Cardiff City (H); Tuesday 4th December, 19:45

Hamstew

We beat the Geordies so I guess I'd better do the next match thread.

Cardiff to win 1-0 with Kenny Miller scoring the winner.

IronHerb

;lol ;clap

BubblesNeverDies

This is a must win game.
Just want to see Colin's miserable mug at the end of the game. ;biggrin

steve

Bubbles ,your right this is a must win game ,as I get older and older I find myself disliking most other teams more and more even ones I quite liked a few years ago ;puzzled

IronHerb

You liked Cardiff once? ;nonono

ASLEFshrugged

I don't dislike Cardiff, I hate Colin.

Lukerz

Same team. Masuaku for Cress if he isn’t fit to make it.

steve

never said I liked Cardiff ,use to have a soft spot for Brighton and one or two others but never Cardiff ;nonono

Yeoldhammer

get 3 points here and we can think about chasing down for a top 10 place.

ASLEFshrugged

Following Pelle's comments about Zab I suspect he's going to rotate the squad

Fabianski
Antonio Ogbonna Diop Masuaku
Noble (c) Obiang Wilshere
Diangana Carroll Anderson

Adrian, Zabaleta, Balbuena, Rice, Snodgrass, Hernandez, Arnautovic

Still good enough to beat Cardiff.

Adam

I don’t think Carroll will start. He hasn’t even come off the bench yet. He’ll be eased in, imo.

Cuz1

Think it might be the longest spell Carroll’s had with us without being injured ;whistle

MrsGrey

Zabaleta, Anderson AND Hernandez make Crooks' team of the week.

A first!?

Lukerz

Wonder if he is planning on utilising Antonio as a RB for this one, hence why he was omitted & protected against Newcastle as I didn’t read he had a knock. Will Zab manage three games in a week?

IronHerb

I think it's the 4 games over Christmas and New Year are where the rotation will really come into play. For now judicious use of subs and injury cover should suffice.

alderz

If there is to be rotation at RB, I would like Reece Oxford to be the backup over December. He played at RB for BMG last season and, from what I read, did really well. He's clearly either got to be used or sold, so why not give him a shot to see if he can offer something, or let him put himself in the shop window for January.

Fabianski; Oxford Balbuena Diop Arthur; Noble Rice; Diangana Snodgrass Anderson; Hernandez

To me, the one guy who really looks like he needs a rest is Arnie. I love him, but he hasn't looked himself recently. The option to bring him off the bench is a good one, and I think that the front four listed above should be able to trouble Cardiff.

jay_in_cpt

Personally would be very surprised to see Oxford in the team or squad for that matter, he hasn't featured at all, so to put him into the team b4 on the subs bench would be a shock to me, not saying that im not prepared to give him a chance tho...

thornburyiron

Pelle doesn’t seem to think he warrants a place so doubt he will pick him.

Lukerz

Balbuena & Cresswell both doubts tomorrow, Pelle confirms today.

Both will face late checks tomorrow.

Hamstew

Oh no not rocky

Hamstew

Although good that Cresswell will be alnate test. Won't be serious then.

IronHerb

He cant split Arnie and Chica after their success on Saturday. Arnie always looks tired imo but that is partially his body language. He has stopped shooting and keeps looking to pass, the opposite of how he started this season. If you don't play him then you need to pay Carroll else we lose Chicas usefulness.
So Arnie starts, scores and then is subbed off for Carroll to finish the job.

Cuz1

Pelle out, IronHerb in, u heard it here first

Lukerz

Gonna be a tricky game this. They will sit deep, make it hard for us, be physical, defend in numbers & will have sporadic attacks through counters & set plays, but I can’t see them sustaining periods of pressure. They have the extra days recovery too.

Anderson will be targeted. Warnock has already emphasised the front four from
Saturday. Doubts over Balbuena & Cress, possibly a couple of players needing rotation periods like Zab & Arnie. We all know what Antonio can be like when at RB.

Hopefully we pinch what I think will be a close game. 2-1. Early goal would really help us.

Adam

If both Cresswell and Balbuena are out, then I wouldn’t want Zabaleta to be rotated. That would mean 3 changes to the back four.

Zab is fit enough. It’s just his recovery time is longer since he’s older. Hopefully he can play if the other two are injured.

alderz

Our depth is as good as I've ever known it to be. Not a terrible position to be in that if Rocky is out we have an Italian international centre back to come in

Hammerex

Well William Hill seems to favour us by a long way.
Cardiff 24/5 almost 5-1
Hammers 6/10 on
I would go 2-0 to the Hammers.

Expat_Hammer

We really do need to win this one

If only because I'm working a few miles away from Cardiff

;pray

BubblesNeverDies

Expat, I didn't think working in Cardiff qualifies as being ex-pat. ;wink

OldCastleSwift

Wouldn't it be the most West Ham thing to follow up an impressive 3-0 away win with a capitulation at home to Cardiff

1-2 and Warnock to cup his ear a la Allardyce when the final whistle goes.

ASLEFshrugged

1-0, 2-0, 2-1 to us or 1-1 all about the same odds (6/1, 7/1) with the bookies.

Cardiff have problems up front, the last seven games they've played Callum Paterson as a centre forward, last season he was mostly he's a midfielder but for Scotland he mostly plays right back. Prior to this season he hadn't played up front since 2014.

Win. If you're waiting on the Central Line platform at Stratford around 10:08pm and see train 051 going to Epping give me a wave.