West Ham is a very good side. In fact, I rate them as the fourth-best side behind Liverpool, Sheikh City, and Mafia FC. I think David Moyes is a competent manager, for the second season running he has kept WHU in the thick of things without any major splurges. Their form since February is WWDDWL. Their loss last night might become a blessing since they now have to focus their meager resources on only two competitions.
Trent, Matip, VVD, Robertson, Fabiho, Keita, and Salah were rested last night and Henderson, Jota, Diaz, and Mane were spared to some extent as well. Firmino is out for a while and Thiago will not be available for this game. It’s very unlikely that any of our heroes from last night’s game will be in the starting XI but most would make the bench.
I’m loving this newfound luxury of having the likes of Tsimikas, Konate, Curtis, Elliott, Jota, and Minamino as reserves. What a time to be alive.
It will not be pretty, and it definitely will not be easy, but three points are demanded. Come on Red, raise hell. YNWA.
At their ground, we were undone by them putting a lot of pressure on Ali during set pieces. I’d like to see us do something to counter that. Adding or own man in the mix will crowd Ali more, but that’s likely our best option. Either way, Ali will be in for a tough afternoon against their big lads.
Virgil meow’ing in Zouma’s ear constantly might help us out!
Line up wise, we will be looking pretty good given some of our lads were rested last night (and theirs weren’t). Moyes only made two subs, one forced with Soucek having to come off for stitches (might therefore also be concussed?). Pretty much the rest of their main lads have 90 mins in their legs, and the L means they won’t have the lift of progression in the cup to carry them through. Moyes set them up in a 3/5 at the back last night, which is a change to his usual 4-4-2, which is how they lined up against us in November. We seem to struggle more against three CBs.
We have a few CM issues by the looks of it - Jones came off last night, we know Thiago is out, and thus far not seen/heard anything on Naby (wasn’t in the squad last night). Ox played 90, so likely won’t start.
Going to be a tough one, but we should comfortably have the legs to out run them, and we have the quality to beat them. Hoping for a regulation 3-0 victory.
Line up wise, I’m expecting;
Alisson
Trent Matip Virgil Robbo
Hendo Fabinho Naby
Mo Mane Diaz
I agree that we’re at least as good as any other team in Europe when on form; if it were a fair contest, we would walk the league but, sadly, City frequently benefit from generous decisions whereas Mo could get gunned down in the area and a penalty wouldn’t be awarded.
So who would you propose as our current weakest link in @Mascot ’s post? On the basis that they’re all fit and on form? I’m in no way saying Matip is a bad player. Obviously.
Then who is? Who is the least brilliant player in our starting 11? My point is that nobody in the PL gets into our starting 11 as our weakest link is still stronger than anybody else.
Depends on what you define as weakest link I guess?
For example, Matip is better defensively than Trent, he’s better at carrying the ball than Virgil, and also at quick short passeing.
He’s not as good in terms of speed, reading of the game, long passing or heading as Virgil, but the bar’s damn high considering Virg is the best there is.
There are many different situations that the squad face, and different players will be higher risk of making an error when facing up to different systems.
I think you missed the point of my original post. In order to decide which player could be replaced by another from a different team, surely best to start with the least outstanding?
The reverse fixture was one of the most frustrating games of the season. Probably only surpassed by the Spurs farce. Let’s reassert our dominance and show Moyes it was just a fluke.
