Uphill task for Roeder
Glenn Roeder, who maintains work on the training field is the best part of football management, has plenty to do over the next two weeks to get his West Ham side back on track.
The Hammers boss, who began his second season in charge with so much optimism, has two weeks to find a cure to an alarming slump before a visit to fellow strugglers Sunderland.
If West Ham and thought they had turned the corner with the 3-2 away victory over Chelsea, their illusions were shattered as Birmingham beat them 2-1 at Upton Park.
“One step forwards and two back,” was how Roeder described it and his side now need to take a huge step just to keep pace with the teams at the wrong end of the Premiership.
The one thing West Ham do not lack is talent. Last season they recovered from a poor start to finish seventh inspired by enigmatic Italian Paolo di Canio.
They also have three of the best young talents in the English game in Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe.
But they leak goals - invariably what Roeder describes as 'bad goals'.
They had the same problem last season, conceding 12 in successive away matches against Everton and Blackburn, but managed to plug the gaps.
Once Tomas Repka, the £5m (€8m) Czech Republic international had settled in - and stopped picking up suspensions – the nightmares ended for Roeder’s team but his dreams of a better start came to nothing.
Repka does not look the player he did last year and the options to improve matters must be found from within.
The only way to add to the squad before the end of the year under the present rules is to find an out-of-contract player and Roeder admits: “There aren’t too many of them around.”
With players away on international duty even the next fortnight will not provide too many opportunities to work on a remedy but it will provide time for reflection.
