Studious Roeder can ride the storm

West Ham United are bottom of the table and Paolo Di Canio has had his say. "You don't have to be a genius to know this was going to happen," he has exclaimed in a tabloid newspaper interview, headlined in huge, black type: "I did warn you". Alongside is a symbolic photograph of the Italian in familiar, histrionic pose, raging at persons unknown, while the team's manager of three months, Glenn Roeder, calm and dapper in white shirt and tie, attempts to restrain him.

Friday lunchtime at Upton Park and it is Roeder's turn to talk, which he does with infinite courtesy and patience, even unto the sixth television interview. If it is passion that you want – and many West Ham fans do, which is one reason Di Canio remains so popular – he may not be your man.

Even if things continue to go wrong this afternoon when West Ham play hosts to Newcastle United, one of Roeder's former clubs, it seems unlikely that tea cups will hit the dressing-room wall; for good sense and sensibility, however, the 45 year-old Essex boy is hard to beat.

Excuses for the League position are easy to come by, though Roeder is commendably reluctant to make them. On the very day he was appointed in June, the club sold Frank Lampard to Chelsea. Spending the £11 million proceeds proved harder than expected and no sooner had David James signed, sending out all the right signals to supporters and other potential recruits, than he was badly injured playing for England, three days before the Premiership began.

Starting without him, or any other new players, a team that finished last season by losing nine games out of 12 went down 2-1 at Liverpool, had a good share of goalless draws with Leeds and Derby, then turned in a poor performance at Middlesbrough last week, when both Di Canio and Frédéric Kanouté were unavailable. Two home matches have had to be postponed, which means that five of the first seven will eventually be away from Upton Park and its expensive new main stand.

"We knew it was going to be a difficult start," Roeder said. "I still feel the return of two points from the first three games didn't do the performances justice.

"Like any other manager who hasn't won any of the first four games I'm obviously looking forward to the first win and hoping it will come against Newcastle. It'll get the season up and running. There's a saying that it all evens itself out. I'm a believer that you have to take what you're given and not whinge or moan or make excuses if you don't get the breaks.

"You can only do your best, work your hardest and do what you think's right. If you're doing those things, you have to believe it'll turn out the way you want it to."

Exactly a year ago, to Harry Redknapp's disbelief, West Ham were also on the bottom of the heap, after three draws and three narrow defeats. On the identical weekend in September, they won 3-0 at home to Coventry and by early December were in the top six. Reasons for optimism this time include the signing of Don Hutchison from Sunderland and the experienced Czech defender Tomas Repka from Fiorentina, and the return of Di Canio and Kanouté.

"Free spirits" is a term frequently applied to the latter pair, and to the young England prospects Michael Carrick and Joe Cole in midfield. Redknapp tended alternately to drool over them and, when things were going less well, to agonise over how to add a little basic discipline to the fantasy.

Roeder, a studious coach, has tried to tighten up on the organisation in midfield by placing Cole wide on the left and asking Carrick to play a more attacking role. "We're trying to teach Joe one position at a time, rather than allowing him to be a free spirit. Every position's got a certain amount of responsibility and you have to learn that position.

"As for Michael, for anyone of his shooting ability to have returned only one goal last season, you wouldn't be happy with that, and he's not happy. It's a question of getting him that little bit more forward, he's just got a habit of playing deep. But he's such an intelligent person he'll solve it."

Roeder is relaxed about Di Canio's outburst, which was more critical of his team-mates (and, implicitly, the board) than the manager, and also about growing impatience among supporters: "I'm enjoying the job. You get many letters, but my secretary, who opens them, is very kind and only shows me the nice ones."

To the outside observer, as much as the insiders, it seems highly unlikely that West Ham are the worst team in the Premiership. They could do with a break, and it need be nothing like as spectacular as the famous match against today's visitors at Upton Park in 1986, when Newcastle had to use three different goalkeepers (including Peter Beardsley), Alvin Martin scored a hat-trick by half-time and "Roeder og" appeared as one of eight entries on the home team's scoresheet.