Roeder bemoans soft defenders

You would have thought that mea culpa would rarely have been far from the lips of any West Ham defender this season. But it seems footballers now believe so much in their own infallibility that, far from admitting any personal blame, those responsible for the worst defensive record in the Premiership do not even like their peccadilloes pointed out to them.

Heaven knows how they would cope if ever faced with the Alex Ferguson hairdryer, like their counterparts might at Old Trafford tomorrow, or the old-fashioned rollickings that the Hammers manager Glenn Roeder suffered from men like Tommy Docherty.

Go home crying with the ball under their arm, presumably.

"I used to sit there and take it when I got a bollocking," said Roeder yesterday. "But I think every generation, in life as well as football, is getting a little more fragile and some find it hard to take and get uptight about it. We've been making the same mistakes at the back all season but to solve the problem you've got to admit that there is one in the first place.

"Now, as a coach, I feel as though I have to walk round with a bit of Sellotape in my pocket to put their egos back together if they've been criticised. The hardest thing for them is to take criticism in front of their mates, though they're more likely to agree with you in a one-on-one in the privacy of my office.

"It starts down at academy level now with the 10 and 12-year-olds. We're trying to stop the best we've got here from leaving to join Arsenal and Spurs, so what do you do? You make sure you don't upset anyone, but then you worry that you are helping to create the next generation of monsters."

Some of the team's Frankenstein defending this season should have gone some way to puncturing the hugest of egos. But Roeder says he has to walk on egg shells, careful not to show that he is getting frustrated with their constant mistakes in case it has a negative effect.

His defenders, he says, have continually made the wrong decisions in the split second they have to clear a ball, and just when he is convinced the remedial work in training is paying off, they prove the opposite on match day.

"There is also a confidence issue," he says. "I've come away from many a practice thinking the penny's dropped now. But there's no one watching in practice, is there? And when they go into a real situation, it's not been happening."

There could be no more real situation or fuller stadium than Old Trafford tomorrow, where West Ham can supposedly put their relegation worries behind them but where, in reality, they will hope to limit confidence damage to a minimum.

Their manager understands that the result could have as much impact on their Premiership fate as on the Cup.

He says: "If we don't give it our full attention, which we are doing, we could get into even more trouble."

A four or five-goal thrashing could have serious ramifications for next Wednesday's league clash with Blackburn at Upton Park, which, like every home game since the start of the season, is their most important so far.

One gets the feeling that Roeder would be more shocked than Hill's if his team get a result tomorrow as he, at least, has to keep an eye on resources for Wednesday as he tries to send out a team to beat United. Thus Joe Cole will not start unless he gets the equivalent of an A star in a fitness test today, and Paolo Di Canio and Frederic Kanoute, who hope to face Blackburn, will not even be risked on the bench.

Most startling of all is that Nigel Winterburn, one of the few defenders able to hold his head high this season, will not play at Old Trafford. Roeder has respected the full-back's 39-year-old body all season by trying not to play him twice in three days, though he admits that he would be on the pitch if it were a Premiership match.

Having sent Titi Camara on loan to Saudi Arabia, Roeder hopes to transfer those wages into the pockets of another defender while light still peeps through the transfer window. And, hopefully, one who can cope with the occasional flea in the ear.

Guardian Service