Boleyn View

A little over a year ago, I posted this on BigSoccer on 2-15-05:

See I thought Alan would have been fired after Rotherham (even though we picked up a point thanks to the referee).
Now we have this debacle. I mean come on, how can you not score with a one man advantage? Or for that matter not take advantage of the oppostion by putting some new blood into the game (of course you are kind of limited when you don't actually put a forward on the bench, and your best player is Steve Lomas who was past his prime 5 years ago).
This was another joke loss for Pardew. The funny thing is if you look at Pardew's record, after his first season with Reading, every season has had exactly 5 less points earned than the previous. He is not good, he never was good and just hanging around praying ain't going to get it done. God almost did us a favor when he cause Roeder's head to explode, now we need for Brown to attone for that mistake (and the mistake of not paying McClaren more than Boro) and kick Pardew to the curb.

I truly thought that Alan had to go otherwise we would end up much like we did at the end of the Relegation Season. Like a ship without a rudder, the team was playing like crap. Since then the team has made it to the Premiership and has amlost as many points (1 away) as in the aforementioned Relegation Season. Most refused to actually blame Roeder for that season and instead blamed Brown. Well I think Brown deserved some of the blame but that blame should have resolved around the failure to fire Roeder early enough. I mean Harry walked out after the board refused to let him waste some more money (a Song or Camara anyone?). That was seemingly the right move. The hiring of Roeder was a clear mistake and it only came after everyone else rejected us. Then he got us into 7th, but our defense was the 4th from bottom so it should have been clear that either without more goals or a better defense we were due for a fall (thats why I think the offseason should resolve around finding a right winger comparable to Matty and a RB comparable to Konchesky, plus some general depth). So as the team played awful football, Roeder was clearly losing control, but still no moves. And that is why I have and always will believe that God almost did us a favor when he cause[d] Roeder's head to explode. People thought that you can't say that about Roeder thats just mean. Well look at what Brooking did when he coached the team and look at what Pardew did with the team in 3 seasons. Pardew has clearly gotten the most for his money out of his signings.
I now find myself rejecting most of my above statement. Its all about what have you done for us lately and Pardew has done amazingly well in his first season at the top. Now rinse and repeat and I might actually be a happy Hammer.

The rumours were all out there before the deadline. First it was Gabri, then we ended up settling for Scaloni.
Now the rumours are coming back, guess its a slow news month. As you can see to the right I have added a Rumours section, with links to the players information.
Today's rumors are for RB. Both Glen Johnson and Danny Mills are being rumoured to be signed. It won't be both, but either one should be a suitable starter. Signing Glen would be a phenomal signing. He fixes the RB problem, he's young, and he's still well liked by the fans (unlike DeFoe who made a major mistake after relegation). Danny Mills was an international, and his status as such was lost because of the awfulness of the Leeds team in general.


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What the stats mean

GP	Game Played
G	Goal
A	Assist
MWG	Match-Winning Goal
SPG	Set-Piece Goal
SOT	Shot on Target
SC	Successful Cross
FW	Winning a Foul
CW	Winning a Corner
PKM	Penalty Kick Missed or Saved
BS	Blocked Shot
PI	Pass Intercepted
TW	Winning a Tackle
ST	Last-Man Saving Tackle
CS	Clean Sheet
FC	Foul Committed
PC	Penalty Committed
OG	Own Goal
YC	Yellow Card
RC	Red Card

Goalkeepers
W	Win
L	Loss
T	Tie
SV	Save
PKS	Penalty Kick Save
CS	Clean Sheet
GA	Goal Allowed

The first of many tables of stats.

Name	Position	GP	G	A	MWG	SPG	SOT	SC	FW	CW	PKM	CS	BS	PI	TW	ST	FC	PC	OG	YC	RC
A. Ferdinand	Defender (Center)	26	2	1	0	0	4	2	20	0	0	6	25	72	42	0	18	0	0	3	0
N. Reo-Coker	Midfielder (Center)	20	2	3	1	0	2	8	29	2	0	6	3	69	70	0	45	0	0	3	0
M. Etherington	Midfielder (Left)	26	2	5	1	0	7	45	30	28	0	-	1	35	34	0	14	0	0	1	0

Interesting post about the talking heads on Fox Soccer Channel. The concern about Sam focusing on the UEFA Cup instead of the FA Cup is possibly the dumbest criticism that I have seen in a while. Its not like its Man U or Arsenal who can afford to change focus easily enough. This is a team that needs as much money as they can get, especially with the age of the club.
HOWEVER, I would love for him to focus on the UEFA cup instead of the league or the FA Cup (especially with West Ham playing twice during that stretch.

The other criticisms that I have seen are that he plays ugly football with the only focus being to win. Well if the England's coach's job is to entertain and not to win, okay don't choose him. I mean Sven has been entertaining hasn't he? Heck he's even won games, 34-15-10 which is a point percentage (pp%) of 63.3. But Sven has done this, this, and some more of this, and then there was this. I mean he sure was entertaining, and hell his comments weren't any worse than the last England coach, Hoddle who said:

You and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and half-decent brains," he was quoted as saying. "Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime. "I have nothing to hide about that. It is not only people with disabilities. What you sow, you have to reap."

I think that Sam will do fine. His focus is on winning. And when you don't have the cash you can't go out and get Rooney or Reyes or a Drogba. Instead you go out and get the flair players who are coming to the end of their career. They buy into your system and you slowly develop younger players. Plus if the nationalistic (or racist as the British call it) interests get their way he's English. Martin O'Neill is the only other person who has the same kind of profile. O'Neill for Leicester had a pp% of 48.3 for Leicester City and Sam has a pp% of 51.4. Both got their respective teams promoted. Both have made it to the League Cup Final (of course O'Neill went one better by winning it). If they are going to go English then Sam is probably a better choice than O'Neill. However if they go beyond the Isles, then I would try to hire Guus or Capello. But hey what do I know, I'm American.


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For a really good list of Eriksson's life as England coach take a look at this timeline.

I believe that if West Ham beats Bolton they will go on to win FA Cup. (One can dream can't they?) Neither team looked very good on Saturday, but I thought that Bolton applied better pressure and looked the better team. They got one goal called back on what I initially thought was a correct offside call. However on review the luck was definitely in West Ham's favor.
Review of the Match

However in the meantime West Ham don't play until March 4. The replay is being figured to be on the 7th if Bolton get through to the next round of the UEFA Cup otherwise it will be the next week. Either way it means to straight matches against Bolton. Bolton is the one team I dreaded in this round. Yes Chelsea, Manchester United, and Liverpool are 1, 2, 3 respectively in the league, but they wouldn't raise any expectations. With Bolton on the otherhand, we might think we had a chance so the possible loss would be bad for morale (as we have already lost twice to them this season).

With the return of the Champions League on Tuesday, I would like to make some predictions.

	Teams		Predicited Winner
Bayern	-	Milan	Milan
Benfica	-	Liverpool	Liverpool
Real Madrid	-	Arsenal	Real Madrid
PSV	-	Lyon	Lyon
Chelsea	-	Barcelona	Barcelona
Rangers	-	Villarreal	Rangers
Bremen	-	Juventus	Bremen
Ajax	-	Internazionale	Internazionale

Yes I picked Bremen and Rangers. I love Thomas Schaaf, based on his record in the Bundesliga. As for Rangers, thats just me taking on a flyer. Why can't Mcleish swan song be getting Rangers to the next round?

He's mouthing off. He isn't very good, and was basically known for pace and thats about it. I wonder how Bellion actually thought he would be a starter?

Bellion: I lost my head, especially as the manager told me when I arrived I was going to be first choice on the right wing all season.

I'm not sure how he thought he would be better than Shaun Newton. Besides he's not even a good right wing, he's a bad out-and-out striker.
Stats from league games:

	Games	Goals	Pens.	Assists	Shots	Corners won	Succ. Crosses	Fouls won	Passes failed
2005	8	0	0	0	0	1	1	6	25

	Shots blocked	Tackles won	Last man tackle	Fouls conc.	Pens. conc.	Own goals	Interceptions	Yellow cards	Red cards
2005	0	4	0	3	0	0	3	0	0

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Bad news is afoot, specifically regarding Roy Carroll's back. I thought that the most recent doctor's reports had been positive. It sounds like they were positive but things have not progressed as the doctor's would have wanted. Pardew's take:

He is going to see a consultant about a minor operation to correct it as he hasn't seen much improvement.
I don't want to say he will be out for the rest of the season because the lad is a bit worried anyway, but I think he will be out for five to six weeks.

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I love numbers. Numbers can help quantify quality.

In football the use of stats seems next to non-existent; I hope to change that. Stats are used in the Premier League, to create the Actim Index. I hope to have a post explaining some of this or at the ver least the usefulness of it.
West Ham currently has 3 players in the top 16 of the Actim Index. Before the season started if you told me that we would have one in the top 20, I would have laughed at you. Of all the players on the least I am personally very glad that Marlon is in the top 6. He is so good, and the number of comments about him being "lazy" before the season started bordered on racism. I think with him and Ashton up front West Ham is set for years to come.

My plan is to put up the stats for the season so far and occasionally update them. The best source I have found so far is Yahoo's fantasysports. Soccerbase is good for career stats and Football 365's stat page is good for team stats. If you have any better sites feel free to add them in the comments.

And its a link to a Manchester United related video.

There is no justice to this.


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