The papers made much of the boos at half-time and the final whistle against Palace. While there was some booing and disapproval, it didn't sound that loud to me. Part of the problem was the first half performance, where Palace could have been three-nil up. The crowd did get behind West Ham when the side improved after the interval and I don't think the lads can complain too much about the level of support. Part of the frustration was also due to hoofing balls from the half-way line towards Cole and the fact that lots of passes don't come off. Fans tend to look at a particular game and react to that rather than considering the league position.
Don't think Big Sam can cite the sendings off against Millwall and Southampton as mitigation as in both matches the players had a week to recover. But a great performance against Blackpool with ten men and no proper goalkeeper for 35 minutes would have induced some tiredness. Though as Terry Venables once said, the art of management is to "take away players' excuses". Don't think Allardyce should be handing them tiredness as a ready made excuse for a poor performance - the players have to take responsibility too. Though hopefully a week's rest and the return of Nolan will ensure we play with more fluidity at Cardiff.
No comments:
Post a Comment