da realsbet： The usual outburst around Upton Park isn’t the touching rendition of ‘Bubbles’, but of, “Oh no, not again.”
da 888： Probably fair to say that just two words “crisis” and “striker” have been synonymous with the Upton Park club this year and not just this year either.
The biggest culprit of spending more time on the treatment table than on the field comes in the shape of the unfortunate Andy Carroll. The £15m signing from Liverpool, has been unlucky to say the least. However, good will soon runs out and after the latest set-back, forums and twitter were alive with fans advising the club to wave goodbye to the Geordie this summer. Strangely enough, the Hammers were been heavily linked with Daniel Sturridge in the January transfer window, and while you can make up your own mind as to the substance of the claims, surely it would be from the frying pan into the fryer? Have West Ham not learned?
It’s been a poor return overall since Carroll landed on the streets of east London – 69 games and fewer than 20 goals netted. But, the striker has never seemingly had a settled run in the side before his next catastrophe occurs.
Two Premier League managers have been quite vocal about injuries this year, as Carroll joined 25 other players in the league that have suffered hamstring issues. Klopp, whose squad at Liverpool have had their fair share of injured passengers and Sam Allardyce, were both unhappy about the amount of games and the scheduling and pointed to this as a main reason for so many problems. Allardyce described the scheduling as “diabolical” and claimed the Premier League was “destroying” the game.
“If the Premier League decides to put a stupid fixture midweek when they don’t bloody need to, then I haven’t got much choice [but to make changes],” said Allardyce.”It’s diabolical. We’re flogging the lads. There are more and more injuries every year but it’s completely ignored by the Premier League. It’s unbelievable. If you want us to respect the FA Cup, don’t put Premier League fixtures in the midweek.”
At West Ham, one after another, after another of the front line have been injured and often they have had just the one designated striker to play up front. Nikica Jelavic was the only fit, senior striker at times, as Mauro Zarate went down. Enner Valencia was out, came back and was out again. Carroll has his own treatment table now and Diafra Sakho is on his way back after his injury in November. Carroll returned from a hamstring injury and then suffered problems at Norwich City. Bilic said: “We are gutted and he is gutted. He felt that during the warm-up when he was preparing to come on against Norwich, but he played and made a huge impact. But after it turned out to be a minor, but still an injury.”
West Ham have been short of fit strikers all season long and with the sale of Jelavic to a Chinese second division club, that has meant that Bilic only had Emmanuel Emenike, who joined on loan from Fenerbahce last month, to start against Blackburn last weekend.
While Valencia could be fit for the visit of Sunderland on Saturday, Bilic has also had problems further back as well, after also losing playmakers Manuel Lanzini and Dimitri Payet at points this season.
So is it the amount of games, the pressure in the scheduling? At West Ham, the training ground was considered to be an issue. Slaven Bilic got so infuriated at the injuries at the training ground, that he moved the players straight away to the unfinished facility at Rush Green and also to Upton Park itself.
West Ham have been here before and fans will recall the sad retirement of favourite Dean Ashton. The England striker announced his retirement at the age of 26 after failing to recover from a long-term ankle injury. Ashton broke his left ankle while training with England in August 2006, ahead of a friendly with Greece. He underwent several operations but was unable to return to full fitness and has followed medical advice to retire. Ashton scored 19 goals in 56 appearances for the Hammers after joining them from Norwich in a £7.25m move in January 2006.
So it’s a bit of deja vu for The Hammers, as they once again search for a 20 goal-a-season striker ahead of the summer. Hopefully one that will stay fit for a whole season or at least for the majority of it.
You can put the injuries down to so many factors, but none are proven. The pitches being heavily watered before a game, the type of pitch, the type of boots worn by the players, the physicality of the English game – all have been been put forward as reasons why Hammers players get injured so often, but maybe it’s just down to bad luck.
West Ham aren’t the only team to suffer, but when your forwards spend more time with the medical staff than the training staff, you must begin to wonder when it will all stop.
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