Every off-season while the stars of the game sun themselves in Tenerife, or, if they are Leicester City players, engage in awful acts that leave their fathers acutely disappointed, others back home are hard at work. Almost as soon as one season ends, preparation for the next begins, and every club has a number of things scribbled on their to-do lists.
West Ham are no different, in fact, they are more in need of a rethink than most when you consider the way their 2014-15 season horribly tailed-off. Two wins in their last 16 matches left a terribly bitter taste lingering on the palate, one that let new manager Slaven Bilic know he has a great deal of work to do before the new campaign commences.
Settling old scores
It might be a little ambitious to charge a new manager, one who has zero Premier League experience, with overturning an unwanted club record that has stood for the entirety of their time in the Premier League, but when you find out what said record is, it seems perfectly reasonable. West Ham have never finished a Premier League season with a positive league goal difference. In 1998/99, when the Hammers finished fifth in the league, the tally read – goals scored: 46, goals conceded: 53. Last season they were well on course to end this wretched run, but the lethargic final furlong meant they finished with a difference of -3. Of course, goals do not always translate into positional success, Liverpool finished above Southampton last season, with a goal difference that was 17 goals worse off. Still, scoring more than you concede is always generally a preferable state of affairs, the logical by-product of a team playing successful attacking football. The defence was not really the problem last year; West Ham conceded fewer goals than five of the 11 teams that finished above them. It was the other end of the pitch that once again put them in the red.
So, to whom does one look when in need of a goal or two? The strikers, naturally. Unfortunately, what comes naturally to Andy Carroll are a plethora of ill-timed foot and lower leg injuries, so to turn to the strapping Geordie as a reservoir of goals is, on the evidence of the last three seasons, to hope in vain. Diafra Sakho, who finished the club top scorer this season, showed his worth as a goal-getter, and his strike rate of 10 goals in 23 appearances was not half-bad either. But he too was injured for large chunks of the season, with his understudies proving largely ineffective. West Ham are actively trying to rectify the situation by reinforcing the squad with more talent up front – a bid of £14 million was lodged for Marseilles forward Dimitri Payet, who scored seven goals in Ligue 1 last season, and contributed more assists than anyone else in France’s top flight. Assuming West Ham secure the France international, his presence ought to offer considerable, productive assistance to Stuart Downing, Sakho and company.
Defending from the front
West Ham made more clearances than anyone in the league last season. They also had the third highest blocked shots tally. Overall, the only teams that made more defensive actions than the Hammers were relegated Burnley and QPR. Winston Reid and James Collins were both in the league top 10 list for defensive actions by individuals, despite playing fewer minutes than anyone else in on that list. Defensive-midfielder Chiekhou Kouyate, who also played at centre-back during the season, was 16th in the league for interceptions among midfielders, but third for clearances. Alex Song made the seventh most tackles in the league, but was the only West Ham player to appear in the league top 20 in this regard. The implication is clear: too much of West Ham’s defending, good as the respectable goals conceded column shows that it is, is done in deep defensive areas.
Defending from the front, the cerebral stifling of attacks before they begin, a near-prophetic reading of opposition passing, it is not too much to ask is it? Of course, these things are much harder to achieve than packing a deep defence, gritting your teeth and getting stuck in. But Bilic will not want to rely on the shot-blocking heroics of James Collins, and the cat-like reactions of goalkeeper Adrian to keep a clean sheet. Now that Alex Song has returned to Barcelona on loan, with the chances of re-signing him looking slim, Pedro Obiang has been secured. Last season in Serie A, the former Sampdoria midfielder made slightly more tackles, at a higher rate of success, than Song did in England. The Spaniard looks a good like-for-like replacement for Song, defensively at least. But Bilic, assuming he uses the 4-2-3-1 formation he did with Besiktas, will likely use two defensive-midfielders at West Ham as well. But it will require more than just manpower and tough tacklers. A systematic approach, with team-wide pressing and covering, is needed, where opposition attacks are funnelled into areas with the least threat and the highest chance to spoil. It is not easy, but neither is watching a defence make its umpteenth desperate goal-line block.
It is not over until the Fat Sam sings
Last season only QPR, Newcastle and Aston Villa conceded more goals in the final 10 minutes of games than West Ham. It was a troubling habit, one that cost the Hammers more than a few points, and their fans more than a few uprooted hair follicles. Whether it was mortal fatigue setting in late in matches, or a recurring mental lapse among the group, it was a tendency that must be rubbed out next season. It speaks to the previous point as well; perhaps, after 80 minutes of tooth-grinding, back-to-the-wall defending, things finally collapsed at the last, with the finish line in sight. Converse habits can be developed to counter this, where nerves are steeled as the team enters the final stretch.
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Of course, teams like Chelsea seem able to do this with ease, but the ability to see a game out, or at least not to collapse, is not solely the domain of bigger clubs; Leicester City had a positive goal difference in the final 10 minutes of their matches, scoring seven and conceding six, as did Stoke and Swansea. This appears to be a mental thing, as most professional footballers have the required stamina to make it through a Premier League match. Bilic was given a heroes farewell as he left Turkey, and seems to develop a passionate bond with his players. Here is hoping he can instill the sort of last-gasp surge of mental energy needed to ensure narrow victories are seen out.
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