West Ham United Blog | Analysis & News
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You’ve heard it from the captain. Kevin Nolan has told his fellow Hammers that there is no cause for alarm despite the poor start to the season by the east London club.
Sometimes Nolan reminds me of a World War II Spitfire pilot, with his bryl-creamed hair, side parting and tally ho team talks. What Nolan seems to forget though is that the front end of his Spitfire is not firing on all cylinders! However, we must admire his team spirit, as this is what the club needs. [Read more…]
Kevin Nolan is backing teammate Andy Carroll to make the England squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
The Skipper is backing ex Liverpool star Andy Carroll, who is out with a heel injury, despite not having played for the club since his record signing of £15M in the summer. [Read more…]
Ravel Morrison arrived at West Ham United back in January 2012 in a deadline day deal from Manchester United with a reputation of having bags of natural talent and potential.
However, it soon became apparent Morrison was in danger of wasting his precocious talent with a series of off the field incidents and Twitter storms following him round like a bad smell. [Read more…]
West Ham captain came to the Hammer’s rescue yesterday with a decisive goal that has got the irons out of the Premiership starting blocks with a win over Aston Villa.
Kevin Nolan came to West Ham’s rescue yesterday against Aston Villa and got us off to a great start. it happened just after 40 minutes when the West Ham captain found Ricardo Vaz Té’s cross and all Nolan had to do was guide the ball into an open net. Nolan’s goal get’s the Hammers off to a flyer – that all important first game of the season, too!
Big Sam Allardyce had this to say of his captain after the game:
“Kevin’s a goalscorer. A lot of people look at him as a midfielder.
“But he is a David Platt. He gets on the end of things, ghosts into the box without people understanding how he got there. It was through instinct he found that chance. While all the other players are standing watching, Kevin is on the move and he pops it into the back of the net.
“Kevin is as good as any striker in the box. He’s a great finisher and that’s his outstanding quality, proven over many years.”
Nolan’s goal caused a bit of a stir, too. The linesman raised his flag as he thought Vaz T´was in an offside position from Mark Noble’s free kick up the right side of the box. Vaz Té kept a cool head as Ref mike Dean over ruled the linesman and found Nolan running toowrds the net to slot home the only goal of the match.
The controversy was later extinguished as video footage found the ref to be totally correct in his decision. Before Nolan’s goal the Hammers were pretty poor and many a fan could be heard complaining about Allardyce’s long ball game. it’s early days yet lads, let’s see what Sam has got in store for the season!
West Ham had more chances than Villa and although the Brummie outfit had the greater possession they never looked like bothering West Ham too much.
So that’s round one over and West Ham have a win in the bag
That’s right, big Sam Allardyce the hammers’ boss has hit out at the “hysteria” surrounding two-footed tackles.
West Ham is without their captain Kevin Nolan for the next three matches after he was sent off for a two footed “lunge” at Millwall’s Jack Smith last weekend. Having said that, Man City’s Vincent Kompany was also given his marching orders last month after cleanly winning the ball from Manchester United’s Nani. Allardyce therefore, is understandably unhappy with the referees’ current interpretation of such tackles.
Allardyce said:
“There’s a hysteria in the game in this country that every two-footed challenge is a red card and the referees are being put under pressure to give a red card, whether it’s a dangerous challenge or not”.
“I can’t remember a player being stretchered off from a two-footed challenge – at West Ham, Blackburn, Newcastle and Bolton, in 10 years of management, I can’t remember a two-footed challenge, going to ground, injuring a player.
“There’s a hysteria about it unfortunately, but I can’t say that it’s dangerous.
“It looks bad, but we are not on about looking bad.
“There are tackles that don’t look bad that are far worse than that, believe me.”
So there you have it. Sometimes it makes you wonder if football is still a man’s game. I believe in “going in hard” but not leg breaking hard if you know what I mean. But with all these fairies jumping up and down at the fist sight of a “lunge” and the ref being taken in by their charade, it does make you wonder, doesn’t it?
