Not the man to improve West Ham as an attacking force that is.
Most of us accept that Sam is a good defensive manager, most credit him with getting us back up at the first attempt, and credit him with stabilising us in the difficult first season back. This was achieved by making West Ham a hard side to beat, something Sam (a defender as a player) is naturally good at.
But being good defensively is only half a manager's job, though Sam might say otherwise! A manager also has to be good at making his side into a potent attacking force, or at least as potent as possible given the players available. We are almost at the end of our third year back in the Premier League, and I think Sam has badly fallen down in this direction. In fact I would go as far as to say he is a poor attacking manager.
I'll give you some reasons why I believe this.
Last season Sam played Jarvis on the left, and Downing on the right (against their natural feet). This is a modern trend, the theory is that the player can cut in on his good foot, and either have a pot at goal or whip a cross in angled to the centre-forward. All well and good IF it works out in games. IT NEVER DID! Every single game (from memory) was played this way, and how many goals and assists did these 2 players produce in the 2013-2014 season? ONE between them!! Sam might have swapped them around during games, if only to give the opposition something to think about, he never did. He might have, at least tried, playing them for whole games on their natural sides, he never did. We know Sam is a stats man, so why did he persist? Stubborness is sometimes a virtue, but not in the face of repeated failure.
I am not a big fan of Tiki-Taka, but being able to keep possession of the ball is a basic footballing skill: pass, move and get open so the guy with the ball has options. If you have the ball, the other side can't score, it's not rocket science. We have very good players, so why do we lose/give away the ball so much? Our possession is almost always (yes not Saturday against 10 men I know) less than our opponents. I can only guess that passing practise is not high on Sam's list of things we work on in training, because our players too often look like strangers, and don't seem to have developed the instincts of knowing where each other will be, those kind of instincts come from repeated practise.
Sam seems very wary of 'skill' players. He doesn't seem to want to give them a chance (maybe it's his inate dislike of 'taking chances'). Be it Zarate getting few games earlier in the season before basically being scrapped, or Amalfitano getting very few starts, or Nene getting almost no time at all. Sam would much rather give time to "trusted" players however less talented they are.
Overall I would say he lacks imagination in the attacking side of the game, he likes to play one way, with trusted players. But this has the effect of making us predictable and easy to play against.
I have little doubt that we could remain a mid-table side if Sam stays. We could have season after season in the 'middle group' of the Premier League. But if we want to watch better football, and maybe even challenge for trophies in the next few years... well I just can't see it happening under Sam.
