The end of the season is upon us, so I thought I’d contribute an overview of the season for my club, West Ham, from a Fantasy Football perspective.

West Ham’s Form

It’s largely been a season to forget for Hammers fans. It started in fairly mundane fashion with a win, a handful of draws and a loss. The only real glimmer of light was the emergence of Ravel Morrison: more on him later.

Injuries to key players soon mounted, with Winston Reid missed especially. Results dipped accordingly and the team slipped further down the table. By Christmas the Irons were floating around the relegation zone with only three wins on the board and most of the back four injured as well our marquee summer signing still out of action. Things could only get better surely? Wrong.

The first few weeks of January saw televised embarrassments of the Hammers, losing 5-0 to Nottingham Forest in the FA cup, and 9-0 on aggregate to Man City in the semi finals of the League Cup.

Chelsea away was where their season finally kick started into life, thanks to “19th Century” defending and a 0-0 draw. The key tactical change here was the unlikely effectiveness of Matt Taylor. The seasoned pro gave the centre of midfield more bite and his continued inclusion helped lead the team to four clean sheets in a row. Three of these clean sheets resulted in wins, plus a fourth consecutive win against Southampton.

The team’s form since that fantastic run has been quite sporadic, with a couple of vital wins against bottom-half teams, a sequence of four consecutive losses and then a surprise, and frankly sweet, win against Spurs.

Defence

West Ham have kept 14 clean sheets at the time of writing, quite an achievement considering the first choice back-five cost a grand total of £3m in transfer fees (and that was all on Winston Reid). Clearly, Allardyce builds from the back and his reputation is true in this respect.

Jussi Jaaskelainen kept eight of these clean sheets before being dropped just before Christmas. A number of fumbles led Allardyce to give Adrian a chance, after he had proved himself in the early rounds of the League Cup. Jussi’s contract expires at the end of this season and it is expected that Allardyce will release his former number-one stopper. That leaves Adrian as the likely ‘keeper for next season.

Many of the early-season clean sheets can be attributed to Winston Reid. The Kiwi centre-back was immense before injury, and based on the past few decades, left Hammers fans wondering just how long they could keep hold of him. Reid ended the campaign with 7 clean sheets, 10 attempts at goal and 1 goal in 17 starts. James Collins actually has slightly better stats with 10 clean sheets, 14 attempts and a single goal in 22 starts, but he doesn’t have the same security of starts as Reid. Indeed, it appears that Allardyce’s favoured pairing is James Tomkins and Reid and I’d expect this to be the same for next season.

The full back positions are where there will be more to ponder for Fantasy managers. West Ham’s first-choice full-backs are both the wrong side of 30 and in need of replacing. FFS favourite, Guy Demel, is more likely to survive than George McCartney, with a new left-back being a priority. None of the current full-backs enjoyed great Fantasy seasons, with Demel failing to reach the heights of last season, arguably due to the lack of Ricardo Vaz Te in front of him. I would advise to keep an eye on whom West Ham sign for either position, as they will hopefully offer a cheaper way into the Hammers’ defence.

Midfield

West Ham’s midfield has seen a raft of alterations during the season as Allardyce tried to find a winning combination. Before I go through the changes and what we could see next season I’ll first of all explain the underlying problem this season. The problem’s name is Kevin Nolan. The former Bolton and Newcastle midfielder is Allardyce’s general on the field. In three seasons I cannot recall Nolan once being dropped for a league fixture. In the first two seasons this approach has been justified, but when Nolan fails to perform for consecutive weeks it causes problems for the balance of the team.

It was the emergence of Ravel Morrison that first shifted Allardyce’s thinking, as the young player’s pre season performances were hard to ignore. Ideally, Morrison’s favoured position would be ‘in the hole’ where he would be given freedom to create. The problem was that Allardyce could not drop his captain in order to play Ravel there. Instead, he shifted Momo Diame to the wing and played Morrison alongside Noble in a deeper position. This had mixed results and it wasn’t until Allardyce tried a 4-6-0 formation that Morrison excelled. Morrison soon scored a few goals and came onto the radars of Fantasy managers with his budget price. Unfortunately for Fantasy managers, the 4-6-0 formation ceased to work for the team as a whole and Allardyce moved back to his favoured 4-2-3-1 (4-5-1). This left Morrison only sparingly used as a sub and eventually he was sent out on loan to QPR in January, amidst stories of a falling out with the manager. Morrison has again done well when played in his favoured position, scoring 6 goals in 14 starts for QPR. Promisingly, both the club and Morrison seem to be publicly ‘making-up’ with the youngster stating he is looking forward to scoring more goals for West Ham next season. If he does indeed get to play for the first eleven in his favoured position, he would definitely be a viable budget option for Fantasy managers.

Kevin Nolan. I’ll start with the positives. Once again he looks set to end the season as the Irons top scorer with 7 goals, and most of them have been crucial goals too. There’s no doubting Nolan’s knack for finding the opportunities to score. Secondly, he is a good captain and does a great job of organising the team on the pitch. To those outside of the West Ham fan base, the criticism aimed at him can appear unfair, but it’s only when you watch him every week that you start to really understand not just the limitations but also the impact it has on the rest of the team. When he’s not scoring, he doesn’t add a great deal else to the team’s attack or defence, he rarely creates chances and quickly tires of tracking opposition players. He’s had a particularly average season, he may have scored the most, but he has played many more minutes than other forwards or advanced midfielders. He also received two straight red cards for rash challenges early in the season which was a sign of his frustration. Much discussion amongst West Ham fans is when Allardyce will start to phase out Nolan and who will be his replacement, with the most obvious candidate being Morrison. It’s advised to keep an eye on how the Hammers set up in pre season.

Neither Matt Jarvis nor Stewart Downing have stood out as genuine Fantasy prospects this season, a defence for their lack of assists was the long-term injury to Andy Carroll, but since his return in February, the anticipated route of assists has failed to deliver. I would advise to steer clear of these as Fantasy options. The club is actively looking for a goalscoring wide player in the mould of Jason Puncheon, someone who can provide 5-6 goals over the season to compliment the lone forward and Nolan, or his replacement.

Forwards

West Ham started the season with Modibo Maiga up front, which proved to be a nightmare. The Malian has scored just 1 goal in 11 starts (1050 minutes) and was shipped to QPR on loan in January, where he has since struggled to cement a place in the squad.

After being released in the summer of 2013, Carlton Cole found himself a wanted man again and re-signed in September. He has actually been the most prolific of the club’s forwards, with 6 goals in 9 starts (917 minutes), but he still remains behind Andy Carroll in the pecking order.

Carroll missed the first half of the season through injury but provided a great display on his return at home against Swansea, providing two assists for Nolan. Unfortunately he was controversially sent off and missed the next three games, all of which West Ham went on to win. Since his return from suspension, Carroll has scored just twice in 11 starts (1064 minutes), leaving his hopes of a World Cup squad place in serious doubt. The club will be looking to sign a different forward in the summer to provide competition for Carroll, with the predictable link to Demba Ba already being made.

The Manager

Two weeks ago several West Ham websites and blogs joined together for a poll on the future of Sam Allardyce. Over 13,000 fans voted and 77% thought that he should be sacked at the end of the season. Since then Allardyce has been on a charm offensive with apologetic articles in his Evening Standard column and wisely worded press conferences. This, combined with a record third win over Spurs in one season gave a sense of security to Big Sam, however at the time of writing reports from the press suggest that he is due to be fired at the end of the season. Obviously, if Allardyce is sacked, then West Ham’s Fantasy options could change dramatically. We’ll see over the next few weeks how it pans out.

Summary

To conclude, I think it would be fair to say that the only attractive Fantasy prospects this season have been the defenders and goalkeepers. Adrian has been especially popular with his budget price, and you would expect this to increase for next season. Nolan had his one purple patch in February but hasn’t really delivered consistent points over the season.

Looking towards next season, I would tentatively (depending if Allardyce is still around) advise to only really consider defensive options. With a better quality left-back, and even maybe right-back, clean sheets could again be frequent. I also have a suspicion that the club will be looking for a midfield enforcer to partner Noble, which could improve the prospect of clean sheets further.

Players more than likely to leave the club

• Joe Cole (contract expiring)
• Pablo Armero (contract expiring)
• Alou Diarra (contract expiring)
• Modibo Maiga (contract expiring)
• Jordan Spence (contract expiring)
• Ricardo Vaz Te (contract expiring)
• Antonio Nocerino (confirmed)
• Marco Borriello (confirmed)

Players who may leave the club

• George McCartney (contract expiring)
• Matthew Taylor (contract expiring)
• Roger Johnson (contract expiring)
• Jussi Jaaskeleinen (contract expiring)

Priority positions for incoming transfers

• Left back
• Right back
• Wide forward
• Back-up lone forward
• Central defensive midfielder