WestHamOnline.net - The Online WHU Community

WHO Poll

Q: 2010/11 Chelsea (h)

a/ The season starts here against the big money no marks. 3pts to the Irons.
16%

b/ The players should be up for this and hopefully we'll see the beginnings of a team forming. A point a piece.
19%

c/ At least 3 more goals against a free scoring side on the top of their game. We'll walk away with nothing but red faces.
52%

d/ Hurrah. Daddy's got a Porche.
2%

e/ How many weeks running do I have to tell you, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE.
11%

Vinny's Burnley Report
Vinny - Sun Feb 7 2010

Burnley 2 West Ham United 1

West Ham were beaten by relegation rivals Burnley and find themselves plunged back into the relegation zone.

The last three games I thought would have saved our season. I had been confident that we would pick up at least six point which would have lifted us away from trouble. So to have only picked up two points against Portsmouth, Blackburn and Burnley is an unmitigated disaster.

The cold hard facts state that West Ham have won four games out of twenty four. This is a disgusting statistic and maybe my view on the quality of our team is hindering my ability to come to terms with how bad we are doing because again yesterday I look at our players and can’t help thinking that they are not that bad.

Questions are going to be asked about the manager and I am not one to call for the sacking of any manager as West Ham are a club who have had so few of them over the course of their history and I would hate to be one of those clubs who change the manager every other year.

But time is closing in on Gianfranco Zola and with new owners having come in you do struggle to imagine him being manager come the start of next season. His post match interviews are largely embarrassing with his comments making him seem as though he really doesn’t have a clue what he is doing. He can’t seem to get the best of the team and continues to live on the myth that we play good football.

Having rejected the possibility on travelling from Upton Park on the coach, the train (despite how expensive ) was settled for. This was my first time to Burnley and found it to be a good place for drinking with many pubs on the way to the ground and most of them quite empty.

Turf Road is an old ground and there has been little development (it seems) to the away end with the wooden chairs still in place. But the ground has character and it was just shit like Fratton Park which is not fit to hold more that a couple of hundred fans in the away end.

Zola made three changes to the side who could only draw with Blackburn at Upton Park last weekend. In midfield Radoslav Kovac was dropped to the bench with Scott Parker coming into the midfield.

Another change came with Alessandro Diamanti who was dropped from the squad entirely. I am unaware that Diamanti was injured and would be quite strange if he was simply left out.

In place of Diamanti was new signing from Blackburn Rovers, Benni McCarthy. The 32 year old South African Striker took his place up front alongside Carlton Cole who himself was replacing Frank Nouble who like Diamanti was missing from the eighteen.

On the substitutes bench were two of the other Transfer Window signings. Egyptian Mido, a signing from Middlesbrough on loan, and unknown Brazilian striker Ilan Araújo Dall'Igna - Ilan to his mates.

Starting for Burnley was ex Hammer Tyrone Mears who made five appearances in 2006-07 season.

Burnley looked sharper from the kick off and our slow starting syndrome continues to strike as they forced a number of corners with it seemed like an age until we actually made use of any relevant possession.

With just under fifteen minutes gone we found ourselves a goal down after some terrible defending. It was such a simply goal and for me two international’s should not have looked as poor as this.

Burnley’s transfer window signing David Fox (who was making his debut at full back) played a long ball forward from his own area towards David Nugent. Matthew Upson should have dealt with the ball but let it bounce with Green coming out into no mans land giving Nugent the chance to lift it over him and put the Lancashire side a goal up.

It was terrible defending from Matthew Upson and you would not expect a player of his quality to make such a basic error. It is errors like this which have been apparent all season and it doesn’t matter even if it is David Nugent - if you make basic mistakes, you will be punished.

Burnley took their foot off the gas after their goal and we saw more of the ball. With Scott Parker driving through the midfield attempting to make something happen to get us back into a game we knew we had to win.

There were moments when players were getting into good positions in the area but the lack of a final ball (another familiar issue this season) would hinder any progress.

Our best chance of the first half came from another terrific burst from Scott Parker through the middle and he played a wonderful through ball to Benni McCarthy who rounded Burnley keeper Jensen but his shot was cleared off the line by Leon Cort when most of the West Ham fans were already celebrating.

It seemed to take me long time to get over that chance because I couldn’t fathom how we were not back on level terms. We really needed that goal to get us back into the game because a win from this one was vital.

Many of the comments at the half time break were very discontented ones from the supporters with many expressing how unimpressed they were with the performance. I had been living in the hope that we were going to give this one a real go but so far it had just been a very disappointing display.

As Benni McCarthy was a new signing it was only fitting that injury saw him come off at half time. He was replaced by former Tottenham forward Mido.

It only took Burnley ten minutes after the restart to effectively end the game with another mistake coming from Jack Collison who for some strange reason decided to blatantly push Mears in the back, giving away a free kick just outside the area on the right hand side.

Taking the free kick was full back David Fox who curled a left foot effort over everyone including Robert Green to put the home side two goals up.

Scott Parker was very close to getting us back into the game soon after when his low shot was superbly saved by Jensen to deny the midfielder who was again our best player.

Zola made his second change of the game taking off the pretty terrible Jack Collison and replacing him with Stanislas. The fans around where I was sitting were quite unhappy with this with Mark Noble being the target of many as they felt it was he who should have been replaced.

Stanislas made an difference and when he came on we looked better and much more of a goal threat.

It seems as though we had found a goal when Carlton Cole put the ball into the back of the net after a scrambled Tomkins shot was eventually bundled over the line by Cole but the linesman had his flag up for offside.

Stanislas won a free kick on the left hand side and it was he who took it and his cross come shot crashed against the cross bar.

Chances were beginning to come and it seemed as though that a goal was coming soon and that it did after a good passing move which saw Cole chip the ball over for Mido to go in with the keeper only for the ball to bounce out and Ilan (who had just come on for Noble) was on hand to score on his debut.

Time was running out but in football you always get that one chance to get yourselves back into the game and that one chance did come with Cole playing a good low cross in for Mido to prod the ball towards goal only for it to crash off the post. Mido like most of the fans had their hands on their head as we all knew that we would not get another chance like that.

The realisation had set in that we were not going to get anything out of this game even with five minutes of added on time.

A poor performance, sloppy goals conceded and failure to convert a number of big chances see us lose out to a relegation rival and makes the possibility of playing championship football next season all the more likely.

Player Reviews

Robert Green
He had a part to play in the first goal. He should have read the situation and not come out. Everyone had said the second goal was a 'wonderful' strike. Having not seen it again I am not so sure. I was surprised Green was beaten.

Jonathan Spector
Spector has begun to put in some good performances recently and this was another one of them. This is two games in a row which he has kept Ilunga out of the team despite the American not even being a right back. He was good when on the ball and made very few mistakes.

James Tomkins
Found it a lot more difficult than in recent weeks with the Burnley forwards causing our defenders a number of problems throughout the game. Was decent in the air and his reading of the game is getting better.

Matthew Upson
At fault for the first goal with a very poor piece of defending where he let the ball bounce over his shoulder letter Nugent in. He should have read the danger and got his head to the ball instead of doing what he did. For the rest of the game he was decent but that mistake was not good enough.

Julien Faubert
Like Spector, Faubert has turned things around in recent weeks with some solid displays and I thought the French full back had a good game. Got forward well and put in a few good crosses.

Jack Collison
Another poor performance from Collison who is not getting into the games and it is no shock to see him taken off again. Collison’s form in the last few months has been pretty shocking but is not something that seems to get mentioned. Just anonymous throughout most of his time on the pitch.

Mark Noble
A very quiet display from Mark Noble which seemed to piss off a number of fans who actually cheered when he was being taken off given how he offered nothing at all. When players like him are playing as badly as this then you know things are bad.

Scott Parker
When others were having bad games, Parker ran things and was our best player yet again. He is a shoe in for Hammer of the Year even at this stage as he seems to do it all. Yesterday he tackled, he ran with the ball, he had shots, he played through balls and if we had just another couple of players with the same desire as him we would be fine.

Valon Behrami
I’m pleased to now be in possession of the information that he was in fact playing because I cannot recall him doing anything of note.

Benni McCarthy
Nice to see us have two strikers playing. McCarthy made a few good runs that dragged defenders wide and had a great chance to score but for a wonderful goal line clearance from Leon Cort. But as all new signings for West Ham, he picked up an injury and had to come off at half time.

Carlton Cole
Worked hard, was quite good in posession and was unlucky not to have scored with the goal being ruled out for offside. Had a big part to play in our goal and nearly supplied Mido whose shot hit the post.

Subs Used

Mido (on for McCarthy 45 mins)
He put in a decent account of himself although should have done a bit better with his chance near the end which would have seen him score the equaliser. Looks as though he likes to have a shot which contrary to what some think, having shots is a good thing.

Junior Stanislas (on for Collison 66 mins)
We were a more attacking threat when he came on. Since coming on as sub against Spurs in December I have been impressed with Stanislas every time he has come on since. He hit the bar with one cross and was generally a threat when running at the Burnley defenders. His set pieces are also quite good. He should replace Collison against Birmingham.

Ilan (on for Noble 77 mins)
Only took him a few minutes to open his account and hopefully there will be more goals to come.

Subs Not Used: Stech, Da Costa, Ilunga, Kovac

Bookings: Parker

Man Of The Match: Scott Parker

Attendance: 21,001

Overall

I think I may be echoing the sentiments of many fans who are losing patience with Gianfranco Zola. It seems clear to me that he is not getting the best out of a bunch of players who in my opinion are not even that bad. Of course the players need to take responsibility but in football we all know the buck stops with the Manager.

Although in the second half we maybe deserved to grab the equaliser with the amount of chances we were creating, the fact remains that we did not and we have won just four games in twenty four games. I can’t seem to shake that statistic from my mind.

Obvious as it might sound, we have to start winning soon . This cannot continue and if this means changing manager than I am at the point now where I would not object.

Next Game - Birmingham City (h)

I don’t really care how well Birmingham are doing, this has to be three points and if we were to lose this one then I really cannot see how we will stay up. We have Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool all away from home coming up over the next few months.

The home games against the likes of Birmingham, Hull Wolves and Sunderland are of course winnable but then we thought we would pick up more than the measly two points from the last three games.

The media may state that we should be alright given the players we have but having watched us all season I have seen no improvement. In fact, I think we are getting worse.

Zola's Comments

"To be honest, only during the first 20 minutes of the game today were we really poor. We didn't start the way we should've done and that gave them an advantage. They deserved to score in those first 20 minutes but after that, it was us who had so many chances but, unfortunately, we didn't convert them.

"Their second goal was one of those which you can only applaud, when somebody puts the ball in the top corner like that.

"After that it was chance after chance for us. We got one goal, saw another disallowed and had so many chances. I don't think that we could've done better than that. My only regret was the first 20 minutes. It wasn't enough.

"Mistakes are always very costly and, obviously, we have to make sure that we cut them out as much as possible. I think that's been the story of our whole season. Sometimes we play some good football and sometimes we've lost games through mistakes."

"I'm more disappointed about being in the bottom three than worried but we have enough to do better and we saw that today. We have to be quick to get the three new players into our system and it was encouraging in that way, today. We have to start using the whole 90 minutes that we have at our disposal.

"When you come up against teams like Burnley, who are playing for their lives, it's difficult because they will come out firing and we have to do the same. After those first 20 minutes, we wanted it as badly as Burnley."

"Benni McCarthy tried very hard. He had an opportunity and then he had a problem with his knee. I'm sure that Benni can do much better. His knee shouldn't be too bad but we'll assess him on Sunday.

"Mido was excellent. He really did well. I'm pleased with him, and Ilan came on and scored. It's all very encouraging but now we have to be quick because time is running out and we need to start winning games. The table requires that."

"In recent weeks we've improved but today we've taken a little step back but we will come back stronger. I'm sure about that.

"Burnley won the game and, psychologically, it was very important for them to win. They did well but there are still a lot of games left this season and there's still a long way to go."

Other articles by Vinny ...

> Player Of The Month - August

> Vinny's Manchester United Report

> Vinny's Oxford United Report

> Vinny's Bolton Report

> Vinny's Aston Villa Report

More...

CDFG
1:41 Mon Feb 8