Daily WHUFC News - 23rd November 2017

Hammers' 15-year-old stars impress for U23s
WHUFC.com

When West Ham United U23s took on Benfica in the Premier League
International Cup on Tuesday, there were a number of stars on show all over
the pitch at Billericay Town's AGP Arena. However it was two 15-year-olds –
Josh Okotcha and Will Greenidge – who manager Terry Westley singled out as
having impressed as they made their debuts at U23 level. Full-back Greenidge
stepped up from U16 level to play for the U18s earlier this season and his
progress went one step further when he started at right-back against the
Portuguese outfit. The story was similar for Okotcha – who is 16 next month
– and the centre-back looked solid against a number of experienced Benfica
forwards. Greenidge's night ultimately ended in disappointment as he was
replaced due to an Achilles injury, but Westley praised the pair for the way
they dealt with the challenge. "If you're going to play Josh and Will in an
U23 game, they have clearly done well at U16 and U18 level this season,"
said the Academy Director. "They have been the two standouts. We were short
defensively and it meant they got the opportunity. "And it was a chance for
them. You get a chance to show people what you can do. I was so disappointed
for Will because he started so well. He looked very accomplished on the
ball, had a good awareness of where he needed to be defensively and he grew
into the game. "He took a nasty Achilles injury which has been accessed
today and it could be a while before he's ready to come back."

Benfica forward Alan Junior Oliveira – 24-years-old – scored both goals in
the 2-0 victory for the visitors in the Hammers' final match in the
competition. And Westley recognised the difficulty of the contest Okotcha,
playing alongside U18 skipper Ben Wells, faced. "For Josh, it was a real
challenge and you have to concentrate all the game. You make errors at U16
and U18 level which you might get away with, but at our level and the next
level up with the first team, you get punished. "He knows he could have done
better for the first goal but overall, playing that level of competition and
surviving and doing well shows you have much he's come on. "We spoke at the
end to the players about coming out of the game in credit and those two
certainly did that. "If you looked at the game in general, we all came out
in the positive rather than the negative on Tuesday."

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Scully delighted with Benfica game-time
WHUF.com

Anthony Scully was delighted to complete his first 90 minutes of the season
when West Ham United's U23s hosted Benfica on Tuesday night. The Hammers
were beaten 2-0 by their Portuguese opponents on a blustery evening in
Billericay, though they went into the game knowing their fate was sealed and
they could no longer progress past the group stages of the Premier League
International Cup. And as a result, Terry Westley fielded a very young side,
containing two U16 players, and the Hammers held their own against an
experienced Benfica outfit whose first half goals won them the match.
Republic of Ireland U19 international Scully had started just one match
previously this campaign before Tuesday, and he complemented his second
start by remaining on the pitch until the full time whistle at the AGP
Arena, something he was extremely happy to do. "It was my first 90 minutes
since last season, so it was great to start and it was a massive positive
for me to do the 90," the midfielder, who has come off the bench five times
in Premier League 2 this season, said after the clash. "Obviously every
player always wants to play, but you have to understand that you're not
always going to get that opportunity and you have to keep working hard. "At
this age and not being able to play for the youth team, you have got to work
as hard as possible to force your way into the U23 squad. But you've always
got to respect the manager's decision."
The tie against Benfica was the Hammers' third in the International Cup,
after previous defeats to first London rivals Tottenham Hotspur and then
Spanish side Villarreal. And Scully believes though the U23s, who have
fielded young starting XIs in all three games, have not picked up the
results in the competition, they are better off for the experience. "It's
been good playing sides from different countries in this competition," he
contined. "I'm a bit more used to it as I get to at international level with
Ireland, but you can see the different ways different countries and clubs
from there play. "We obviously got that Spanish test against Villarreal and
then a Portuguese side tonight. It's great to get a variation of teams to
play at this level; it's good for our development. "We did well tonight,
considering we had two U16s in Will [Greenidge] and Josh [Okotcha] starting.
They both did brilliant, stepping up and playing at this level. "We were
told this was Benfica's best team possible as they were out to qualify for
the next stage, so that lads have done brilliant regardless of the result.
We must be proud of the way we've played."

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Watford 2-0 West Ham (And Other Ramblings)
KUMB.com
Filed: Tuesday, 21st November 2017
By: HeadHammerShark

Let's not fuck about. We're in desperate straits.

I'd love to tell you that I saw the green shoots of recovery in this game,
but in reality it was the same show we've all been watching for two years,
with merely a different conductor. And, by the way, it didn't take David
Moyes long to look like an extra from Full Metal Jacket did it?

I. What. How. Jesus H CHRIST


So let's examine the anatomy of this relegation battle, because that is
where we are right now, irrespective of the pie in the sky nonsense that is
being spouted by the club. What are the key areas we need to address?

***

Refusing to accept we are in a relegation battle


In 2010/11 we were relegated bottom of the league having allowed Avram Grant
to manage the team all season because of *spins wheel* . At this exact point
of the season our records can be compared thusly:

2010/11
Played: 12
Goal Difference: -11
Points: 8
Position: Bottom

2017/18
Played: 12
Goal Difference: -14
Points: 9
Position: 18th

It should be noted that with their current record this year's team would be
bottom of the 2010/11 league as well. They are only presently being saved
from that fate by the fact Swansea and Crystal Palace are so bad.

So, by any definition of the term we are knee deep in shit, and yet the team
and hierarchy are parading around with the familiar overconfidence that we
have all come to know and love. "Look at our attacking options" they say,
"That squad is way too good to be down there" I hear, and even as that
misplaced bluster floats out into the ether, we continue to lose games like
this.

For shitty 2-0 defeats at Watford are the building blocks of relegation. It
happens, we deserved to lose, Watford were the better side and we move on,
but the problem with that is one then looks up in February and such defeats
are scattered everywhere throughout the season.

We have managed just three away draws so far this campaign, and when you
play your home games at an abandoned nuclear bunker you don't get much home
comfort. I'm really beginning to think that Karren should have put "Too Good
To Go Down" on the new club badge, given I hear that said an awful lot more
about West Ham than I ever hear the phrase "London".

***

Civil War

Ah yes, the third rail of West Ham politics. The board. The fans. The
players. The bloggers. The flags. The stewards. The poisonous atmosphere
that hangs over the club like our own private ozone layer. As soon as we
fell behind yesterday the "Sack The Board" chants started up closely
followed by "You're Not Fit To Wear The Shirt". I'd heard something similar
at Spurs when we went 2-0 down, and other more regular away followers may be
able to pinpoint earlier instances too.

I will defend to the death the rights of football fans to protest about
their club. I despise the patronising "well what do they expect, they should
be grateful" media types who parachute into clubs for brief moments, shake
hands with the owners and then disappear again like weekend tourists. The
prime difference between the fans at the game yesterday and those talking
heads is that the former have paid to be there. Both literally and
emotionally. So if West Brom fans want to be entertained for their entrance
fee then they are entitled to say so, and if West Ham fans want to
understand exactly why we gave up our ground to actually get worse on the
pitch then that is also perfectly reasonable.

"But Zabaleta used to be good for City so how could he be bad for us?"

But I will also say this - such division never ends well for us. I was there
for the Bond Scheme and the anti-Cearns protests and all it does is transmit
a "get the fuck out of Dodge" vibe to the players on the pitch. It leads to
fearful, nervy performances like we saw yesterday where a team bereft of
confidence look petrified to get on the ball, and eliminates any synergy
between the crowd and the team. And ultimately all any of us want is for the
team to do well.

For those who were at Spurs you will know what I mean when I say that there
was a sense of inevitability to that comeback once the first went in. The
fans abandoned their pursuit of the Board and instead turned to the team and
a force of millions couldn't have stopped us. I'm not suggesting it's as
straightforward as everybody going all Harry Potter and thinking positive
thoughts to make bad things go away, but I'm also certain that history tells
us the team cannot win while there is an open war between fans and the
Board.

So, as we go into Leicester at home on Friday the risk is that we let in a
an early goal again, Jamie Vardy gloats again, and suddenly all that vitriol
is on display once more. All of which might serve to make us feel a little
better in the very short term, but with every game that we flush down the
drain and with every point we let slip away, we stumble a foot closer to the
trapdoor. And the ultimate sad truth is that if we go back down, the future
makes for very grim reading.

Now before anyone accuses me of being a stooge for the Board, let me say
this. I'm not saying don't protest, I'm simply saying that protesting while
the team is playing is just about the most self defeating thing we can do. I
take a back step to nobody in holding up a spotlight to the failings of our
Board, but whatever you are thinking about the value of getting your message
across while we lose on the pitch, I'm here to tell you it isn't worth it.
Inevitably what happens is that the message loses direction and starts going
toward those on the pitch, and if you think we're getting out of trouble as
sixty thousand of us slaughter Andy Carroll for 90 minutes then I don't know
what planet you're on.

So how do we protest? Well, there are quite a lot of ways. First among them
has to be to join the West Ham Independent Supporters Association (WHUISA).
It is a minimal cost of £3 that is charged not to make money, but to cover
running costs and to give leverage to the group, and takes you all of about
two minutes.

Giving them numbers gives them credibility as they engage with the club, and
the WHUISA board are all West Ham lifers with the best interests of the club
at hand. If you don't like the cherrypicked nature of the SAB or the
Bloggers Meetings then join up and demand that the club engage with your
elected representatives.

At this point I cannot understand why any West Ham fan would not have joined
WHUISA. I hear those who say that they think it's pointless, but the group
are already building links with the club and have succeeded in getting a
platform with them too. From little acorns and all that, but you only need
to look at the success of ISA's at places like Spurs to see what a force for
good they can be. Don't sit outside the tent pissing in - sign up now. An
ISA representing fifty thousand fans is a hell of a lot more credible than
one representing a few hundred.

Secondly, those other meetings that are run by Karren Brady are also
platforms to air views. I know that Graeme Howlett of KUMB and Geo Mackie of
Hammers Chat have attended past meetings and will willingly put forward
questions on behalf of their readers. Engage, contribute, participate -
standing in the away end and calling Karren Brady a tranny really isn't the
Wildean contribution to this debate that you think it is.

And on that very point - don't make the attacks personal. I really struggle
to understand how Brady gets the same abuse as the Chairmen. She didn't
choose to move the club, they did, and she has no involvement in on the
field matters. Every time someone calls her a slag or a bint or a dyke or
any other misogynistic, homophobic term, I tune out and ascribe it to the
fact that lots of men don't like women. When you resort to attacking her
gender, you're really showing you have nothing at all to say.

Equally, let's refrain from going to peoples houses and hanging up flags,
especially when there are young families inside. It's a nonsense.

Sacking Karren Brady will definitely sort out our defence

If you must protest, and I'm not denying there are plenty of reasons to do
so, then do it after games, or boycott the clubs commercial activities or do
everything you can to get the media to acknowledge the depths of feeling,
but ultimately I would suggest steering clear of anything that harms the
team. To put it bluntly, we've got a better chance of winning on Friday with
the Spurs atmosphere than we have with the one from yesterday. If we
splinter now - we are done for.

***

Incompetence

So, yeah, digging out the Board while the team flail away on the pitch isn't
all that helpful but it sure is deserved.

The frustrating thing that continues to drive me to despair about our Board
is how they seem so impervious to outside forces. Having moved the club to
the London Stadium they still seem to want to be judged as if we are at
Upton Park, and scrabbling around for a few spare pennies from the Sky
table. It is as though the clock stopped for them the moment they took over
in 2010 and football has remained static ever since. So while English clubs
have established a financial dominance over European clubs due to our TV
deal, West Ham have shied away from dealing with overseas teams and instead
tethered ourselves to the English market where everybody else gets the same
bloody income and we have no advantage. That way Robert Snodgrass lies.

The best thing we could do would be to buy a right load of old shit in
January

Similarly, while other clubs look to scoop up promising young managers and
snaffle their prime years, we instead look backwards to the distant past. I
don't necessarily know if Moyes is a busted flush but he was last good about
five years ago, which coincidentally is a rough match to where David
Sullivan seems to think we currently are. From the transfer policy to the
youth setup to the recruitment process to the interaction with fans -
everything is retrograde.

And people are swift to mock David Gold and his tweet about Champions League
football but, to my mind, it's the only sensible thing they've ever said. It
is, after all, the one time they've actually shown a scintilla of the
ambition needed to match moving to that stadium.

It was perhaps fitting that this game was against Watford, who seem to be a
maelstrom of chaos but are actually a progressively modern organisation with
a far better idea about where managers should fit into the structure of a
football club than we do. So while Marco Silva is one of those young,
progressive managers he is also fairly disposable within the Watford way of
working. They have acknowledged that managers have a short shelf life and
that asking them to spend all the clubs money is a short cut to having
exasperated replacements on the touchline bemoaning the lack of pace in the
team they have inherited.

By contrast, we seemingly put the manager at the epicentre of everything.
Truthfully, our transfer policy is opaque so it's impossible to know who is
buying the players - a massive problem in itself - but if rumours are to be
believed, then this is a Bilic team. But Bilic doesn't work here any more so
what fucking use was it to give him £40m to spend ten weeks ago when this
risk was always there? And watching this painfully slow team play in exactly
the same manner as they did under Bilic, just highlights even more the
lunacy of not having a proper Director of Football in place.

When we moved from Upton Park, we were stepping up a level. A London club
with fifty thousand season ticket holders, plenty of money, a playing staff
good enough to have made the Champions League the season before. And what
did we change off the pitch to match our newer, broader ambitions? Nothing.
We persisted with the same structure and set up, meaning that our Director
of Football was the man who led Birmingham to being a yo-yo club. That's it.
That's his sole qualification for the job. I have said it repeatedly but it
must be said again now - David Sullivan would not get the role he currently
has at any other Premier League club, just as I cannot envisage any other
top flight outfit employing David Moyes.

For a club so desperate to break into the Champions League, we seem
remarkably reluctant to employ any people who've actually done it.

Consider this. When Sullivan took over in 2010, the following clubs were in
the Championship or lower - Brighton, Huddersfield, Newcastle, Swansea,
Leicester, Bournemouth, Southampton, West Brom, Palace and Watford. Burnley
were also four months from relegation.

So in the intervening seven years these clubs have all had to climb to the
Premier League. We had an advantage over all of them at that point, simply
by virtue of our loftier position. And yet, what has happened in that time
is that smaller clubs have been forced to become smarter to bridge the gap
to the monied elite. And while the smaller teams have got more intelligent,
those larger beasts who have refused to adapt - helloooo Aston Villa - have
fallen by the wayside. And once those smaller teams get here, and start
making proper money, then they start to outperform us because they simply
have better people making crucial decisions for them.

So, look, we may go down this year or we may not, but until we show some
desire to drag ourselves kicking and screaming out of the 1970's and into
the modern world of professional football - where the chairman sits in the
Director's Box and stays out of the managers office, and where we have
proper scouts and not agents - we are always going to start every season on
the back foot. The panic hiring of Moyes simply reflects the tearing up of
yet another plan drawn up on the hoof, when the sad reality is that they
should have been planning every aspect of the stadium move from the day they
won the contract. But they weren't, and they didn't and this current mess is
what you get when amateurs mix it with professionals.

***

Bad luck


So with all of that whinging out of the way, I can honestly say that this
was a very strange game to watch. I don't think any West Ham fan would dare
suggest that we we deserved to win, but if you worship at the altar of xG
then you would have to at least acknowledge that we really did create some
outstanding chances. The Caley Graphics model below displays that rather
nicely, and doesn't even adjust for the fact that the second Watford goal
should have been ruled out for handball.

Cheikhou Kouyate was deployed in an advanced role and had the kind of
movement one usually associates with a bee trying to get out through a
closed window. And yet for all that wasted energy, he had two glorious
chances. The first produced a wonder save from Heurelho Gomes and the second
was skied into that poisonous ozone layer like he was wearing a pair of
flippers.

In between Marko Arnautovic forced an incredible double save from Gomes, and
when it's not your day you may as well give up and go home. Sadly, the
Austrian didn't and instead broke his thumb and David Moyes is about to find
out that every Christmas West Ham get a nightmare run of fixtures and every
Christmas West Ham get a nightmare run of injuries and as such I'm already
counting down until we hear his first "I've never known anything like it".

But while we may have been a bit unlucky with our finishing there was
precious little else to get excited about. What was most disappointing was
that our tactical setup looked pretty much identical to that under Bilic,
which rather begged the question of why we bothered to make a change. Andy
Carroll was still isolated up front, displaying the temperament of an irate
toddler denied his lunchtime Calipo, and should have been sent off before
half time. Behind him we essentially deployed a flat midfield five, wasting
Lanzini on the left and even then, didn't manage to offer up any more cover
for the defence than usual.

So the team ran the furthest they had all season, and Arnautovic sprinted
about a bit and it still didn't make any difference because Watford still
scored twice down his right side and running about a lot in and of itself,
is actually fairly meaningless. Players need to be running with a purpose,
to press or to harry or to get back from attacking positions into a tight
defensive shape. I can't say that I noticed any of that - it just looked
like the same thing I've been watching for months.

But that said, we are probably due a bit of luck. A sending off or a penalty
or a deflected goal or just something to cling on to. Because although all
football fans collect examples of misfortune like coins in a purse, I feel
like we've been on a bit of a tough run lately and when I think back to
those relegation seasons of years past I can't help but think that there was
quite a bit of ill fortune along the way.

***

Confidence


Which brings me, mercifully, to the end. And I want to talk a bit about
confidence because it's so hard to define but it's so clearly important, and
we are a team demonstrably lacking in it. When assessing football games it's
wise to remember it's a game played by humans. They behave weirdly and are
affected by different things of which we know nothing.

Who among us knows which player is suffering with injury or is playing in
fear of losing his place in this team and then maybe his World Cup place?
None of us knows who is an alcoholic or going through a divorce. I've made
all these points before, but this is simply to reinforce that there is an
awful lot going on that we don't see. Andy Carroll named his new born son
Wolf Nine during the week, so it's safe to say that he probably has a lot on
his plate just now like maybe a visit from social services, and he played
like it.

But confidence springs from lots of different places. Self confidence is one
element, obviously, but there is confidence in your team mates too, or your
manager, or the recruitment team who will provide you with some help in
January, or in your home stadium where you simply know you will pick up
points. And yet, as I lay all of that out in black and white it's pretty
easy to see why our players might be on the floor right now.

So many of them are out of form, playing for a manager they probably don't
trust a great deal given his chequered history and knowing that there isn't
any help coming in January because there never ever is under Sullivan, and
playing at a stadium they all hate. That's the worst combination I've seen
since some monster decided to put pineapple on pizza.

Confidence can also come from believing in your team structure or tactics,
or knowing that you are a fit team who can outrun any opposition. And I'm
drawing a blank again.

So for all the running that Moyes may have them doing, it's worth noting
that fitter is not faster. And while there may be a lot of work getting done
on defensive shape, that isn't going to make our midfield suddenly creative.
And for all those four managers on the bench, if you just play 4-5-1 and get
no service to your striker and your goalkeeper can't save anything low to
his left, then it's hard to see change there either.

Which brings me rather neatly back to where I started. I think us fans have
a part to play here. Things are pretty desperate and it feels like it might
get worse before it gets better. Plenty of you tell me that these columns
are too negative and that's fine but your negativity is my reality. And I
would call upon all fans to pull together now and forget that other shit.
The team needs us. West Ham needs you. We need an atmosphere to pull the
team up on Friday night and not force them back into their shells.

I want a change in structure at West Ham but it's not going to happen now,
and the most pressing matter we all face is beating Leicester. And if you
don't do it for me, well, do it for poor little Wolf Nine.

Please note that the opinions expressed in this article are those of the
author and do not necessarily represent the views of, nor should be
attributed to, KUMB.com.

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Leicester manager Claude Puel wary of West Ham reaction
By Christopher Heal
Last Updated: 22/11/17 6:30pm
SSN

Leicester City boss Claude Puel says his team need to "be careful" when they
face West Ham United on Friday night, Live on Sky Sports. The Hammers lost
their first game under David Moyes last Sunday when they were beaten 2-0 by
Watford, but Puel believes West Ham will produce a response. "Their fans
want a reaction so we have to be careful," said Puel. "We know this team and
they will want to show their qualities at home. "When a new manager arrives,
there is always a possibility for different players to show their qualities
and try and win their place. "It will be a strong game against them and we
have to keep our focus because it will be a crucial game for us. "I know him
[Moyes] from last season with Sunderland. After our game, I wish success for
him and for his team. Just not on Friday!"
Leicester travel to the London Stadium following a 2-0 defeat at home to
league leaders Manchester City last weekend, which was the Foxes' first loss
in six matches. Puel took charge of the club at the end of October and says
he is enjoying his start at the King Power Stadium following four points
from his first three games. "My first week at Leicester was very important
to me, he added. "It was a good feeling and that is with the fans also. Our
fans, in any game are super and create a great atmosphere. "The chairman is
the first fan of his team and the most important thing is having a good
feeling with the whole team."

Despite Robert Huth and Matty James being unavailable, Leicester do not have
any other major injury concerns ahead of Friday's game but Puel is unsure if
he will rotate his squad despite talking about their busy schedule. Puel
said: "It will be important to examine rotation. But for the moment, we have
some days to recover and we will see after the game. "If we have just two or
three days [to recover], it will be important to make some rotation. "We may
gradually look at some different players. It will be a normal thing for me,
sometimes we will have tiredness and some injuries."

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