West Ham Are All About Attack
Alan Curbishley has been defending West Ham against charges that all they do is defend. and had denied claims that he stops the players attacking.
"No one is stopping them," Curbishley says. "We've got players like Freddie Ljungberg, Luis Boa Morte and Mark Noble and you can't tell me they're defensive.
"I've got two full-backs who like to get forward. Lots of teams want a goalscorer, which is fine, but you have to stop letting them in as well.
"Our defensive record is fantastic and we're just outside the top four for our defensive record.
"Most of our players are attack-minded but it's just the way it is at the moment. We have a strong base and hopefully the attacking stuff will come through, but it's not for the want of trying. In training it's all we do."
In defence of Curbishley West Ham did create a number of chances on Saturday and Carlton Cole should probably have got a hat-trick. I also think that Zamora should at least make the bench for West Ham's next match and his reintroduction to the team should lead to more goals.
posted by Keir Clarke @ 10:45 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
for people to be accusing curbishley of being excessively defensive ,or "too effing negative" as some people at craven cottage chanted ,is ludicrous. for a start,we only have one fit proper striker at the moment. secondly we have a midfield that is very attack-minded ,and as curbishley says,we also have an attack minded back 4.
additionally ,under the circumstances,the only reason that we have a shot at a UEFA slot still is that we defend well. if we had a full set of fit strikers available to us ,then there "might" be a bit of justification in these accusations.
but these complaints are sour,ungrateful grapes from people who should know better ,and from people with very short memories og where we were 1 year ago.
Martin Taylor's tackle was a poor one with the studs showing. However it was by no means exceptional. Lee Bowyer was sent off for a similar offence against Birmingham recently. The difference being that Bowyer did not make contact as his foot was higher than Johnson's ankle. Bowyer was red carded but his club appealed and won.
Such tackles need to be dealt with consistently. It is not acceptable to scapegoat the player who happens to break someone's leg for exceptional punishment if his tackle was merely the same as another dozen made that weekend.
whether other people tackle in a similar fashion ,or not,does not justify the tackle taylor made. the tackle was wrong, and is precisely the type of tackle the league should penalize. in a general sense ,the league needs to take a much more aggressive stance in punishing these tackles . taylor s wasn t an isolated example,but that doesn t justify it.
getting sent off for nearly ending a guy s career? hardly "exceptional punishment".
what were the other eleven "similar" tackles made last weekend then?
Just imagine where we will be with a full set of fit strikers!
Away from home we are excellent - We are defending so much better than any West Ham team i've seen in my 30 odd years of supporting.
Given our injury crisis and the situation we were in this time last year other teams are rightly jealous.
Maybe not the flair we are used to but I feel that will come next season.
agree with the 4.06 post of feb 25, that with a full,or reasonably full set of fit strikers ,we will be in a position to not only finish higher in the table, but play a somewhat more attractive style of football. that may require witing til next season ,but i think it will happen.
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