WEST Ham legend Julian Dicks has told fans to back off Alan Curbishley and aim their frustrations at the players, writes James Randall.

The Irons boss has come under heavy criticism this week following a hat trick of 4-0 defeats in their last three outings.

But ex-defender Dicks (pictured) is putting the poor sequence of results down to a lack of passion from the players.

"At the end of the day the manager gets the blame which I think that is wrong," he told BBC London.

"It's down to the players, they're the ones out on the pitch.

"These are all professional footballers - they are earning fortunes but a lot of them are just going through the motions.

"Alan Curbishley can put his 11 players out and if they don't perform then there's not a lot he can do about it in that game.

"Apart from (Mark) Noble and the keeper (Robert Green), the players didn't try against Chelsea.

"Obviously the last three matches have been disappointing, but I was at the Chelsea game and I think fans can appreciate players having bad days and off games - but they can't appreciate players not trying."

Reports are rife that the Hammers board are lining up a summer replacement for Curbishley in the wake of the recent slump.

Recent revelations raising question marks over his man-management style and transfer recruitment policies have also added weight to the claims.

And rumours over his replacement are already being banded about, with former-Hammer Slaven Bilic - the current Croatian national team coach - heading the shortlist.

But Dicks believes that all the speculation is premature and has thrown his full support behind Curbishley.

"I think Alan is the right man for the job," he said.

"I played with Slaven, he was a quality player and obviously he's done really well with Croatia but hopefully they'll give Alan quite a bit more time.

"West Ham are tenth in the table so it's not a disastrous season. It's only the last three games that they've performed badly."

The former Liverpool hardman also believes that a win against Blackburn at Upton Park on Saturday would get the Hammers back on track.

He said: "If they can go out, beat Blackburn and get two or three results on the spin it'll all be forgotten."