The Spearhead and the Complete Team

Part 4: Attackers

We end the poll at the top, well, at the top of the formation at least.
It’s been well documented in recent years how poor our strikers-to-goals ratio has been, but contrary to how some Sullivan-Gold critics choose to present the matter, it’s actually been an issue that has plagued our club for a long period of time.

In fact, one has to go all the way back to Tony Cottee and the 1986-87 season to find a striker who scored 20 or more goals for us at the top level. (Teddy Sheringham scored 20 in the 04-05 season, but that was in the Championship)

Which is why instead of having 2 strikers upfront, we decided to go down the route of having an established striker up top with a more deep-lying, second striker type of player to partner with.

I’ve already mentioned this in previous posts but we left the choice of whether the partner to the main frontman would be a second striker or an attacking midfielder to the voters and their nominations, and after polling the votes we ended up with a player who can be best described as a second striker.

SECOND STRIKER

Personal Picks: Downing, Lanzini and Nolan
As I’ve already stated in the previous post, Downing’s best times with us were actually at the top of a diamond, where he was pulling the strings in his own way. He wasn’t a typical playmaker with impeccable technique, but his unique runs from a deeper wing position into the centre made him really hard to mark. Already known for his crossing ability, he showed surprisingly good final balls on the ground as well, which confused his markers with which option he was going to take.

Lanzini is much better, in terms of technique, than Downing ever was, but his inconsistency coupled with a bit of personal sentimental favouritism towards the underrated Downing put him in second place for me. I do believe, especially after Payet’s departure, Manu has all the chance in the world to become the talisman that we all hope he can become.

As hated as the style of football that Big Sam used at the club was, it’s a bit unfortunate that Kevin Nolan gets tagged as the poster boy of that style in a negative, he was a really good leader for us, in a really shaky period when we were seeking stability and trying to establish our Premier League status again (post a season in the Championship) . Whatever Nolan lacked in terms of passing and traditional technique, he made up for in doggedness and great intuition, to be at the right place at the right time to score a goal, something Lampard was also known for and Delle Alli has mastered at Spurs.

But the man who knocked all my picks (deservedly so) out of the park?
Paolo Di Canio.
Was there ever a doubt?
The only man who can rival Payet in terms of technical ability and genius on the ball, he trumps the Frenchman in terms of how deep his Claret and Blue status goes. A bonafide legend for us, and an icon of the Premier League in general, the only reason he didn’t get a larger number of votes than the 5 out of 9 he got is because of the relative youth of our fan club. I’d seen him play live, yes, but since I wanted to be as honest as I possibly could, the truth is I wasn’t a West Ham fan at that point yet, although he definitely was one of the huge factors that contributed to me becoming a Hammer eventually.

5 seasons, 51 goals from 141 appearances, and countless moments of pure magic. Di Canio was similar to Cantona in terms of being a maverick who needed a team that allowed him the stage to shine, West Ham was the club that allowed Di Canio, a mercurial talent capable of the most outrageous of skills and scoring the most insane of goals, to show his stuff. And show it he did.

Payet may have been slightly better in terms of pure ball control and technique, as well as being a better playmaker, but Di Canio topped off his ability with an aura of fire and steel that Dimitri didn’t have, which much more suited his position upfront, either alone or alongside another striker. His scissor volley against Wimbledon back in March 2000 is still considered one of the greatest goals ever scored in the Premier League.

When he was not wowing audiences with his skill, he was always the centre of attention for various controversial incidents, both negative and positive. From demanding a substitution when a series of refereeing decisions went against him to receiving the FIFA Fair Play award for stopping play when he could have scored since the opponent keeper was down injured, Di Canio never stopped entertaining us.

Rejecting a move to Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United may have been what cemented his legendary status with us, but for the sole reason that he made so many football lovers aware of West Ham and kept it relevant as a club itself, he will forever remain in our hearts, and for the lucky ones who saw him in his prime, in our memories as well.

Other Votes – Trailing Di Canio by 9 points, Lanzini takes second place with Kevin Nolan getting third spot, edging out Defoe and Downing who share 4th spot, Diamanti places 5th and Payet, Arnautovic, Demba Ba, Tony Cottee and Lee Bowyer round out the nominations.

Interesting Tidbits – Of the 5 votes for Di Canio, everyone voted him as their #1 except Gary who voted him at #2, and that was only because he felt Defoe would be better in that particular position. Lanzini was nominated by 6 of us which shows how high he’s rated while Nolan picked up an interesting 5 nominations. Maybe he wasn’t as hated as I initially thought… haha

STRIKER

Personal Picks: Arnautovic, Ashton and Carroll
*Sigh* Arnautovic. I actually believed in you. Not just for your ability, which I still begrudgingly do, but in all those words you spun trying to explain how you were just a victim of the media and how circumstances spun beyond your control.
Still, I can’t deny that I haven’t seen a better striker in terms of all-round ability in my time as a Hammers fan. Power, skill, pace, on his day he was as good a modern striker as any of the top strikers in the league. However his mindset never really did catch up to all his natural talent and now he wastes away the end of his career in China.

*Sigh* Ashton. Another striker I believed in. And a sigh for a very different reason than the one for that snake of an Austrian, Dean Ashton was the first West Ham player I fell in love with that came to be symbolic of everything that I loved (and frustrated me) about West Ham.
To put it short, were it not for injury, Dean Ashton had the ability and potential to be what Harry Kane is now a decade before Harry Kane asserted himself onto the mantle, the complete English forward leading the line for club and country who just had that special ‘it’ factor.

This article sums it up beautifully – https://www.planetfootball.com/nostalgia/a-tribute-to-dean-ashton-the-best-striker-england-never-had/

Andy Carroll. The football striker that’s as tall as a WWE wrestler (even looks like one, google him alongside Edge, I kid you not) but has bones made of glass. 7 seasons he played for us, barely managed more than 140 appearances and scored just 34 times for us. But you can’t deny that on his day and in the air, he was as close to unstoppable as you could get. IF you played it the way he needed it.

So who did finally win the poll to lead our line? Who was the striker who was voted into first place by a whopping margin of 21 points, garnering nominations from 8 out of 9 voters, 6 of whom have him as their personal #1?     
Why Carlos Tevez of course.

Carlos Tevez, another West Ham icon.
Both the most curious as well as most obvious of West Ham icons.
Curious because if you looked at the stats alone, Tevez barely played a single season with us, scoring just 7 goals. In fact, he didn’t score his first goal for us until the closing months of the season, all the way forward in March.

So how is it that he is an icon? How is it that he is the striker who wins the vote from both the most of our voters as well as regarded so highly by them?
a) The timing of the goals. By the time of Tevez’s first goal, West Ham was in dire straits. We were already preparing for the possibility of being relegated. Of the 7 wins at the end of the season that ensured we beat the drop, Tevez’s goals were responsible for 4 of them. That’s including the most important one scored against the already crowned Champions of the season, Manchester United, in the last match of the season. If that doesn’t say iconic, I don’t know what does.
b) Skill. Even though he didn’t score for 6 months, it was quite obvious that he had the ability on the ball that was potentially world-class. The fact that it all came together in brilliant fashion with his goalscoring towards the end of the season just solidified the inner belief and hope we had cultivated of him in our hearts beforehand.
c) Passion and Heart. The most important thing. The image that comes to mind when you picture Tevez in a Claret and Blue shirt is that of him celebrating a goal, which was either after a dazzling yet gritty run or a spectacular strike, running like a pug of sorts, tongue in the air, face full of glee and a sort of unkillable energetic aura around him
So yes, you could sum up the whole thing in this one line: Carlos Tevez enabled us to dream and live out the dream along with him.

Other Votes – Arnautovic and Ashton come 2nd and 3rd with just a point between them, Defoe comes 4th, with Demba Ba, Di Canio, Carroll, Zarate, Cottee, Vaz Te and Carlton Cole rounding out the nominations

Interesting Tidbits – Tevez was the player most directly responsible for me becoming a West Ham fan as it was that escape from relegation that got me hooked. However, I officially became a Hammer only from the season after that, so I didn’t think it would be fair for me to vote for Carlos.
I’m also a bit interested players like Diafra Sakho and Marlon Harewood didn’t even get a mention. Also, apologies to Tony Cottee, but we’re just too young to have seen you play.

That wraps up our attack as well as our XI.
An iconic duo who actually look like they compliment each other, bags of skill and talent from both of them, with both capable of scoring amazing goals as well as setting up the other to score, Tevez’s hard work and energy would also play off well with Di Canio’s more mercurial vibe. The only weakness you could see with this pairing is the lack of an aerial threat, but with feet and minds like these two have, they could probably use their heads to outplay their opponents even if they couldn’t win actual headers with them.

That’s our team, with the next highest voted players listed as subs below the main XI players.
If anything, at the very least, this team is going to be fun to watch.

When I get time, I’ll be doing an analysis and deeper look at the voting that went behind the polls.

Read the older articles here:

• Our Best XI — Introduction
• Our Best XI 02 — Defense
• Our Best XI 03 — Midfield

Midfield Enforcers and Wing Wizards

Part 3: Central and Wide Midfielders

Now we enter the meaty middle of our formation.
As I stated in the introduction post, our formation was decided based on the results of our voting. By this point a second striker was prioritised over an attacking midfielder (which would have resulted in a 4-5-1 type formation) This means our formation has frozen into a 4-4-2. The strikers will be revealed in the next post.

This post will be focusing on four players split into three positions (two central midfielders and a right and left winger).
Before I get into the actual players, I would like to say a little something about what I consider is ‘The West Ham way’. Whenever other fans mention this, or even most of the times it’s mentioned in the press, it’s said with an almost snide manner as if it’s some ludicrous aim of a smaller club aiming to play attractive football that is above our ability.

That is not the case.
For every great flair player we have had, we have always had grit to accompany it. The West Ham way isn’t so much a drive to play attacking football at all expenses, but rather a choice to play POSITIVE football, with an intention to play on the front foot even against bad circumstances. This is why the following positions and the players that fill them are critical to how we West Ham fans view our club philosophy.

CENTRAL MIDFIELDER

Personal Picks: Parker, Kouyate and Rice
Scott Parker. The absolute best English defensive midfielder I have ever seen. I was too young to have seen Billy Bonds play (too young as in not even conceived yet) but I have heard even older Hammers say Scotty Parker was Billy Bonds part 2.

An absolute leader on and off the pitch (it’s ludicrous to think that he was never officially our captain), he may have caught international interest only after he left us for Spurs, but any Hammer will tell you his peak years were with us.

He was already phenomenal as a workhorse and as a tackling machine, but he added flair and the occasional driving run forward to the goal, Parker was expected to be a complete engine for us. Remember, in the season that we were relegated, Parker took home the FWA Player of the Year award.
Let that sink in, a player from a team that finished bottom in the league took home the Player of the Year award, THAT was how good he was.
I love Declan Rice now too, and he has the potential to become a club legend for us, but we have not seen his prime yet, which is why I went with the box-to-box monster that was Cheikhou Kouyate. He may have gotten lazy towards his last season, but for a brief period, he was the perfect physical presence we needed.

And how did the others vote? Well, as expected, Super Scotty Parker won the first spot by a landslide. Of the 9 of us that took part in the voting, 8 of us had Parker as our #1 pick. The only 1 who didn’t was Anirudh, and it’s most probably because he became a fan after Parker had left (though I may be wrong about that haha). So with the biggest margin between a #1 and a #2 spot (30 points), Scott Parker is our first pick.

Interestingly, as proof of both his own meteoric rise in terms of talent and I guess our desperate need to have another academy graduate prove himself after such a long time, Declan Rice gets the second spot.

This is a really solid central midfield duo. With a pairing like this, it almost ensures none of the attacking players have to worry too much about losing the ball or about getting the ball back if they do. Between Scott’s energy and steely tackles and Rice’s reading of the game and the combination of the physicality they both bring as well as their never-say-die attitude and willingness to play the ball to more creative players, there is no better pairing for a steady midfield.

Other Votes – Though this was the most overwhelming win by a single player, this category also had the most number of players nominated in some capacity or the other. The 10 other players nominated were, again in order of their votes, Lampard (who missed out by 4 points for the 2nd spot), Kouyate with 3 points, Joe Cole, Downing, Carrick, Diame and Mark Noble with 2 points and Behrami, Collison and Hayden Mullins with a single point each

Interesting Tidbit – Even though Lampard missed out on a spot, he received 3 votes as opposed to 5 for Rice. He was voted higher consistently, all #2 spot, but missed out since Rice got 3 #3 votes, 1 #2 vote (from one of our senior voters, Ashok) and a #1 vote (by the aforementioned Anirudh)

LEFT MIDFIELDER/WINGER

Personal Picks: Payet, Felipe and Boa Morte
I was actually going to report the result for the Right Midfielder/Winger position first as per the order of how we voted, but since we’ve just finished one obvious pick, I figured we could finish up the other incredibly obvious pick.

Dimitri Payet. “Frog” “Snake”. There is plenty of vitriol that was spewed against him by a lot of West Ham fans, but damn it if they won’t also tell you he was probably the most talented player they’d seen put on a Claret and Blue jersey, at least one of the Top three of all time.

As an attacking playmaker, he was pretty much perfect.
Sublime ball control and dribbling skills. Check.
Otherworldly vision and exceptional passing ability. Check.
Ability to finish the ball when needed to. Check.
Extraordinary set-piece ability. Check.
If one wanted to nitpick, there is the criticism that he was maybe, at times a tad bit too mercurial. Payet was switched on way more often than off. In fact, I don’t actually remember him having more than 1-2 complete off days, since even on a bad day, he could pull off something magical, something game-changing, all in the blink of an eye.

Felipe Anderson is the current successor to his role, and he is a really good player on his day, but he’s still far too inconsistent to my liking and is nowhere near the playmaker Dimitri was.

I happen to remember Boa Morte in a much better light than most of my fellow fans, but I guess that was because he was the main winger when I first started watching, and we didn’t get as good a replacement for some time after that.

And again, as expected, a landslide victory for Dimitri Payet as he grabs the spot with 42 points, a whopping 27 point lead over the second-placed Felipe Anderson.

We may hate the guy for leaving the way he did, but it is obvious that he still holds a special place in our memories, if not our hearts. 11 goals and 18 assists in 48 PL appearances don’t show how important he was to us. Payet’s magic went beyond these statistics, the number of magical moments he gave us was countless. In a single season, he convinced all of us and quite a few others that we were capable of becoming legitimate contenders for a European spot and who knows, if he’d not had the problems he developed later on, he could’ve gone on to be one of the all-time Premier League greats. Ah, the what-ifs, the what-ifs.

Other Votes – Felipe’s second spot place is another indicator that only recent talents have really impressed and it is only given more credence when this position, the right wing position and the goalkeeper are the ones with the least number of nominated players. In fact, Etherington who comes third and the duo of Trevor Sinclair and Boa Morte who tie for fourth are the only other proper wingers nominated, with Masuaku and Lanzini rounding up the nominations

Interesting Tidbits – Only Adoksh‘s vote for Payet at #2 prevented him from getting a clean sweep of #1 votes and the largest landslide victory for a player, Adoksh’s first pick was Felipe and his 3rd was the same as mine in Boa Morte. Apparently Adoksh still hasn’t let his grudge against Payet slide completely haha. 😀

RIGHT MIDFIELDER/WINGER

Personal Picks: Downing, Diamanti and Antonio
I loved Stewart Downing. It’s a shame that when most people think of Downing all they think of is a stereotypical English winger when he showed for us, all too briefly, that he was capable of so much more.
In Big Sam’s final season, when Carroll and Nolan were both out with injury, he tried out a brand new 4-4-2 diamond formation with Downing at the attacking end and he absolutely shined for us.
I know that doesn’t qualify him for this position, but since I guessed (rightly) that he wasn’t going to have much of a chance in that vote, I’d at least nominate him for the other position he played when Big Sam abandoned the diamond for his usual 4-5-1 once his big two came back from injury. I truly believe if he hadn’t done that (especially since the diamond was still successful), the club would have finished higher and Sam would have probably even had a longer career at our helm.

Diamanti was another maverick talent who, though not quite as brilliant as Payet, was also another freekick specialist with an eye for the spectacular and Michail Antonio is a winger with power and speed that can be quite unbeatable on his day

This was the first position in which a player I didn’t vote for, won the poll, with 5 out of 9 voters all choosing him as their #1 pick, West ham Academy product Joe Cole gets the starting spot on the right-wing

One of the fabled Academy graduates of the early 2000s, Joe Cole was the precocious creative livewire of the bunch, a technically gifted winger with “skills of a Brazilian” (a quote by Pele, who knows a thing or two about Brazilian skills), and though he hit his prime with another London club, Chelsea after being a part of the team that got relegated in the 02-03 season (a team still considered by many to be the best team to ever get relegated from the Premier League), for close to four seasons he was a key part of the great hope West Ham promised, not only for our fans but also for the England national team. He returned a decade later to play a squad role for two further seasons before eventually finishing his career in the MLS last year.

It goes to show you how enormous his reputation was that even with an accomplished career including a trophy cabinet of 3 Premier League titles, 2 FA Cups and a Champions League runner-up medal, as well as being a part of the 05-06 PFA team of the year and being voted Chelsea’s player of the year in 07-08, he is still considered to have not lived up to the potential he showed in his early years with us.

Other Votes – Stewart Downing actually tied for second place with Yossi Benayoun, Antonio came in third, Diamanti fourth, Etherington fifth and Behrami sixth. Judging from these, even though the number of nominees is the same as the number of Left wingers nominated, the quality on the right wing was better throughout the years.

Interesting tidbits – Benayoun actually got the most number of nominations (6 out of 9), mostly in the second spot in the voter’s lists but the number of people who rated Cole and Downing highly was enough to get the first place and tie for second respectively

There we have it, our 4 midfield players.
A classic midfield consisting of 2 steely, selfless defensive players flanked by 2 creative wingers with dribbling skills as well as playmaking abilities, the great thing about this group is that it actually looks like everyone compliments the other.
Payet gets teamed up with his usual full-back partner in Cresswell while Zabaleta’s experience and professionalism will mesh well with Joe Cole’s youthful drive and if they ever do lose the ball, as stated before, Parker and Rice will either hunt it down or be in a position to intercept balls through the centre just to pass it back to them with as less fuss as possible.

• Our Best XI — Introduction
• Our Best XI 02 — Defense
• Our Best XI 04 — Forward

The Rear Guard

Part 2: Goalkeepers and Defenders

By Michael P.C.

We start from the rear guard, something West Ham have never really been known to excel at traditionally (Not counting a certain all-time great who also captained England to the World Cup)

All eleven members of our club who ended up taking part in the poll cast a vote for the Goalkeeper position.
Since this was the first position we polled, and also because the club isn’t exactly blessed with options in the position, only two players were nominated by each voting member.
Every other position required three players to be nominated.

GOALKEEPER

Personal Picks: Green and Fabianski
I’ve seen quite a few Hammers keepers in my time as a West ham fan, and though Fabianski is perhaps the best I have seen in terms of quality shot-stopping, Green was a really stable pair of hands for a consistent and long amount of time. So for this one, I went with Green as my #1 and Fabianski as #2.

Interestingly enough, Green and Fabianski garnered the most number of mentions from all the other members too, with both tied at 7 votes each. However, with 5 members voting for Green as their No.1 as opposed to just 2 members voting for Fab as their main keeper, Rob Green took the lead and is our No.1 Goalkeeper

Rob Green was the main keeper for the Hammers from his debut season in 2006 up until the final year he spent with us in the Championship in the 2011-12 season, making 241 appearances for us in total. Only Ludo Miklosko has more appearances between the sticks for the Hammers ever since the Premier League started.

Other Votes – Shaka Hislop placed third getting 3 #1 votes, Phil Parkes got 2 #1 votes, Ludo Miklosko got 2 #2 votes while Adrian, James and Lama got a single mention each.

Interesting tidbit – Parkes and Miklosko are the usual suspects when it comes to all-time legends lists, and the 2 voters who gave Parkes their votes, Ashok and Sureshbhai, were also the ones who gave Miklosko their votes as well, with both going for Parkes as their #1 and Ludo as their #2. The relatively young age of the majority of us showed here in the voting.

RIGHT BACK

Personal Picks: Zabaleta, Lucas Neill and Guy Demel
I think all of us universally agreed that this has been our worst position in terms of quality over the years. Which is why even though Zabaleta had only been with us for 1 and a half seasons by the time of this poll (and this is a Zabaleta way past his prime), he gets my #1 spot solely for being a complete full-back with decent attack and good defence. Lucas Neill was more of a centre back who filled in for Right back but his strength, character and leadership were well worth it to offset his lack of pace.

With 3 players per voter, 11 different players were mentioned in the voting, but it seems like nearly everyone had the same impression I did as Zabaleta won the #1 spot with 7 out of 10 people picking him, out of which 5 of them put him as their #1 and 2 put him as their #2 right backs. A whopping 17 points below him, Ian Pearce fills in the #2 spot with 2 of us putting him at #1 and one voter putting him at #2.

Zaba has so far played 66 games in 2 seasons for us, but is now having genuine competition from Ryan Fredericks for the starting XI spot and this season might be the last season we see him in Claret and Blue colours.

Other Votes – Other than the aforementioned Lucas Neill and Guy Demel, the other right-backs mentioned were Schemmel, Antonio, Glen Johnson, Joey O’Brien, Faubert and Sam Byram.

LEFT BACK

Personal Picks: Cresswell, McCartney and Ilunga
Even though injuries have somewhat limited Cresswell’s ability in recent years, it cannot be forgotten that in addition to being our best crosser of the ball among any of our full-backs, he has also been our best all-round full-back for the better part of 5 years with the club. His partnership down the left with Payet was also mesmerising at times, something McCartney and Ilunga would not have been capable of doing.

Another big victory that agreed with my personal pick, 8 out of 9 voters picked Cresswell as their left back with 3 of them picking him as their #1, 2 as their #2 and 3 as their #3 spot. 7 points below Cress is the Terminator himself, Julian Dicks, with 3 votes, all as their #1.

One of West Ham’s immediate promotion buys in 2014, Cresswell established himself as the main left back for close to 4 seasons, and has only been recently challenged for his starting XI berth by his injuries as much as it is because of Masuaku

Other Votes – By order of standing in the votes, the remaining left backs were Matt Jarvis, Paul Konchesky, Stuart Pearce, Matty Taylor, Masuaku and Downing.

Interesting Tidbit – How the heck did Stewart Downing make it onto the list? Tahir is the culprit for this vote lol, though he did put him in as his #3 pick

CENTRE-BACK

Personal Picks: Reid, Upson and Tomkins
Another player hampered by injuries in his recent career, Winston Reid has spent more than at least half of his 8 seasons, 200+ game time as one of the few reliable defensive players we have had and was even linked with clubs like Arsenal FC during his prime with us. The Kiwi giant was backed up by Matt Upson in my voting with academy graduate Tomkins my #3.

2 Centre backs stood head and shoulders above the others in the voting, with Rio Ferdinand and Winston Reid ending up as our central partnership in defence. 5 out of 10 voters chose Rio as their #1 defender while Reid was mentioned 6 times, though 2 of those times were as a #2 and #3 placed vote.

Rio is probably the closest we, or indeed England, have ever come close to a Bobby Moore successor. The complete package with size, speed, power and skills, even though his career reached legendary heights at Manchester, he was already bossing it for us when he graduated from our famed Academy for his 150+ appearances for us.
If I were a Hammers fan from back then, Rio would most surely have been my #1 pick as well.

Other Votes –  Tomas Repka is 3rd on the list, 15 points behind Reid, 2 points above Tomkins with Upson, Bilic, Diop and Collins rounding up the end.

Interesting Tidbit – Though he was among the tail-enders, Issa Diop did, however, get a good number of mentions, 4 out of 10 voters put him as their #3 choice, so it is quite obvious his star is on the rise. Also, if the latter end of last season had been taken into account, pretty sure Balbuena would have at least got a mention as well.

So there it is, our defensive base.
It isn’t perfect, but it’s also definitely way more promising than anything current fans have seen in ages.

A good dependable keeper in Green behind a solid defensive pairing of size, power, grit and control in Rio and Reid with a marauding left-back in Cresswell and a solid, serviceable right back in Zabaleta. This backline may leak from time to time, especially from the wings, but it would definitely be able to give a sense of security to the attack as well for the most part. 

• Our Best XI — Introduction
• Our Best XI 03 — Midfield
• Our Best XI 04 — Forward