and anything can happen.
After every match, I give the players ratings out of 10. What is worrying is just how many players who played yesterday scored a very average 5, too many for my liking. In fact, the only player who received higher than a 6 was Carroll. Now it doesn’t take Einstein’s theory of relativity to work out that if the whole team is playing so badly then a defeat is on the cards. The only thing that allowed us to still be in contention with 10 minutes to go was that Hull were just as bad as us.
In the first half, I have to say we were fairly comfortable without actually doing much ourselves. Going in at half time 1-0 up I was quite happy. The second half started pretty much the same way that the first half had gone and I could see us getting the second killer goal. Then all of a sudden, our defensive frailties were apparent for all to see. No one picked up the run of Robertson and in a blink of an eye, it was 1-1. You could see the confidence grow in the Hull players and the confidence ebb away from ours. This is proof (if we ever needed it) that confidence at the club is shot to pieces. There were some occasions after the equaliser that we looked as if we had a winner in us, but they were only brief, slight glimmers. With 5 minutes remaining, we gave a corner away. The cross for the corner wasn’t exactly David Beckham standard but nonetheless, we let their centre back get a free header and that was that – game over. Yet another defensive error which had cost us the game.
So where does this defeat leave our season? Looking over our shoulders? Most definitely. In a relegation battle? I would say so. Will we go down? I’m not that good!
What is for certain is that we cannot afford to drop any more points against teams below or around us in the league. That means points from Swansea, Sunderland, Stoke and Burnley. I know this is obvious but try telling our players that.
The problem is that there is always one team that gets dragged into the relegation fight who nobody expects – that team this year is us.
Teams like Hull, Swansea and Middlesbrough have known most of the season that they will be in or around the bottom 3, therefore they are mentally prepared for the fight ahead. On the flip side, we thought we were safe about a month ago and now find that we are not. Do our players have the capability of now going up a gear or two and fighting for every point? How many of our players have been in such a fight before? Not many.
Who knows if we will survive this season, but one thing is for sure, it is going to be a very close thing. My advice is to strap yourself in as it’s going to be a very bumpy ride. Should we still be in the Premier league next season then wholesale changes need to be made. These changes could include the management, the players, the board, or all three. The fans deserve better, for too long now we have had to endure seasons like this and it must stop.
Keep the faith and COYI!