West Ham 0 Stoke 1 - Beware The Ides Of March

There is a guy who purports to be a West Ham fan who comes on here to gloat because I have paid money to watch West Ham lose. He is one of a group who called me a traitor, a Spud and God knows what other insults because I predicted that we would struggle to avoid relegation this season. I am not gloating now, I feel pig sick that I called it right all along. In August it was obvious to me that the squad was ill equipped to cope with the Premiership and by January I was identifying Zola as the problem. Zola now stands on the brink of quitting and sadly it is three months too late. We are going down now, only victories against Wigan, Sunderland and away to Fulham will keep us up after Hull's victory today. Can anybody see that happening with the team's confidence destroyed?

Why have Gold and Sullivan allowed this buffoon to stay in charge? To save the pay off? Probably, but it will cost them many more millions when we go down. I said after the Chelsea game that Zola HAD to go. I stressed it again after a defeat at 10 man Arsenal when we barely mustered a shot on goal. And how he was allowed to continue after the shambolic performance against Wolves is utterly beyond me. But even today, people were backing Zola! But not at the end of the game. I head the chants of "F**K off Zola" at the final whistle and I hope he heard them too!

What is there to say about today's game. Zola again picked the wrong team. That is a given! Mido is shite. He hasn't looked like scoring and should not start another game for the club. True McCarthy is shite too. And so, it seems, is Ilan. That's why I proposed 4-3-3 this morning, hoping to get Diamanti into areas where he might score.

Instead, Zola left out Diamanti and Stanislas and played a journeyman midfield - who have totalled 4 goals between them all season! With Cole out of form and Mido goalless since his return from the Kebab house, it was odds on that we would fail to score. But did Zola factor that in when he picked the team? Of course not! Why would he? Why worry about little details like that? As he said yesterday, Zola has "faith" in his players! Faith! Such faith that he believes in miracles it seems!

I understand why Behrami started on the left, to protect Spector, but why Diamanti was again parked out on the right after he came on is beyond me. Once again he was playing on his wrong foot and, once again, he was, at best, a bit part player in the second 45 minutes. Presumably Dyer came off injured again!

Behrami again huffed and puffed but was next to useless. The nonsense of playing wide men on the wrong flank was illustrated perfectly when Behrami ran half the length of the pitch, got to the byline, but then could get no power on his attempted cross as he tried to deliver it with his left whilst on the run. Sorensen simply scooped up what amounted to a back pass. Mind you, Behrami was just as hopeless when he went down the right, ballooning his attempted cross into the crowd. The Swiss David Beckham? Absurd!

I think we created three real chances in the game. There was the Mido missed header (a pathetic effort), the Mido miss after Sorensen had saved and a Cole shot from outside the box. That was it wasn't it? And how many saves did Green make? None wasn't it? But we still contrived to concede and lose the game!

Did anybody play well? Upson was solid. Spector looked our most adventurous player going forward in the second half but, being right footed on the left, he constantly stopped before crossing. Cole looked brilliant in the warm up but struggled in the game. Parker took another one in the face, nearly played a perfect pass for Cole and ran his heart out - but with zero outcome again. Da Costa looked fine until Fuller turned him inside and out before scoring. Green coped with Delap's throws better than I dared hope. But going forward? Well we were hopeless yet again.

And the substitutions? Crass! Diamanti came on to play on the wrong flank, was moved briefly to the left and then found himself part of a midfield three. We need to get him in the final third; how could he do that in a three man midfield? Mido stayed on far too long and showed more pace when running for the bench after being substituted than he showed all game. Ilan was again played out of position and when we played with a front three there was nobody other than Spector trying to get the ball into the box for them to feed off. It was pathetic. In fact, I cannot remember feeling even a glimmer of hope throughout the second half. We could have played for another six hours without creating a clear cut chance.

Again we were toothless and disjointed. Again we lacked leadership, direction and cohesion. No wonder Clarke didn't want Sullivan to be a party to the tactical briefing on Thursday. It seems to me that the only evidence of planning was the siting of the advertising boards closer to the touchline to try to disrupt the delivery of Delap's throws!

Zola must go now surely? He sounded like a completely broken man when talking to reporters after the game. My money is on him wanting to quit but Clarke urging him to hang on in there for the payoff. If that is the case, Sullivan should bring in somebody over Zola's head and humiliate the Italian so he packs his bags and buggers off back to Sardinia.


Player ratings: Green 6; Faubert 5, Upson 7, Da Costa 6, Spector 7; Dyer 6, Parker 6, Noble 5, Behrami 4, Mido 3, Cole 5 Subs Diamanti 4, Ilan 4, McCarthy 4