Daily WHUFC News - 28th October 2013

Hammers held at Swansea
WHUFC.com
West Ham United earned a creditable point in an entertaining goalless draw
at Swansea City
27.10.2013

West Ham United were held to a goalless draw against Swansea City on Sunday
afternoon, as the Hammers spurned a series of chances to leave the Liberty
Stadium with all three Barclays Premier League points. Ravel Morrison, Guy
Demel, Mo Diame and Kevin Nolan were all guilty of missing the target in the
first half alone, as Sam Allardyce's men dominated vast swathes of this one.
But for their profligacy in front of goal, West Ham would no doubt have
secured a second successive victory on their travels, though a fifth clean
sheet of the campaign was an excellent second best. It was the visitors who
showed first, in the shape of winger Stewart Downing, whose low left-footed
drive forced Michel Vorm into a smart near-post stop after eight minutes.
The resulting corner, meanwhile, fell at the feet of full-back Demel, but on
the stretch, he could only toe over the bar. At the other end, Wayne
Routledge floated in an inviting centre, but a stooping Alvaro Vazquez could
only head into the grateful arms of Jussi Jaaskelainen. But the Hammers
stopper was soon called into more serious action as he somehow kept out
Chico Flores' bullet header from little more than six yards. Ironically, it
prompted a West Ham breakaway, one that saw Morrison with a sight of goal,
though he dragged his shot across the face of goal. Thereafter, the Hammers
went close on a number of occasions, without succeeding in breaking the
deadlock. Firstly, Razvan Rat's long free-kick saw Kevin Nolan beat Vorm to
it, only for his glancing header to be cleared off the line.

Sam Allardyce's men then won three corners in quick succession with 25
minutes gone, the first of which came after Downing's goal-bound effort had
been deflected behind. The second fell kindly to Morrison from 18 yards,
but his strike, smashed into the ground, couldn't find its way through a
crowded penalty area. But still the Hammers came, with arguably the best
chance falling to Demel, who nodded over the bar from close range. As the
visitors drew breath, Swansea gained a foothold in proceedings, but it was
West Ham who continued to threaten the hosts' goal. In the 44th minute,
Downing's in-swinging free-kick picked out Diame at the far stick, but like
Demel before him, he was unable to direct his header on target. And in
first-half stoppage time yet another presentable opportunity came and went.
Jarvis, a first-half replacement for the injured Ricardo Vaz Te, raced to
the by-line and though his cut-back was an excellent one, Nolan spooned his
effort over the bar, with Morrison perhaps better placed to swipe at goal.
The Hammers, by comparison, were slightly more subdued after the break and
it was the Swans who had the first chance of note, as Vazquez, on the
stretch, was inches from connecting with Nathan Dyer's right-wing centre.


West Ham, however, continued to cause havoc in the opposition box and
Winston Reid, this time, had Vorm in all sorts of trouble, but could only
hook over from under the crossbar. Both sides, meanwhile, shuffled their
packs, with Pablo Hernandez and Wilfried Bony joining the fray for the
Swans, and Carlton Cole coming on in place of Diame. But it was Bony who
nearly made an instant impact. The Hammers struggled to clear a left-wing
corner and when the Ivorian let fly from six yards, Jaaskelainen was equal
to it, diving to his left to palm the ball to safety. While the tempo
hardly slowed, chances were at a premium in the final quarter. Jaaskelainen
dove expertly at the feet of Michu, but the latter was flagged offside in
any case. There would be one final chance for the visitors, but Carlton
Cole's well-timed leap produced a comfortable stop from Vorm, as it ended
honours even in Wales.

Swansea City: Vorm, Rangel, Chico, Williams, Taylor, Britton, de Guzman,
Michu, Dyer, Routledge (Hernandez 60), Vazquez (Bony 67)
Subs: Tremmel, Tiendalli, Amat, Canas, Pozuelo

Booked: Rangel

West Ham United: Jaaskelainen; Demel, Tomkins, Reid, Rat; Nolan, Noble,
Diame (C Cole 64); Downing, Morrison (J Cole 78), Vaz Te (Jarvis 34)
Subs not used: Adrian, Maiga, Taylor, O'Brien

Booked: Demel, Morrison, Cole
Referee: Phil Dowd
Attendance: 20,455

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'Another magnificent clean sheet'
WHUFC.com
Sam Allardyce hailed a supreme defensive display after the Hammers drew 0-0
at Swansea City
27.10.2013

Sam Allardyce admitted it was a case of mixed emotions after watching his
West Ham United side held to a goalless Barclays Premier League draw at
Swansea City on Sunday. The Hammers flew out of the traps and created
several fine chances prior to the interval, with youngster Ravel Morrison
arguably spurning the best of them. Though the Swans were resurgent after
the break, Jussi Jaaskelainen was rarely called upon and Carlton Cole might
have won it with a glancing header at the death. While the winner was to
prove elusive, a fifth clean sheet of the campaign was just reward for
another outstanding display away from home. And Big Sam was rightly elated
with his side's defensive prowess, even if goals are proving hard to come by
just now. "We're disappointed in the dressing room and the lads know that we
should be celebrating a little more than we are," he told West Ham TV. "It's
another magnificent clean sheet, another snuffing out of the opposition and
classic counter-attacking football in the first half. Our movement of the
ball, passing and movement of the players was brilliant, we cut Swansea open
time after time. "But in the end we failed to put the ball in the back of
the net, sadly. It got more difficult in the second half because we didn't
pass it as well as we did in the first, but yet again that superb defensive
quality we've got held out for a point."

Five clean sheets are clearly of huge satisfaction to the Hammers boss, but
Big Sam acknowledged that their points tally to date is disappointing under
the circumstances. He continued: "Five clean sheets out of nine matches and
only nine points is a massive disappointment, on the basis of how we've
played and what we've done up to now in terms of creating chances and not
converting them. "So we've ended up with draws instead of wins and that for
us is a problem at the minute that we've got to continue to try and work on
to improve. Hopefully the lads keep up this magnificent defensive record but
start scoring the odd goal here and there to start getting three points on
the board instead of one."

While the visitors had several clear sights of goal, Big Sam pointed to
Morrison's first-half chance as the one that really got away. The
culmination of an incisive counter-attack, the former Manchester United
youngster opted to go for goal, rather than squaring to Mo Diame, a decision
that both he and his colleagues were left to rue. "All Rav had to do was
roll the ball across for Mo Diame to tap it in and he got a bit greedy and
wanted to score himself," Big Sam confirmed. "You've got to play the best
man in if it's a goalscoring chance and if he's not there, then yes, take
the shot at goal, see if you can score. "After that, Guy Demel and Mo Diame
had chances and chances, balls were dropping down in their box. Even the
goalie tried to punch one in his own net for us!"

"Right at the end there Carlton Cole came on and gave us a bit more of an
attacking thrust. He's had a good header near the end that the goalkeeper's
made a good save from. We're reasonably satisfied with the point, we respect
the point but disappointed we haven't got three." With another hard-earned
away point safely in the bag, the challenge now remains to do likewise at
the Boleyn Ground. Unlike last season, where the Hammers were imperious at
home, they have already suffered three successive home league defeats. Big
Sam, however, is intent on putting that right, starting with Saturday's
visit of Aston Villa. "Five games and one goal conceded off a very dubious
penalty at Hull City is a magnificent record to build on and our main
concern now is to make sure when we play at home that we don't lose any more
matches. "We're going to try and win against Aston Villa and settle that
score at the minute, because three defeats at home on the trot is just not
acceptable for us. In the form that we showed playing in all of those three
games, to have got nothing out of it, we must turn that around on Saturday.
"If we're going to have a good away record this year, we can't start
faltering at home, we've got to be as good as we were last and we haven't
been at the moment in terms of results. Not so much, performances but
certainly in terms of results."

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Swansea 0 West Ham 0
27 October 2013
Last updated at 18:34
By Saj Chowdhury
BBC Sport

Swansea and West Ham settled for a point in a match that contained few
clear-cut opportunities at a rain-drenched Liberty Stadium. West Ham created
more chances than the home side with Stewart Downing forcing saves from
Michel Vorm who then almost punched the ball into his own net. Midfielder
Ravel Morrison also went close when he fired wide from 10 yards. Home keeper
Jussi Jaaskelainen produced two great blocks to deny Swansea's Chico Flores
and Wilfried Bony. The Bony chance was the only effort of note in a second
half that failed to match a relatively entertaining first 45 minutes. Swans
manager Michael Laudrup may be left perplexed at his side's lack of
attacking endeavour in their first goalless draw of the season, while
counterpart Sam Allardyce will have been disappointed by the Hammers'
wastefulness in front of goal. The point lifts West Ham up to 15th, while
the Swans, who made seven changes from the side that started against Kuban
Krasnodar in the Europa League on Thursday, go ninth. Flores drew a
point-blank save from Jaaskelainen but that was the only effort of note from
Laudrup's side during a first 45 minutes which the Hammers controlled. The
visitors had only scored in one of their past five away league games but
winger Downing did his best to remedy that, twice forcing good saves from
Vorm in the first half. There followed a howler by the Dutch keeper when he
fisted a clearance towards his own net and was only spared embarrassment by
the athleticism of defender Angel Rangel, who cleared.
England Under-21 international Morrison, an outside bet for a place in the
senior squad for Brazil, also tested the Swansea goal with a low angled
strike that just drifted past the left-hand upright, while Guy Demel scooped
over from six yards. Both managers made tactical changes in attack midway
through the second half after an uninspiring spell following the restart.
Allardyce brought on striker Carlton Cole for his first appearance of his
second spell with the club, while Laudrup sent on Ivorian Bony. And it was
last season's Dutch league top scorer Bony who had the best and only
opportunity of the half when his fierce strike from eight yards was tipped
over by the ever-alert Jaaskelainen. Swansea now travel to Cardiff for the
first all-Welsh Premier League encounter, while West Ham host Aston Villa.

Swansea manager Michael Laudrup: "I knew it would be very difficult as they
enjoyed huge success playing like this against Tottenham, when they won 3-0
[previous away fixture]. "We knew they would play without a striker and with
six in midfield and it is difficult. "You also know they are so good at
set-pieces and we had some problems when they had four or five in succession
in the first half. "We don't have the tallest guys but in the second half,
despite not being at our best, we controlled it."

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce: "We should have had it over and done with by
half-time. "We showed our classic counter-attacking football, but
unfortunately our finishing qualities let us down. "We limited Swansea to
one header from a set-piece. In the second half we didn't pass it as well as
in the first. It's disappointing. "It's our fifth clean sheet in nine
matches but we have only nine points in total and that's not good enough."

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Swansea and West Ham draw 0-0 at the Liberty Stadium
Last Updated: October 27, 2013 6:32pm
SSN

Swansea City and West Ham United drew 0-0 at the Liberty Stadium on Sunday
in the Premier League. The Hammers' dead-ball threat troubled their hosts
all afternoon, with Angel Rangel hooking a long Razvan Rat free-kick off the
line while Guy Demel and Kevin Nolan also spurned good chances. Jussi
Jaaskelainen made two point-blank stops to deny Chico Flores and Wilfried
Bony at the other end, and the hosts also had a late penalty appeal for
handball against Joe Cole turned down as Swansea were left frustrated as the
game finished 0-0.

Best of the match:

Save of the match: Jaaskelainen made an excellent save form point blank
range to deny Chico in the first half.

Moment of the match: Dyer thought he might have won a penalty late in the
game for a handball against Joe Cole. The referee didn't agree.

Man of the match: Chico. Outstanding at the back for Swansea and threatened
the West Ham goal at set pieces.

While neither side picked up the three points, Sam Allardyce will be the
happier of the two managers as his decision to again play without a
recognised striker
for much of the game paid dividends as they restricted Swansea's space in
the middle of the park. They also highlighted Swansea's discomfort defending
set-pieces, which has been no secret given their relative lack of height,
and it proved a recurring theme throughout the contest and will almost
certainly have been noted by Cardiff ahead of next weekend's south Wales
derby. During the early going, West Ham were happy to sit deep and soak up
pressure and hope to capitalise on counter-attack or set-piece
opportunities. On several occasions they also attempted to get Stewart
Downing one-on-one with Neil Taylor, and one such instance saw the England
winger cut in and force a sharp save from Michel Vorm, with Demel prodding
over from the resulting corner. Swansea's first chance fell to Alvaro
Vazquez, who had a poor afternoon, as his low header was held by
Jaaskelainen after a lovely outside-of-the-foot cross from Wayne Routledge.
Both sides then contrived to pass up excellent opportunities in the 20th
minute.

Flores headed straight at Jaaskelainen from point-blank range and West Ham
collected the loose ball and broke through Ricardo Vaz Te, who was later
forced off through injury. He found Ravel Morrison but the Hammers youngster
dragged wide of the far post. Vorm enjoyed a lucky escape as West Ham's
aerial bombardment continued in earnest, the Dutchman came for Rat's long
free-kick and missed it under pressure from Nolan, with Rangel hooking the
ball clear as it headed for the back of the net. Vorm then punched a corner
straight to Morrison, with several Swansea bodies rushing out to block the
shot. Substitute Matt Jarvis, on for Vaz Te, soon beat Rangel and picked out
Nolan, with the West Ham captain spooning over with Morrison better-placed
behind him. Swansea raised the tempo afer the break and Nathan Dyer crafted
an opening for Vazquez by spinning away from Winston Reid and Nolan, but the
striker could not get a touch on the winger's inviting ball. But the hosts'
set-piece demons would not go away, with Vorm unconvincingly punching a
sliced Michu clearance and Jarvis hoist when under pressure, with Nolan
flicking over the bar from the latter. Allardyce threw on Carlton Cole for
his second West Ham debut, while Michael Laudrup introduced Bony for the
ineffectual Vazquez. The Ivorian thought he had given Swansea the lead with
19 minutes to play from, of all things, a set-piece. De Guzman's corner fell
to the striker but Jaaskelainen pushed out his shot from the edge of the
six-yard box, with Mark Noble clearing Flores' follow-up header off the
line. Jarvis then headed over under pressure from Rangel at the other end
after Mohamed Diame had escaped the home defence.
Swansea thought a penalty should have gone their way in stoppage time, but
Phil Dowd waved away appeals that Joe Cole had handled a Dyer cross.

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Sam Allardyce felt West Ham did enough to secure all three points
Last Updated: October 27, 2013 9:31pm
SSN

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce felt his team had done enough to secure all
three points at Swansea and believes the lack of a clinical edge in front of
goal has hindered them so far this season. In a turgid game of few clear
chances the Hammers' dead-ball threat troubled their hosts all afternoon,
with Angel Rangel hooking a long Razvan Rat free-kick off the line, while
Guy Demel and Kevin Nolan also spurned sights of goal. Jussi Jaaskelainen
made two point-blank stops to deny Chico Flores and Wilfried Bony at the
other end, but the hosts were most aggrieved by referee Phil Dowd's decision
to turn down a stoppage-time appeal for handball against Joe Cole. The West
Ham substitute had his arm raised as he leapt to block a Nathan Dyer cross
but the game ended goalless. Allardyce again opted to start with a side
containing no recognised striker, and their 4-6-0 formation stymied
Swansea's passing game, while they carried a potent threat from set-pieces
at the other end. Afterwards, Allardyce said: "That's five clean sheets
we've got now. Away from home we've only conceded one goal, from a very
dubious penalty, and that is going to bring us a lot of points because
eventually we will score. "We obviously want to score more if we can but it
looks as though we have to create six or seven chances for ourselves. "That
has got to get better."

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SCOUTS' DISHONOUR OVER COLE EMBARRASSMENT
By Tony McDonald 27 Oct 2013 at 20:29
West Ham Till I Die

SO the Carlton Cole farce finally became reality today, when the player
discarded by manager Sam Allardyce at the end of last season made his
long-awaited reappearance in West Ham's first team as a second half
substitute at Swansea.

It beggars belief that a Premier League club should need to stoop so low as
to have to go cap in hand to a striker who was deemed not good enough just a
few months earlier and put out to pasture.

Naturally, he didn't score in the 25 minutes or so he spent on the field at
the Liberty Stadium but then none of us who have followed his career are
expecting much from a striker whose games-to-goals ratio is right up there
with John Radford's in Hammers folklore. In 287 senior games spanning five
clubs, Cole has mustered just 59 goals - a meagre return by any forward's
standards.

Which makes the decision to re-sign the 30-year-old as cover for the injured
Andy Carroll all the more bewildering and, certainly, it's a damning
indictment of the club's scouting system.

To compound West Ham's self-inflicted embarrassment, we even had to wait for
Cole to get himself reasonably fit again before he could even be considered
for a game. That doesn't say much for his attitude and professionalism
either. He (and his agent) must have been confident that clubs would be
falling at his feet to sign him up after West Ham showed him the door, but
that didn't happen, so he let himself go fitness-wise.

You cannot tell me that there really are no better options than Cole to be
found in Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A or Germany's Bundesliga? Are there
no younger options with potential who would be worth a crack? There must be
countless strikers as good (or as bad) as Carlton Cole who would give their
right arm to be given a chance to shine in the English Premier League. And
surely if they are not playing regular first team football in their own
country, their clubs could quite possibly be persuaded to release them on
loan, with a possible view for a longer-term transfer deal. The experience
of playing in the EPL would do them no harm - a win-win situation all round,
you'd think.

Apparently not.

Instead, we find ourselves in the humiliating, embarrassing situation many
Sunday morning football managers face most weeks of the season. You know how
it works . . . you drop a lumbering striker because you have 13 or 14 other
players better than him, but then your centre-forward injures himself
tripping over his daughter's dolls house at home, another player has to go
Christmas shopping with his missus, and a third has been out on a Saturday
night bender and is feeling too ill to even get out of bed the next morning.
So you have no other choice. You pick up the phone an hour before kick-off
and desperately plead with your only last resort to help you out of a fix.
You justify it in your own mind as being marginally better than playing with
10. I guess that's how Allardyce must have been thinking when he saw how
Cole had ballooned in weight and here he was offering him an olive branch.

The difference is, West Ham United is not meant to be run like a Sunday
morning pub team. We should be employing a chief scout who knows the game
inside out and surround him with a network of scouts in all the key areas of
Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, etc . These people should have lots of
promising players on their radar as short-term, middle term and long-term
targets but I have grave doubts that they know what they are doing or what
they are supposed to be looking for. Some days I seriously wonder whether we
have any scouts at all.

OK, so I know the days of Wally St Pier sitting down for a nice cup of rosy
with the parents of a budding schoolboy prodigy in Forest Gate or Barking
are a dim and distant memory. But really, what do our scouts actually do
these days?

You look at our most recent signings -Carroll, Downing, Joe Cole and Jarvis
- and you have to ask if any of our scouts even possess a passport that can
take them beyond the UK, or even outside Liverpool. The exception to this
rule might be the Romanian left-back Rat, although it's probably too early
to judge him. Some of our other signings from overseas in recent times have
been very dubious at best and should be subject of a steward's inquiry.

How come other clubs don't seem to have any problem unearthing new gems
before polishing off their rough edges?

At West Ham we're replacing one injury-prone striker bought at a
ridiculously over-inflated cost, with one who no-one else wants and who has
a poor goal scoring pedigree.

Ah, but Cole's only back here as cover, they'll say. He's just short-term
and won't get a sniff of a chance once Carroll eventually comes back into
the side.

Exactly.

So why even waste a place on the bench on someone we've already decided
isn't up to it? Why not take a punt on a young hopeful, a foreign loanee,
who might turn out to be the next best thing? Their wages wouldn't cost us
any more than Carlton Cole's. It would at least be nice to give chance a
chance.

Not only is Cole not the answer to what the club hopes will be only a
short-term problem, but the bigger picture is also one of major concern.
Carroll is damaged goods, we will never recoup anything like what we paid
for him and he is costing us a fortune in wages. It's all very well saying
he'll be back soon, but for long will he continue to play before suffering
his next injury set-back?

The plan to replace him with a permanent striker who can hack it in the
Premier League should already be well underway.

Anyone know a good scout?

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http://vyperz.blogspot.com



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