The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: West Ham United's Season to Date

The good?

West Ham have 22 points from 16 games in a league riddled with some very poor teams—and I think we're safe from relegation.

The bad?

The injury crisis and the appalling points tally from our home games.

We've seen just three wins at home this season (Middlebrough, Plymouth, and Sunderland), and we were lucky to win all of them.

And lest we forget, we were dire at home in the draws with Bolton and Wigan.

The ugly?

At home we resemble Bolton in their Sam Allardyce heyday—too often launching long, high, aimless "passes" at a big centre forward and hoping for...

Well, just hoping.

On the road, paradoxically, we've shown that we can play incisive football and supplement it with swift counterattacks.

At home against Everton, we played some nice stuff in the first half that had the crowd on their feet. One such move tore Everton's defence to tatters and created a chance that Freddie Ljungberg missed.

Also, in the second half against Arsenal we bravely played them at their own game and gave a good account of ourselves.

SO WHY NOT ALL THE TIME?

Scott Parker is a midfielder who excels at turning with the ball, increasing or decreasing the tempo of a match to suit the circumstances, running at defenders, and finding forwards with clever passes. Hayden Mullins is a master at linking up play by coming deep to take the ball from defenders before moving forward intelligently and economically.

So why are we bypassing them with long-ball, high-risk, low-quality football at Upton Park?

We can't hide behind the crippling injury list, because surely all the West Ham players are capable of passing the ball on the ground.

If our players are going against the manager's wishes by hoofing it, they should be ashamed of themselves (or dropped). If the manager is coaching them to hoof it, he should be ashamed of himself (or removed from his position).

Champions League?

Mr. Gudmundsson, you are so having a laugh!

There's no way that we'll evolve into a team capable of qualifying regularly for even the UEFA Cup if we continue to play hoof-ball—and I wonder how patient the chairman will be with Alan Curbishley.

Personally, my patience is shot to pieces—along with my bank account, when £80 comes out of it every month to pay for this "entertainment."

I've been an FA coach for over 20 years, and I'll admit that sometimes I have difficulty watching games as a fan rather than a coach. As a West Ham fan of 45 years, I've grown up on a diet of slick football with a premium on entertainment—regardless of how little success it has brought us.

We may live in hope for some fleeting success, but surely that's the "West Ham Way."

At the moment, both the coach and the fan in me are hugely disappointed.