I was disappointed as anyone with yesterday's result but it taught us things I guess most of us already knew. Reading continue to be a bogey team for us. In our short history of playing each other they have the vast majority of wins for some strange reason. They did the double on us last season in the Championship as well as beating us in 2007 6-0 at home which remains their largest win in the premiership to date. We have to look back five years to September 2007 when we last beat them 3-0 courtesy of a brace from Etherington and an early goal from Bellamy. That poor form against reading continued yesterday despite us dominating in the second half with lots of possession.
James Collins showed yet again he can be a liability for us, while Ginge is a good, he is no longer the 'Ginger Pele' we once called him. Sam must finally realise this fact and stop playing Tomkins out of position. Tomkins should partner again in centre with Reid and Collins be dropped to the bench for yesterday's game changing school boy error. Yes, Collins has had some good games and saved us points but he is not consistent enough for me.
The other thing which should blindingly obvious to Sam now after yesterday is Mark Noble should not be taking free kicks! Yesterday saw some of his worst free kicks and maybe Matt Jarvis should step up and earn the 10 million we invested in him. What can we lose?
The Vaz te miss was disappointing but I guess he has just returned back in a hurry so harsh to slate him too much. Not sure it helps with Sam saying it was the worst miss in 10 years in the Premiership. Scoring goals is a confidence thing as we know from Carlton and surely that won't help Ricardo's confidence with the label of the worst miss of the decade! Vaz Te is a strong character and I am sure he will bounce back.
Next moan is why Mark Noble continues to take free kicks? He isn't very good at it and Sam seems to be the only person who is oblivious to this. We paid 10 million for Matt Jarvis, it's about time he earned our investment and shows us what he can do with free kicks.
It is also very obvious we are missing Diame, most of our good form this season is when Diame played and had a good game. When he is missing or he has an off game like Wigan we have suffered. When I met Diame just before Christmas he said he would be back in training from early January so we should see him back very soon so hopefully he could turn things around again soon.
It seems public knowledge now that he is on a £4 million exit clause coupled with a £10K per week hike in wages from his current £40K per week. I was told this some time ago but thought it wasn't in West Ham best interest that it be published. The club are negotiating an extra £5K or £10K per week to keep him. There has been no official approach from any club for him and Gold believes agents are trying to unsettle him. You have to remember that Diame has a known heart deflect and his form has been patchy at times like the Wigan game. I think we will retain him through the transfer window.
One win in eight games is not good enough for premiership survival. Although just 6 points above the relegation zone we are still 12th and others are joining us by pressing the self destruct button mid season.
Newcastle are leaking goals everywhere and might live to regret handing former West Ham manager a eight year contract. Ba who left West Ham on an exit clause seems to have done to same at Newcastle with a 7.5M exit clause of which he gets 2.5 Mil. The agent gets a nice fat fee from Newcastle as well. Newcastle could well find themselves in trouble very soon.
Fulham, Sunderland, Wigan and Villa are also struggling and seem set for a relegation dog fight.
QPR, Reading & Southampton remain in the relegation zone and I would expect at least two of these three to be doomed so just one final relegation place up for grabs from eight clubs in the bottom half including us.
I am sure we all remember newly promoted Blackpool in 2010 which made a unlikely and great start in the top 10 at the beginning of the season only to be relegated along with us in 2011.
Blackpool were found out and teams worked out quickly how to beat them. The same could be said of Sam's tackles now. We have been found out. While it is unfair to say our tackles only consist of knocking it up to the big lone striker up front we must vary our tactics to ensure survival.
Lets hope history doesn't repeat itself!
What we desperately need is a proven goal scorer. It just hasn't happened for Andy Carroll and I would be surprised if it happens in the second half of the season for him. Carlton Cole has stood in well for Carroll he doesn't score enough to warrant being the lone striker in my opinion.
Hopefully yesterday's result will hammer home in no uncertain terms to Sam, Karren, Sullivan and Gold that we need to invest in the transfer window and maybe sell on some of the miss firing squad using up valuable wages.
That said I am still convinced others are worst that us and we will survive in the bottom half of the table this season. It may not be pretty though. We must Keep Calm and Support West Ham.
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