IT’S DO OR DIE SO DON’T GO CRAZY
Sam calls for cool heads
WEST HAM V LEEDS 1.30PM TOMORROW, SKY
SAM ALLARDYCE returns to West Ham tomorrow with a grim warning for his Leeds players: “It’s do or die time.”
Big Sam arrived at Elland Road this month facing a huge task to avoid relegation with just four games remaining.
After two matches, Allardyce has yet to win and he accepts the situation is now perilous.
Leeds could be relegated this weekend if results go against them and the head coach said: “It’s do or die, lads. We need to fight to the end, but with the right temperament and the right amount of control – and certainly don’t lose the gameplan.
“In the games I’d looked at before I got here, it was a loss of control by the team. They went a little crazy in terms of just going all out to try to score and ended up conceding two, three, four and five.”
Leeds lie 18th but would be outside the drop zone had they beaten Newcastle last week. When they were 1-0 up, Patrick Bamford, below, had a penalty saved and Leeds also conceded two spot-kicks which Callum Wilson converted. Allardyce said: “We really did kick ourselves in the guts by gifting those penalties.
“It was a bitter pill to swallow with how much we were on the brink of a crucial three points.
“We were probably 60-65 percent sure we’d stay up if we’d won that game and now we’ve got to win at West Ham. “It wouldn’t have been essential to do that had we beaten Newcastle.” Allardyce had four years as West Ham manager. In his first season, he got them promoted from the Championship before successive Premier League finishes of 10th, 13th and 12th.
He left by mutual consent in May 2015 and will now face a Hammers side managed by his old friend David Moyes.
Given West Ham’s European exertions, All ardycei sun sure of the team Moyes will pick but knows all the pressure will be on Leeds.
The 68-year-old said: “It’s a difficult situation.
“If the teams down there on Saturday have picked up three points then it’s almost a certainty that we have to win to stay in the race.
“We have to deal with that, accept it and make it spur us on to the best performance we can give no matter what happens on Saturday. It’s about handling the pressure that comes with that big question of ‘can you?’”