Daily WHUFC News - 21st January 2013

Manager on Monday
WHUFC.com
Sam Allardyce is looking to his forwards to lead the way against Arsenal on
Wednesday night
20.01.2013

Sam Allardyce plans to make full use of his squad as he starts preparations
for West Ham United's second London derby in four days on Wednesday. The
Hammers were outstanding in terms of chances created in the 1-1 draw with
Queens Park Rangers last Saturday, but slightly less impressive when it came
to converting the chances into goals. The West Ham United manager plans to
try some new personnel and perhaps a new shape as he seeks to improve his
side's chance conversion rate when they travel to Arsenal on Wednesday
night. "I'll change the team and might change the formation and use the
squad to its full potential," Allardyce said. "The reason we dominated the
game against QPR so much is that only three of the players that played in
the previous game at Manchester United started. "I'm frustrated that we
didn't clinch a win but in terms of our efforts to try and win I can't ask
for any more. Technically and tactically we did exceptionally well because
we had the energy to do so. Unfortunately our final ability to score a
chance is the one thing that's lacking.
"Our home form has been outstanding, bearing in mind it's our first season
back in the Premier League. I think we've all been frustrated by some of the
recent results that have happened to us. "Losing to Everton and Liverpool
was a disappointment and I think that drawing against QPR was an even bigger
disappointment than losing to them. We opened QPR up time after time after
time, so to not convert those chances into goals leaves us all very
frustrated."

Marouane Chamakh and then Carlton Cole both led the line superbly against
the Hoops, but with the former ineligible for Wednesday night's game against
his parent club, Allardyce may well turn to the latter to take the game to
the hosts. The duo could also be supported by Andy Carroll soon, who is
inching ever-closer to a comeback from his hamstring injury. "We've got good
headers of the ball in Carlton and Andy. Carlton's header for our goal
against Queens Park Rangers was critical to get us back in the game. Chamakh
had a couple of good headers saved by the keeper. When Andy gets back, if we
keep providing the service I'm sure the goals will come. "The one thing
we're lacking is goals from the front line. If we had someone who was on
eight or nine goals, I think we'll finish in the top half."

Defensively, the Hammers were solid throughout against Harry Redknapp's
side, save for one counter-attack that led to Loic Remy marking his debut
with a goal. Big Sam feels his two central defenders, Winston Reid and James
Tomkins, could have done better to prevent the goal, but puts it down to
learning about the pace and quality of the Premier League. "It was our
fault that Remy scored as we made it very easy for him. The centre backs
have to remember, as young as they are and as inexperienced as they are,
that we have to defend correctly. "That is a difficult job as if you switch
off you can get punished at any time. They tried to play an offside when
they shouldn't have and all they had to do was stay with the runner and
there wouldn't have been a problem. "You can lose your concentration with
the amount of continual attacks we were trying and that's why the world's
best players who play in the world's best teams are there when they are
needed even if they are not called upon often. "It's a kick up the backside
for the both of them. It's just a case of learning from the experience and
not doing it again."

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Jarvis takes the positives
WHUFC.com
Matt Jarvis is feeling upbeat after West Ham United's dominant display in
Saturday's 1-1 draw with QPR
20.01.2013

Matt Jarvis is determined to take the positives from an ultimately
frustrating afternoon against Queens Park Rangers in the Barclays Premier
League. Despite falling behind to Hoops debutant Loic Remy's 14th minute
goal, West Ham United peppered the visitors' goal in search of parity, and
though reward eventually came in the form of Joe Cole's second-half
leveller, it was to end honours even. Club-record signing Jarvis admitted
there was plenty of disappointment in the dressing room at full-time, but
hopes his team-mates will take heart from another fine performance at the
Boleyn Ground. "It was one of those games where you're just hoping that the
goal would come and obviously it came near the end and we were just hoping
to get another one," he said. "We had to keep concentrating and make sure
we kept on doing the right things and put the balls in, and hopefully one
would break for us. Once we got the goal, we were hoping to push on and get
the second one. "We know we want to win our home games and get the three
points, but we put in a good performance and created numerous chances and I
just wish we could have put them away. "Our home form has been really,
really good and we wanted to keep that going. Especially against QPR, we
needed to get a positive result. We are disappointed that we didn't get the
three points but the performance was good. "I don't think anyone can
question everyone's desire to win the game. We're all disappointed that we
didn't get the three points but we've got to think positively and take a
very good performance and a point away from the game."

Jarvis also pointed to the fact that he and his colleagues will have to
produce the goods if they want to keep their names on Sam Allardyce's team
sheet.
"With the squad that we've got if you're not playing well, then you won't
get in the team and that's always a good thing for a squad, and it makes
sure everyone's really working hard and getting the right result for the
team."

Next up for the Hammers is a daunting trip to Arsenal's Emirates Stadium on
Wednesday, but the former Wolverhampton Wanderers winger insists West Ham
will head to north London in confident mood, in the hope of gaining yet
another positive result. "We've got to go there and put in a good
performance away from home, which we haven't really done recently," Jarvis
added. "We take confidence from Saturday that we were grinding away and
hopefully we can do that on Wednesday. "We've been working hard [away from
home] to get our shape and get the same momentum and formation, crosses and
shots on goal. It's just not happened for us recently. "If you let in an
early goal away from home, it's always hard to come back from. But we've got
to show character and desire as we've done on Saturday to make sure we get a
result. It's a game in hand for us and we go there with confidence from QPR
and will try and get a positive result."

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Allardyce on... QPR
KUMb.com
Filed: Sunday, 20th January 2013
By: Staff Writer

Delighted with the number of goalscoring opportunities created, Sam
Allardyce spoke rather less effusively about the quality of West Ham's
finishing against Queens Park Rangers. Here's his post-match press
conference exclusively in full...

Sam: I think you had enough chances to win three games today?

It's our Achilles heel, unfortunately. We've suffered that in recent weeks,
but more away from home. We've suffered here today because we couldn't have
created more opportunities to score than we did in the 90 minutes, but we
failed to get more than one.

However dominant we were in the statistics department or however many more
shots or crosses we had the one thing that matters at the end of the day is
the score - and the score was 1-1. At the end we have to be massively
frustrated and disappointed that we haven't turned that performance into a
well-deserved three points.

Is that it? Thank you!

Do you think you should have had a penalty in the first half?

Possibly. Looking at the replay on the laptop it looks like Howard Webb's
not in a great position to see it. I think he got a touch on Chamakh but I
don't think the referee's in a position to have a clear view of the incident
so what you can't see, you can't give as they say.

Whatever happened to day we just couldn't seem to get the ball in front of
the net as often as we should have done. Whenever we beat the goalkeeper
there seemed to be someone on the line who blocked it or whatever it was, so
it's been a very frustrating day for us. But by the same token you say to
the players, "if you continue to perform like that you're going to win more
than you draw, believe me."

How do you feel [Marouane] Chamakh did on his full debut?

Not too bad; I think he grew into the game and got better like we all did.
He got a couple of very good headers in the second half that we'd have loved
him to score from to get off the mark straight away. We've seen his power in
the air and in the end, it's his first game for a long time and he's lacking
that competitive edge. I think the last game he had was against Reading in
the Cup, quite a long time ago.

So, we brought him off and Carlton came on and did a job, because he got the
header in [that led to the goal]. When you've got strong headers of the ball
and put 46 crosses in like we did [today] you're giving them the right
service to score with one of their strengths. Hopefully that'll turn into
him scoring a few more goals for us. That's been our problem, our front men
don't score enough goals to win games of football we should win.

And Joe Cole chipping in with his first goal since coming back?

Yeah, great instinct to follow in and a great header from Carlton. They've
Cole Cole-d them!

What was he like in the dressing room afterwards?

He's pleased but he's disappointed that we haven't won it like everybody is.
In fact we're looking very dejected, almost like we've lost because they
knew that performance should have got them three points. As I said, I told
the lads "carry on like that and you'll win more games than you draw".

At the other end, all we got done by was the sucker punch. We talked before
the game about how they'll play on the break and look for one chance and
play the ball in behind you, because you're bound to leave spaces at the
back when you're dominating the opposition. Foolishly, we tried to play a
stupid offside instead of just tracking Remy and he put it away well.

Have you made a decision as to how you'll react to the misconduct charge?

Not yet. Today's game was far more important than a misconduct charge. I'll
sit down and review it with the people I need to review it with and make a
decision from there.

Has Jaaskelainen got hypothermia?

He didn't do much, yeah! No I don't think he did; it's encouraging to do
what we did today but the frustration and disappointment is that it didn't
lead to what could have been a comfortable victory.

QPR are a much different team to the one you played at Loftus Road, aren't
they? They seem a lot more resilient now?

Yeah, they are; they're not playing open, attacking football like Mark
Hughes tried to play earlier in the season. They took the game to us and
tried to open us up but they opened themselves up, we took full advantage of
that and got a well-deserved 2-1 win in the end. Now they make life
extremely difficult for you, it's hard to break them down and in the end we
did break them down but couldn't find a way to put the ball in the back of
the net more.

But yes, they have a certain way - particularly away from home that's
brought them another point. Whether Harry [Redknapp] thinks that's good
enough or not they've gone a long time without losing too many games, which
is what you want to do as a manager. Ultimately he probably knows in the end
that he's got to start winning instead of drawing but their system and the
frustration they're causing everybody has worked quite well for them.

It's frustrated us today because we know we should have won and we haven't.
It frustrated Tottenham and it certainly frustrated Chelsea, because they
won that one.

QPR were in for Joe Cole as well and they've shown they've got a lot of
spending power this week; how crucial was that to get him over the line?

Particularly when you play teams with the tactics of QPR today there's not a
lot of space to find in which to break them down because they fill the
18-yard line with four players and put four or five players in front of
that. You need clever, skilful little players to wriggle through those small
spaces and start creating for you which obviously he did.

On the other side is Matt Jarvis, a different type of player pounding the
full back and pounding the back four with cross after cross. That's where
the equaliser and chances came from. The service and providing of
opportunities was great today, unfortunately the finishing let us down.

Any news on Martin Olsson at all?

No, there's no news on Martin Olsson coming to a conclusion at the moment.
We haven't had a bid accepted by Blackburn.

You're still a few points ahead of the relegation zone. Is it important to
keep ahead of that pack?

We haven't lost or gained that much today so it's another game gone by.
We're in our worst run for picking up points at the minute, but that's not
to suggest that our performances have warranted so few points. The bottom
line, as always, is that if you don't finish your chances you pay a penalty
- and we paid the penalty today and in previous games before that.

Thank you.

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Redknapp on... West Ham United
KUMB.com
Filed: Sunday, 20th January 2013
By: Staff Writer

QPR's Harry Redknapp mixes his metaphors and tries to convince everyone that
he wasn't bothered by the negative chanting that came his way during
Saturday's game. Here's his post match presser, exclusively in full, here on
KUMB...

Harry: A good start for Loic Remy?

Yeah, it was good to see him score in his first game. I felt at that stage
of the game that him and Taarabt were going to do a bit of damage today but
then we came under the cosh and it was difficult.

Do you think that's a point gained or two dropped?

I think that's a point gained, I couldn't say we deserved to come away with
a win - that would be nonsense, wouldn't it? We didn't get beat so that's
five games unbeaten and at least we're in there, trying hard, having a go.
We came under severe pressure from corners, they penned us in and it was
difficult.

Carlton Cole came on and they knocked balls up to him; he's always a threat,
flicking them on, holding it up and getting bodies in the box. But we have
to try to play with a little more quality. We got in front and really that's
when you should be keeping hold of the ball - and we couldn't keep the ball.

As you say you did get in front but the second half was a barrage?

Yeah, it was. You've got to play, you've got to be bold enough to keep the
ball and want the ball, you can't keep kicking the ball back to them and
inviting another attack. That's what we tended to do second half; we just
sat in there, got deeper and couldn't get out really.

What you're going to need over the next couple of months is spirit, isn't
it? And you showed lots of that today, didn't you?

Yeah; you need spirit but you need quality as well as spirit and effort will
only take you so far. You need a bit of quality, you need to be able to
play, you need people who can play and pass the ball under pressure. I like
teams who can play and we need to be bolder and play, try to pass and keep
hold of the ball better.

Does that make it even more disappointing that you didn't get Joe Cole?

Well no; I wanted Joe, I think we could have got Joe and I would have had
Joe about two weeks before West Ham got him. It just took a long time to get
sorted, to be honest with you. We were talking to Joe's people for three
weeks before West Ham came on the scene. So I could have got Joe - and I
wanted to get Joe - but it just dragged on too long and I was disappointed
not to get him.

Presumably he wanted to come back here?

Yeah, once West Ham came in he was only ever going to come to West Ham. This
is Joe's club and I don't blame him. I said to him just now, he's made the
right decision, this is his home where he started as a 12-year-old when I
signed him. He's a fantastic boy and a good player and I'm sure the fans are
delighted to have him back here.

Why did it take so long?

I don't know really, I just think sometimes with them deals you have to get
them done quickly and once other people get alerted to players being
available you can lose them. I don't know. I think Joe had some bits and
pieces to tie up with Liverpool as well so it just dragged on a bit.

The finish from Remy must have pleased you, he took it extremely well?

Yeah, he did. But he will do that. He's got great movement off the ball and
if you can get people to slide him in when he makes runs he'll get in,
because he's got pace and he'll score some goals. He'll do okay.

And that gives you alternatives now?

Well we haven't had any pace up front, that's been the problem. I think with
Zamora coming back as well, if I can get Bobby fit - he could be around next
week hopefully - he and Remy could be a really good partnership.

Are you still convinced? From the outset you've been very positive.

I've got to be, yeah. It's going to be tight, it's going to be tough but
we've gone five games unbeaten. We're improving, we've done okay. It isn't
easy when you've only got four points after 13 games, is it? We're picking
up points at the moment, we're averaging more than a point per game. We just
need to get two wins on the spin. We've had a hard run; going to Chelsea and
winning there was difficult, then playing against a Tottenham team last week
with fantastic players. They're an outstanding team and to get a draw with
them was a great result. Then to come here is not easy for any team, I don't
care who comes here, it's a tough place to come.

A draw at West Ham is a decent result, isn't it? The problem is there aren't
that many games to go...

No, there's still enough games. If you win back to back games the whole
picture will change. Whether it's now or whether it's in eight games' time,
there's a long way to go. I was talking to Ian Holloway yesterday, I think
they [Blackpool] had something like 28 points from 23 games and they went
down. It can turn; you see teams suddenly getting dragged into it now from
above. It can happen.

What's the latest with Yann M'Vila?

We're still working on it, you know. We're still working on him.

We hear Tottenham are getting involved?

Are they?

And an unnamed Russian club?

A Russian club? I don't know, you know. You need to get deals done quickly,
the longer it goes on the more people get involved. They see his name in the
paper, he's good value... you know. So...

You got a great record coming back here, does it still mean something to
you?

Yeah, the place means something to me, of course. I grew up here, I came
here at 15 so... Different people now though.

What did you think of the reaction from the [home] fans?

I don't... I haven't got a clue. I don't give a monkey's, you know what I
mean? What am I, going home tonight worrying about what anyone thinks of me
here? I couldn't give two monkeys, it's the least of my worries.

Ryan Nelsen again was pretty special for you at the back?

Yes; great competitor.

Has he played three games for you this week?

No, he didn't play in the Cup game.

But he's still putting everything on the line for you, isn't he?

He's a top man, a great pro and a good centre half. We're going to lose him
unfortunately so...

Is that in March?

Yeah; the start of March, end of February I think.

Thank you fellas.

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