jevs
Well-known member
Here's a letter composed by the owner of Knees up mother brown (kumb) WHU's main fans forum.
And the comments. We're pretty arsed off with the knob too !!!
Knees Up Mother Brown - West Ham United FC Online: Forum View topic - KUMB.com Articles: A Letter to Sam
There are times when, as a West Ham fan, I despair. Despite the great times I've had and the pride I take in wearing crossed hammers, and even after 40 years of loyal support, I sometimes look on from the sidelines and think to myself, oh dear oh dear, what on Earth was that?
Once again, we contrived to go down to a lower division side in a limp-wristed capitulation caused not by the sending off of debutante Callum McNaughton, but by the horrible imbalance of the team selected to play.
It seems that not only are our Championship starting elevens selected by the squeeze in the perceived best eleven players method , but also balance is ignored in order to give the fringe players game time when the cup competitions come along.
We started with Faubert as a full back, a role he is not comfortable in nor is he very good at. Nolan, our so called link between midfield and front line found himself in the defensive midfield role. Barrera, our Mexican out-and-out right winger playing on the left to accommodate Freddy Sears out on the right when Sears is himself a striker not a right-sided midfielder.
Then up front we commit suicide with two great lumps in Carew, who is unfit and unproven for us beside Piquionne who is lazy, feckless and clearly can't be bothered by the standard he has set for himself in his previous outings. I simply do not believe that team selections like this are in the best interest of anyone.
The club is dumped out of a competition in which many of the squad players can try and prove themselves at their chosen role should we remain in the competition for more than just one round, the players confidence takes a hit because they get a chance to impress but fail because they are played out of position and don't know what they are doing, and the long suffering fans are frustrated by yet another embarrassing defeat to a lesser club.
Only Junior Stanislas showed what he can do, and guess what? He was played in the right position. All I can hope for is that this will be taken as a sage lesson and that the same mistakes will not be made again.
In the meantime the players, who admittedly came up short on the pitch, are being put under even more pressure by fans who boo them and criticise them at every opportunity for poor performances when playing out of position.
It's time for a change, it's time to give those lads a proper shot at the title, it's time they had the opportunity to show us all that they are worthy of the shirt in their preferred role. Lets give Mr Nolan a day off and let Jack Collison loose in the hole between the opposition's midfield and defence and do the same for Junior Stanislas.
Let's let Barrera loose on the opposing left back, let's give Sears the chance to play off the shoulder of John Carew and let's give Cole a strike partner so he can turn and face the opposition and in so doing terrorise them, as I have seen him do many times before.
Balance is the key, our team has lacked it and direction for such a long time now. In Big Sam we have the right man to give the players direction now, it's time for a little balance too and that means buying in the right players for the positions where we are lacking or promoting them from the development squad and not just buying who we can get and trying to somehow squeeze them in.
Come on Sam, give us the balance we need, give us a little more pace and we can storm to the head of this league and maybe go on to win it.
Oh, and Sam, while I have your attention, having given those fringe players the chance to show us who they are, if they don't cut the mustard, then fringe players they must stay until they can be replaced. There is no place in our team for underachievers of any kind for any reason.
The continual selection of the woeful Mr Upson as captain when we had the much more deserving Mr Parker all that time shows us to what that leads. If any player falls short they should be dropped and that includes the high profile ones, some of whom are yet to live up to their billing or our expectations.
Competition for places means we must have back-ups for every role and those back-ups must be given the chance when the first choices fail in form. And so, bearing the previous in mind, all I ask for is a little bit of Balance, please.
And the comments. We're pretty arsed off with the knob too !!!
Knees Up Mother Brown - West Ham United FC Online: Forum View topic - KUMB.com Articles: A Letter to Sam