Sam Allardyce believes his former club West Ham United could do with a mid-season break amid their Premier League struggles.
The Hammers have languished at the bottom end of the table throughout the campaign and have struggled to distance themselves from the relegation battle. David Moyes’ side have been in and out of the drop zone on several occasions and a 4-0 defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion at the weekend leaves the Irons in 16th and just one point above the bottom three with 13 games to go.
Sam Allardyce is no stranger to a Premier League relegation battle and the 68-year-old, who managed West Ham from 2011 to 2015, admits he is concerned about his former club, offering some advice as to what may be the remedy for their current situation.
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“I think for West Ham, unfortunately for Moyes, it’s been all season they have been down there, that’s the trouble. That’s the worry. That’s the concern,” Allardyce told talkSPORT on Monday (March 6).
“Now it’s getting to the nitty gritty of the season, you’ve got no more time, time is running out. You must get it right and you must put it right now. And of course the pressure builds on the manager and the players because everybody jumps on their back.
"Everybody would say you know ‘punish your players, get them in for more training’ all that nonsense that they go on about outside the world of football. That is the last thing you want to do.
“At the moment you want to build their confidence and you want to take the pressure off them. How you decide to do that, now it’s unfortunate you’ve not got the time because of the fixture congestion, but definitely this time of the year the players need more than ever to get away for a few days to relax, to switch off, to put your head back together in the right positive frame of mind physically and mentally by taking a break.
“And of course everybody goes ‘What you doing taking them away, they don’t deserve to go away’ all that rubbish that you hear on the white noise on the outside.
“On the inside you do what’s right and what’s right is relaxing your players, building their confidence and then of course working on the team and picking the right team, for whatever game it is, to go out and win. And if you do that and you can increase the level of performance then you’ll get yourself out of trouble.”
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