West Ham United striker raises questions over tactics
West Ham United attacker Carlton Cole has hit out at the tactics employed by manager Avram Grant after a woeful start to the English Premier League season.
The Hammers are at the foot of the table, having collected just nine points from their first 14 games, with only one victory to their name.
Grant has regularly opted to deploy Cole as a lone striker in a 4-5-1 formation, and the tactics failed to bring the desired result against Liverpool in their last EPL game on Saturday 20 November, when they lost 3-0 at Anfield.
Cole has questioned the logic behind Grant's thinking as there was no back-up plan to fall back on after the lone striker tactics did not work against the Reds.
He told the Newham Recorder: “The game plan was for me to stay as the longest person away from everybody and try to hit me on the diagonal or something, but we weren’t even doing that, so that went out of the window and we didn’t have a Plan B. When we changed
to 4-4-2 in the second half, I felt more comfortable because someone was up there with me and I felt that we were starting to get on the ball a little more.
“But then I got taken off and I was like, OK, that’s not what they want me to do. They would rather I stood up there on my own, trying to make nothing happen. So what was the game plan? Was it to sit back and hit Liverpool on the counter-attack? Apparently
not.”
West Ham's next chance to pick up some much-needed points will come when they welcome fellow strugglers Wigan Athletic to Upton Park on Saturday 27 November. Wigan are also in the relegation zone, with just 14 points to their credit.
Tags: