Clearly lacking in the heavy defeats suffered by West Ham – against Nottingham Forest most recently – has been the on-pitch leadership. Criticised by C and H and elsewhere, this lack of anyone stepping up, fist pumping, shouting, leading – driving the team to perform better – is not about ‘captaincy’. Our most successful teams have often had leaders who weren’t captains- Scott Parker immediately springs to mind.
Indeed, it has been one of the most worrying sights in recent defeats that the team actually had a look of resignation about them as the goals went in, instead of someone seeking to rally the troops, to stiffen the backbone and to stop the ‘cave-in’ which followed. That – in a nutshell – is leadership.
It is one of the pitfalls of playing three quarters of a back four who are ‘new recruits’ and two out of three midfielders being loanees. Nobody feels inclined to stick their chest out and bawl at their team mates.
According to whufc, it would seem someone has been listening. Whether the players have reflected – or whether someone in the coaching staff or the media has suggested ‘leadership’ as the new buzzword – we’ll find out come Saturday.
In a deliberate, very public attempt to change the dialogue and head off criticism of ‘lack of leadership’, the club website whufc.com runs an article entitled: “Souček | I want to lead the team to get better performances”.
The Czech national team captain uses straightforward language: “I want to do a good performance not just myself, but a good performance as a team as well. I want to be even like the leader, to lead the team to get better performances. This means a lot, so that’s the reason why I try to fight on the pitch all the time.”
The interview continues – with a clear thrust towards leadership: “Obviously, Jarrod is captain, but I don’t care who has the armband. I want to help him, to help others, to be heard on the pitch, on and off the pitch, and to make West Ham move forward.”
What is clear, with very few ‘senior’ squad members in the midfield or defence behind Jarrod Bowen, somebody needs to step up to pull things together in the bottom two thirds of the pitch. Hopefully it can be Tomas. The Irons certainly need that leadership right now.
