The parallels between Zola and Roeder are frightening. Both were appointed after a former Hammer lost the manager's job, and in both cases, there was an element of surprise when the change of manager was triggered. Both Roeder and Zola enjoyed a honeymoon period during their first season in charge and both were being hailed as clever appointments after one season in the job.
How many points did we have after 13 games in 2002-03? Spookily and worryingly, 11. The 13th game in 2002-03 was a high scoring thriller, at home to Leeds, a match we lost 3-4. True we lost then and we came away with a draw yesterday, but at half time against Leeds we were 4-1 behind and so we were the team staging the fightback - and Leeds had not been reduced to 10 men!
To all those who chant the mantra, "In Zola we trust", here is a sobering statistic. After 13 games of his second season in charge, a season we were relegated in, Roeder had a win ratio of 35% from 51 Premiership games; Zola has now been in charge of 47 Premiership games and his win ratio stands at just 29.78%. Sobering or what?
For those who say "back the manager and it will come right", let me warn you that things got better still for Roeder. When he was sacked, he had a win ratio of 38%, but we still went down! In fact, Zola's current win ratio is the worst of any West Ham manager in living memory - worse than Curbishley, Roeder, Pardew and Macari.
In Zola we trust at our peril. Who looked the savvy manager yesterday, Zola or Brown? But for the sending off, does anybody believe we would have got a point out of that game? A win ratio of 29.78% is shockingly poor, so shockingly poor that it is unprecedented at West Ham.
It's looking as if Zola is Roeder with knobs on!
HF, I dont think Zola should take most of the blame. I admit, his naiveness and inexperience does show.
ReplyDeleteBut, many of our players are making diabolical individual errors on the pitch that are costing us.
Also, Clarke is defensive coach and the highest paid number two in the league. Where was he yesterday when we were 0-2 up away from home?
As for yesterday's game, their 1st goal was jammy beyond belief and their pen was no way a foul.
I really did feel that the team we had out yesterday was our strongest of the season. I would go in with the same in the next game. If Ilunga's fit, I'd put Gabbidon center....even for Upson. Though we didn't help ourselves, Hull were fortunate to get back in the game.
Stani, that might be a valid point if we were looking at one game, but we are not. Presumably, Zola had a say on selling Collins to finance the purchase of Diamanti; if so, a very poor decision was made. It was presumably Zola who selected Jimenez for the Everton game; a very poor decision. It was certainly Zola who persisted with 4-3-3; a very poor decision. His tactics are poor, his decision making is flawed and, along with Clarke, he has turned a discliplined defensive unit into a comedy of errors when the opposition get into our half. Yes the first goal was lucky, but the free kick was conceded unnecessarily. And so was the freekick for the second goal. And no, it wasn't a penalty, but it should have been in the second half when Upson had his arms around Van Helsing as he headed clear in the box. If Clattenbung had not given the first one, he would have given that one. Why wasn't Bullard man marked for pity's sake? Basic stuff I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteBut the point is, Zola's appalling record is over 47 games, not one. It is the worst of any West Ham manager - that surely tells us something!
I think you are reading to much into the stats here. Look at how many times we have been insanely unlucky over the last couple of weeks. I think we are on the turn around, I admit a slow turn around, but a turn around none the less.
ReplyDeleteAlso remember how Zola started last year? We only won 3 in the first 15 games Zola was in charge of, but he managed to turn that around. So we need patience. Give Zola a few years and we will be a quality team
No, I agree with your points and I wasn't talking about just the Hull game but I don't think he's any more to blame than the players, Steve Clarke or those that signed him.
ReplyDeleteI have always highly rated Collins and Gabbidon ever since we got them. They would have been my first choice, yes, even ahead of Upson. There were players we could have sold other than Collins but we didn't. This is no exaggeration but I really could not believe it when we sold him. O'Neill must be laughing....what was it, £5m for a 25 yr old international defender?
Letting Bellamy go was a big mistake too. The pressure he used to take off our defence by running onto Neill's forward passes (which were always excellent) is now beginning to show. Should have done more to keep Neill as well. Could have done with his intelligence on the pitch. Would we have lost a 0-2 lead with Neill on the pitch?
The Upson pen shout; I'm still undecided about. You see, he got up before Hesselink who backed into him. This caused Upson's arms to go forward and make it seem as if he was man handling him. I dont think it was clear cut. May be as many refs would have given as those that would not of. Although, Battenberg does strike me as one of the ones that would have given it....may be he was concentrating on his tan.
Jimenez just makes me sick now. Please someone just get rid of him. When the club you play for is in the mire, hairstyles are not what you should be worrying about.
Zola's other big negative is his loyalty to players. In my opinion, Noble and Tomkins had far too long in the team whilst they were under-performing. Yes you can improve players but only so much in real games where it matters. I was pulling my hair out seeing Noble getting picked week in week out when he was quite clearly struggling.
I will say though that Zola has had to work in a testing environment with all that's gone on and with the lack of funds.
The one hope I retain is that he will learn because everyone will agree that the style of play he has brought is quite magnificent to watch. It is that reason that makes him different from our other mentioned managers. I just hope he can become more tactically adept.
I still don't think we're close to reaching a point where we cannot salvage the season. Hence, in my opinion, we should still stick with Zola as managers do become better. I hope he can because he deserves it. And it may not seem as if he cares from his after-match interviews, but have a look at him when our second goal went in yesterday.
Carried this as a main article mate as you make some valid points and it is a bit long for the comments section perhaps.
ReplyDeleteDan, you make your own luck. Why didn't we defend higher against Hull to avoid giving away the free kicks around our box? Why was Faubert making that challenge INSIDE our penalty box? Why was Green off his line for the Cole own goal? Had he been on it, he might have saved it. Dreadful luck? What about Franco escaping without a second yellow? What about the penalty shout against Upson? What about the handball for Da Costa's goal? What about Kenwyne helping us by getting sent off? What about our goal against Villa from a freekick that shouldn't have been given? What about the harsh sending off of the Fulham player? We have had three players sent off against us this season and have failed to win any of the games. That is not bad luck, that is tactical incompetence!
ReplyDeleteWoops! I appreciate it. At least differing views are recognised on this blog where-as on other blogs you get ganged up on and hounded out. No clues.
ReplyDeleteAgainst Hull, I admit, we did not help ourselves when it comes to making our own luck and indeed, it is true that we can make our own luck by making the right choices in certain situations that inevitably change the course of play not leading to a goal against us.
But, I would say we have had some really poor luck this season that has not been of our own making. Most have been poor refereeing/linesman decisions. May be it's just the Tevez/Sheff Utd hoodoo taking on a new face.
Re luck, see my comment to Dan above!
ReplyDeleteKevin in Manchester writes..
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember a post a couple of weeks back when you concluded that rather than being inept we had been unlucky; I agreed with you .. losing out to a Torres wonder goal, a narrow defeat against the spuds, cruelly denied an equalising goal when it might have mattred against city.. being denied a perfectly good goal against wigan, which would have put us one up denied a clear penalty at stoke etc.and similar other injustices.
I think you picked out Blackburn away as the only truly awful perfromance .. to which I suppose we could add Everton at home. As for Hull, a non penalty and a double deflection .. when the Gods are agin you, you are truly in the shit.
I agree about Jiminez waste of money but I rather like Franco and Da Costa especially Franco also on the plus side Collinson and Behamri have improved the midfield no end and tactically ever since Zola has reverted to 4-4-2 we've looked better.
As for the rest; we do need a right back.As hard as Fuabert is trying he's not good enough- an in form and injury free Illunga would help; I do hope he doesn't go the way of Schemmel. However, the longer this goes on the more worried I get.
I just think we have to be a little more patient with the man, understood we stuck with Roeder and we got relegated, but I generally think it'll be different. Like I said earlier look at Zola's stats from last year, he takes a while to get going.
ReplyDeleteAnyway I really don't think you can blame Green for the first goal! lol I mean the initial shot wasn't a lob and never was going to be hence Green being off his line. Also Faubert didn't really make the challenge, it was more the other player making the challenge. But I do agree with you about luck, everyone gets the same amount of luck over the season give or take. I just think our luck is still to come.
As for the red cards, it is generally the case that when a team go 1 man down they get stronger, harder to break down, I think that was shown when we went down to ten men against Arsenal at 2 - 2. We got stronger and saw the game out.
Kevin
ReplyDeleteI agree about you with the injustices. The Everton game, we only played poor in terms of finishing and defending. The number of clear cut chances we created was encouraging....we just didn't finish. That's more frustrating than getting dodgy decisions.
I'm a firm believer that football is 4-4-2. Within a game, teams can re-form according to the circumstances but 4-4-2 should always be the foundation. This is true especially for teams that do not have high class attacking midfielders (i.e usually smaller teams). We cannot afford to go one up top or we'll just be defending for 90 minutes.
Dan
That's true. We should just play with 10 the next time we go 2-0 up :) because we can't seem to defend a lead with 11. We got our first bit of luck with Portsmouth and Bolton losing. Hopefully things will pick up.
Kevin, I take your point but you can't argue with the stats over 47 games can you? Tactically, we were poor against Everton in the first half, against Sunderland in the second half and against Hull for all but 11 minutes. A pattern is emerging here!
ReplyDelete