West Ham United v Burnley - The Joe Hart Derby

Lukerz

Third massive derby in a row; this time the ‘Joe Hart’ grudge match.

Team will probably be unchanged again. Difficult to know if Moyes will be tempted to rotate a bit but Burnley tend to play the same 11.

I’d bring Yarmo in for Lanzini who has been better but still not offering quite enough to be guaranteed a starting place.

Their form is incredible; 22 points from their last 11. This has included wins over Man Utd & Leicester, plus draws with Arsenal & Spurs. Beat us 3-0 this season & 2-0 the game before. Last time we played them at home under Moyes it ended with those catastrophic scenes.

Early goals against Burnley are always crucial. They don’t give you anything & never have a ‘bad’ game in terms of their effort & organisation.

Very tough one. A win would probably see us more or less safe but it’s going to be hard to get it.

I hate playing them.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Agree with the above, Lanzini for Yarmo

Shift Fornals to the left, get either one of Bowen or Yarmolenko closer to Antonio as Fornals is currently doing

I wonder how fit everyone is, especially Fredericks and Antonio who's injury records are sketchy at best and they've both been involved a lot recently

OutcastLondoner

I wouldn't move Fornals. He's created the opportunity for Bowen to set up Antonio twice now and there was another smart pass later in this game. I worry bringing Yarmolenko to start messes up what Bowen offers, unless we switch him to the left.

I was a bit confused by Lanzini's positioning to day. He was too central and sometimes it felt like Cresswell was completely on his own. I thought it was him being dragged into central positions but unless he was being really lazy, it sometimes looked intentional. It's nice to see him improving a bit but it might be good to change it up on his side.

steve

Whats the storie on Haller ,picture of him training ,then not even on the bench

Hamstew

Apparently just not fully fit. Ex seems to think there is nothing suspicious going on.

MunichHammer

Well, perhaps they want to avoid another Tevez situation. If we have indeed defaulted on a payment then ownership might have been deferred back to Frankfurt (or the bank or whovever). Now if we play him, win a game in which he plays or even scores the winning goal and UEFA then decide we didn't own him at the time then we could be in big big trouble.
So better not play him.

Yeoldhammer

3 points needed here i think.

Lukerz

I think I would be tempted to go:

Fabianski
Fredericks - Diop - Ogbonna - Masuaku
Soucek - Rice
Yarmolenko - Fornals - Bowen
Antonio

OutcastLondoner

Yeah that might work. Bowen's game hasn't been that much about cutting in from the right, so could probably supply better from the left. I think the only thing we lose is that his main goal threat, I feel, is when he drifts in or makes a run from the right wing to a position on the left of the box, losing his marker. Should still be an attacking threat from the left.

BubblesNeverDies

I'm worried that Lukerz has started this thread, his 3rd in a row.
So far, we've had a win, then a draw, .............

ASLEFshrugged

Burnley seems to be having a minor injury crisis, top scorer Chris Wood came on as a sub on Sunday for his first appearance since the restart but his usual strike partner Ashley Barnes is injured.

Jay Rodriguez was injured for the Palace game last Monday so Burnley played Matej Vydra as a lone striker.

First choice CB Ben Mee, LB Matthew Lowton and CM Jack Cork are also injured

OutcastLondoner

I hate the sight of Wood and Barnes

IronHerb

BubblesNeverDies said:

I'm worried that Lukerz has started this thread, his 3rd in a row.
So far, we've had a win, then a draw, .............

Well, if we had lost one of them he wouldn't have started this one. With success comes pressure.....

Yeoldhammer

Ben Mee / Jack Cork / Ashley Barnes all missing for Burnley from Dyche's press conference.

We should really be looking at 3 points at home to these lot.

buffybegood

3 would be great, but I'll not be unhappy with a point tbh.

yoyo

Burnley are a bit of a bogey team I feel. Its important to start a run of undefeated games. 4 points in the next 2 games would be a good return

buffybegood

Also kinda depends on the result of Watford-Norwich this evening, which might affect our perspective on what constitutes a good result tomorrow.

If we weren't playing Norwich on Saturday, I'd definitely prefer them to win as I think they're down already, but, knowing our luck, if they beat Watford tonight they'll take than confidence into Saturday's game and beat us too. However, I don't want Watford closing up on us, so a draw between those 2 tonight and a point for us tomorrow in a tougher fixture will seem a lot better imo.

Yeoldhammer

I don't think a point would be that good here, i think we need all 3. The amount of pressure the team would be on to deliver against Watford / Norwich would be pretty brutal (granted Watford are in the same boat).

buffybegood

Watford-Norwich 1-1 inside 10 minutes. The Norwich defending of a set piece for the equaliser was shocking, Soucek might be worth a punt to score on Saturday.

Hamstew

You know you're not a prem team when Welbeck scores an overhead kick against you.

Hammerex

Bad news I'm afraid. Lawro has predicted the Hammers to win 2-0.I

BubblesNeverDies

Let's hope that Chris Wood is injured/not selected/sick as he's scored in five of his six games against us, six goals in total, he's like a Kiwi Glenn Murray

Lukerz

I hope we just go for it. We won’t, as Moyes is more conservative, but Pelle would have just sent us out to outscore them.

Watford got away with one yesterday. They were very cautious against Norwich & ultimately only a wondergoal got them the win. Norwich dominated most of that game & could have scored a couple more.

Burnley never change. They will come here playing a variation of 4-4-2, get the ball wide, get it in the box, play for time, play for set plays, defend deep & in numbers for the majority of the game.

We have to be ready to have different options to break them down. This will be a very tough game against a side who will give us nothing.

ASLEFshrugged

Since Moyes took over we've scored in 8 out of 14 games, the average time for our first goal is 27 minutes but if we've not scored after an hour we've not scored at all

Its my day off...

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

In comparison to Nowich next week and the two home games against Watford and Villa, I wouldn't class this game as a 6 pointer

However, as a poster mentioned on the will we stay up thread (sorry cant remember who), we dont want to be going into those 3 games relying on winning all of them

3 points here would he huge (especially if results go our way today and tomorrow)

However Burnley are a tough team to beat, so a point wouldn't be the end of the world....providing we beat Norwich

Lukerz

A win is massive because even if Bournemouth & Villa got draws tomorrow (which would be great results for those two clubs on paper), that is still not good enough. We would basically be 6 points ahead with 4 games to go, with a superior GD.

I agree this is not ‘must win’, but we want this sorted by close of play against Watford. Ideally Norwich, then we can relax against Watford with the onus possibly on them, or with both of us safe.

IronHerb

3 points, from anywhere, will be enough although I think we are safe now on 31.

ASLEFshrugged

Rumours circulating that Haller might be ready to return, even if he starts on the bench it would be a reason to be cheerful

BubblesNeverDies

Pt.3

Lukerz

4 goals conceded in their last 10 games (if you take out the City game).

Maybe a 4-4-2 would be more beneficial for this one? Bowen & Antonio up top? Yarmolenko on one wing & Fornals on the other?

Lukerz

Haller on bench