West Ham’s Problems are More Deep Rooted than Slaven Bilic
It’s tempting, it truly is, to blame the manager as if every problem that arises around a club is his fault even though he is just one of many cooks in the kitchen.
The issues at West Ham right now will not be solved by firing the best manager the club has had in over a decade. West Ham should double down on Bilic if anything. The problem is the squad is built wrong.
The first team squad that West Ham went into this season with is too one-dimensional. It’s too top heavy it has no balance. No strong two-way midfielders and no real talent at the back. Bless Aaron Cresswell but he’s fighting a losing battle back there.
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A football team must be delicately balanced in all areas. Age, experience, finesse, grit and above all character. Focusing too much on one thing can easily throw off the balance and hinder the teams chances for sustained success.
History
The early 2000’s Real Madrid are a perfect example of this. Florentino Perez had just taken over the club as chairman and was eager to make his mark. He did so by buying the flashiest and most expensive attacking players of the day. Figo, Ronaldo (buck tooth not underwear model) Zidane and Beckham. That team though didn’t win anything consistently for almost 10 years despite the fact that they were the most expensively assembled side of all time. What was the mistake he made? He sold Claude Makelele to Chelsea FC at the beginning of the Abramovich reign.
While Chelsea FC went on to have the winningest time in their history Real Madrid went on a barren spell of which the clubs famous “Madridistas” had never seen. What was wrong? How could a team with so much talent not be winning matches?
The truth is football is a two way game. Every player must attack and every player must defend. They need to play as one with one mind. Allow a romantic interlude if you would. A good football team should be like water in the ocean. It should flow continuously. Crashing again and again on the opposing goal with relentless creativity and flow. It should find a way in no matter what. It is like the famous Bruce Lee quote “When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash”. That is how football is supposed to be played, or at least that is my footballing philosophy.
The Balance
If there are only attackers then who is there to win the ball back? Who is there to boss the midfield? A team must have balance. The great Barcelona teams had Messi, Iniestia, Xavi and Ronaldinho but they also had Mascherano, Busquests, Pique and Marquez. The Milan teams that I loved as a child had Shevchenko, Inzaghi, Seedorf and Pirlo but they also had Gattuso, Maldini and Nesta. Arsenal’s “Invincibles” had Thierry Henry, Bergkamp and Ljunberg but they also had Patrick Viera and Sol Campbell.
West Ham have no balance now. They have players at both ends of the spectrum. They have either those with attacking talent and no real gruff or dirt behind the ears. Players that my old coaches would say had no interest in the “blood and mud” side of the game. Meanwhile they have others whom it seems their only previous sporting experience was in bareknuckle boxing. Both are necessary and all are welcome but there must be the players in between, the glue that ties it all together.
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Mark Noble at this rate simply cannot keep starting for the club. His captaincy is valuable but his play is a hindrance. Especially in the 3-4-3. He is too slow and his passing range too small and too erratic. Obiang is a fighter and I like him but if there’s no passing in the midfield how is the ball even going to get up top? Beside Obiang a player with technique in the pivot is necessary. Someone like Luka Modric or Toni Kroos both of whom are ready for a scrap but can hit a 30 yarder worth a picture as well. I’ve made suggestions on this before so I won’t dilly dally now.
West Ham’s Build
Up top there is simply one kind of striker. Target man. Ayew, Carroll and Zaza are all the same. I’m willing to give Carroll more time because as part of a strike partnership he can be useful. Ayew will need more time to bed in but he’s already lost to the African Cup of Nations and then there’s Simone Zaza. Who built this thing? Did no one look at a schedule and point out the obvious deficiencies? It’s utter madness.
Strike partnerships need to be a ying and yang of balance. Beside your target man must be the poaching finisher. The fox in the box type with an eye for the pass. Thierry Henry had Bergkamp. Ronaldo had Raul. Batistuta had Totti.
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The point is this. Bilic has not done a good job so far. But nobody at West Ham has. The whole thing right now is rotten to the core and needs to get fixed sharpish. It simply doesn’t work any other way. Firing Bilic prolongs the problem. He knows the squad and how to fix its problems. A new manager will spend all of January getting to know his players before he knows what’s wrong. This squad needs fixing so it can be properly managed.
Firing Slaven Bilic would be telling people to put on bathing suits when the ship is leaking instead of banding together to fix the hole in the first place. West Ham have a choice. They can blame Bilic and go down to the Championship or they can fix this squad and see what he does. They can come together as a club or they will fail as individuals.