West Ham's Defensive Attitude
The Actim Index of Premier League players features four West Ham players in the top one hundred. Perhaps not surprisingly not a single West Ham midfielder or striker makes it into the top one hundred Premier League players.
Only Robert Green from West Ham is currently in the Actim Top 50 of Premier League players this year. He just sneaks in at number 47.
Three more West Ham players make the top 100. George McCartney is the next most effective player, according to Actim at number 68. Lucas Neill is at 75 and Matthew Upson is at 86.
Glossing over the recent three 4-0 losses in a row then West Ham's defence has probably been the most positive aspect of the season. It is disappointing that not one West Ham midfielder of striker is in the top 100 Premier League players.
Dare one say this is perhaps a reflection of the style of play adopted by the club this year.
posted by Keir Clarke @ 6:28 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I would probably argue more a consequence of the injury problems suffered in midfield in attack, hence a complete lack of consistency in team selection in these areas, especially in comparison to the back five.
The only ones that have been regularly in the team are Cole, Mullins, Noble and Boa Morte. And neither of them have turned up any trees this season, for all their collective strength.
Hopefully next season's statistics will tell a different story. We'll see.
The thing that immediately came to mind when you mentioned the lack of midfielders in the index was the point lew made about that being the area most beset by injuries and with seemingly the most changes from week to week. In no set order- Dyer,Faubert,Ljungberg,Parker,Etherington and Bowyer have all spent significant time on the sidelines due to injury. Ane even Boa Morte and Noble have missed some games due to injury. Of the lot ,Mullins may be the only one who has missed fewer than 2 matches due to injury.
What s puzzling to me is how Neill is in the top 100, because he has really underperformed this season. He was excellent for us last term, but has been nowhere near that level this term. Also ,why would Neill be ahead of Upson ? To me Upson has been clearly better than Neill. I m not surpised that McCartney is in there ,as he deserves it, even if his second half of the season has not been as strong as his first .
nothing to do with the tactics, but as both above have said. injuries were our problem this season. nearly all the injuries were bought tho by our current manager ( or the ones that were bought to make an impact)
so the only blame i put on curbishley is the players he has bought, which have not been effective whatsover. his tactics i dont criticise, purely because i agree with most substitutions and the fact that he hasnt had a full squad
let nani make some good suggestions, and restrict who curbs buys to players that can instantly impact a team and id want another season with him.. he has gotten too much stick for half a season of poor performances, i still have faith he can make us an attacking force next season with a full team
I d agree with Simon that most of the substitutions have been good, but my criticism would be that in many instances ,the subs have come 10 minutes too late,at a minimum. I think Derby typified this- I m not convinced they wud have equalized had our changes been made earlier.
I also feel that there have been times when Curbishley s selection of the starting 11 could have been better - an example wud be instances where Boa Morte has started ahead of Solano ,or even Pantsil .
I think the criticism Curbishley has received for the tactics has on the whole been excessive,although again, there have been times where I think he s been stubborn. An example wud be his reluctance to accept that ,although it worked well for awhile,eventually the 4-5-1 became ineffective. He was slow to come to grips with that .
I think it s a fair comment that with a number of high profile players back ,undoubtedly Curbishley and the team s performance wud be better. What concerns me is that not only did Curbishley take too much of a gamble in buying players with suspect fitness records, but that the training regime at the club may have something to do with why we have suffered so many injuries.
Yes, he s been horribly unlucky with injuries, but to what extent does he and his management team bear some responsibility for our poor injury record?
I think in terms of his tactical ability,the "extremist" view that he has "charltonized" the team is wide of the mark. Doesn t mean that I feel that his tactics are always ,or generally spot on, because I don t see it that way, but I also feel that it s wrong for people to fault him on tactics all the time. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle- he gets it right far more than people credit him for, but not quite enough to make someone such as myself genuinely confident in him.
I seriously believe that this has been a FREAK season for injuries, and it has NOTHING to do with Curbs and his training methods.
My 'proof'? 04-05 we were not in the Prem, but Charlton had the LOWEST number of reported injuries that season (joint on 9 with West Brom) http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/2004_05/injury_ana....
In 05-06, we had the lowest number of injuries with 12 (joint with Chelski), Charlton were next with only 14 http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/2005_06/injury_ana....
Other than Dyer, I don't think any of the players are overly injury prone (Upson used to be in his younger days).
There has also been some criticism of his outdated methods and team that he has brought from Charlton, but look here http://www.whufc.com/page/Staff/0,,12562,00.html , you can't make up those qualifications can you?
Anyway, I just want this season to finish!
we can only all hope u are rite about it being a freak season
cheers
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