ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:Gianfranco Zola took the West Ham manager's job short on experience but with plenty of ideas, writes PAUL DOYLE
WHEN GIANFRANCO Zola became West Ham United’s first foreign manager in mid-September, the club sat seventh in the league, having won twice at home and lost twice away. Now they are eighth, and have still lost as many league matches as they have won.
Talk of a transformation, then, is over the top. Yet significant change is clearly under way at Upton Park. Where once there were forebodings of doom, now there is optimism, as reflected in a belief that the club can extend their eight-game unbeaten streak when Manchester United come calling tomorrow.
“We are playing good football at the moment and the players are determined to continue,” Zola says. “We will certainly try to win because I never play to draw. Even away to Arsenal last week we went to win and we only ended up defending so much because Arsenal forced us backwards.”
West Ham’s resilience in emerging with a 0-0 draw at the Emirates came as no surprise to Arsene Wenger, who had already hailed Zola’s team as “probably the best in the Premier League right now”.
Doubts persist about the club’s long-term financial sustainability if their owner fails to find the buyer he seeks, but the anticipated mass exodus of players during the January transfer window did not happen. Whereas Zola’s predecessor, Alan Curbishley, quit at the start of the season in protest at players being sold against his wishes, the Italian’s only regrettable loss was Craig Bellamy, and he consoled himself with the loan capture of Czech international Radoslav Kovac, securing the excellent Herita Ilunga to a permanent contract, and the club record purchase of Savio Nsereko.
If that unexpected extravagance hints that the chalice he inherited may not have contained as much poison as originally feared, it is also true that Zola himself has come up with an antidote to many of the team’s ills.
One clear change he has made is psychological, with the striker Carlton Cole being the most obvious beneficiary of his infectious bonhomie. For so long a frustrating player because a lackadaisical approach, Cole has struck six goals in his past seven games and improved to the extent that some are tipping him for an England call-up.
“It’s about attitude,” Zola says. “You just have to keep telling him he can do it. It was not that he lacked aggression before, more that he was never truly convinced that he could always be a problem for top opponents but the fact is he can be as good as he wants to be.”
Pep-talks can only achieve so much. Zola has also presided over a tactical turnaround. At first he tinkered heavily, causing many to wonder whether his lack of managerial experience meant he was unsuited to guiding the club through turbulent times.
However, once he settled on his preferred line-up, results improved and, what is more, the slick play with which he has always been synonymous followed.
Zola’s commitment to cerebral, on-the-deck football has clearly found favour with his players. Formation diagrams usually assign Jack Collison and Valon Behrami, for instance, to wide roles, but in reality they tend to dart all over midfield, sometimes augmenting the dynamic Scott Parker and Mark Noble in the centre, sometimes switching flanks entirely.
The manager gives them licence to indulge their talent without diluting the emphasis on solidity. With David Di Michele flitting around Cole in a free role, West Ham’s movement often confounds opponents, while their work ethic means they rarely leave gaps.
“I can’t really compare with what has gone on here before, but I think we’re now training more with the ball,” Zola says. “We have it for at least 80 per cent of our sessions and I think the players enjoy that.”
Integral to that training is the former Chelsea assistant manager Steve Clarke, whom Zola insisted on hiring as his number two. Just as West Ham’s results have improved since Clarke’s arrival, Chelsea’s have deteriorated since he left Stamford Bridge and Zola is happy to give credit to the Scot. “I’ve always considered him one of the most important parts in what I’m doing,” Zola says. “That’s why I said I was only going to take the job if I had somebody like Steve by my side.”
Their differing playing careers meant the assumption has been that Clarke takes charge of the defence while Zola looks after the attacking side of things, but the manager claims that the opposite is true. “The defenders and attackers all train together because it is all about cooperation,” Zola says. “Only one day a week do we separate them and – you won’t believe me now – but on that day I take the defence and Steve works with the attackers.”
Decidedly, the little Italian keeps on showing that there is more to them than meets the eye.
GuardianService
