Wolves (a) 3pm Saturday 20th November (not on TV)
A pleasant surprise to still be here!
Bruno Lage plays a 3-4-3, a pretty settled side with 9 players starting 8 or more PL matches and Hwang Hee-chan starting the last 6.
Adama Troare and Trincao in competition for the right side of the attacking threee.
LWB Marcal has missed the last three matches with a calf injury but is said to be close to recovery; if not French U21 Rayan Ait Nouri has been covering.
Pedro Neto has been out with a broken kneecap since April and isn't expected back until after New Year.
Sa
Kilman Coady Saiss
Semedo Neves Moutinho Marcal(?)
Trincao/Troare(?) Martinez Hwang
Obviously we'll be without Oggy, Rice missed the internationals due to illness so hopefully will have recovered, Vlasic played an hour against Russia on Sunday, Yarmalenko starts against Bosnia tonight and has the armband. Possible doubt over Fornals as its reported that he's stayed in Spain rather than flown back.
We did the double over them last season, 7-2 on agg. and Bowen scored three. COYI
Bruno Lage plays a 3-4-3, a pretty settled side with 9 players starting 8 or more PL matches and Hwang Hee-chan starting the last 6.
Adama Troare and Trincao in competition for the right side of the attacking threee.
LWB Marcal has missed the last three matches with a calf injury but is said to be close to recovery; if not French U21 Rayan Ait Nouri has been covering.
Pedro Neto has been out with a broken kneecap since April and isn't expected back until after New Year.
Sa
Kilman Coady Saiss
Semedo Neves Moutinho Marcal(?)
Trincao/Troare(?) Martinez Hwang
Obviously we'll be without Oggy, Rice missed the internationals due to illness so hopefully will have recovered, Vlasic played an hour against Russia on Sunday, Yarmalenko starts against Bosnia tonight and has the armband. Possible doubt over Fornals as its reported that he's stayed in Spain rather than flown back.
We did the double over them last season, 7-2 on agg. and Bowen scored three. COYI
Comments
I am really hopeful that Fornals will be ok as we are a stronger side with him playing and he always gets himself into a couple of good scoring positions each match.
Our confidence will be sky high after defeating Liverpool and there is no reason we cant get a result even away from home to Wolves. Being away may even help as teams regard us differently now and opponents who would have come onto us are now wary and sitting deeper making our fast breaking attacks harder to execute, but I am hopeful Wolves will see this as a game to win rather than take something from and want to attack us.
It's a big weekend to take three points as doing so would mean definite gains on teams we will hopefully be competing with for a top 6 place come the spring due to the other fixtures. Top 6 will be tough with the Europa adventure and we know Spurs will look to revive under Conte and United will sort the mess out sooner or later, so if we can take a lead on any of the teams we will compete with now it will really help.
Other key fixtures
Leicester V Chelsea
Liverpool V Arsenal
Man City V Everton
Referee appointed: Mike Dean🏃
COYI
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/football/antonio-returns-early-after-west-ham-co-owner-charters-private-jet/ar-AAQPbuO?ocid=msedgntp
The only direct flight from Kingston to London is British Airways, leaving at 8pm, arriving Heathrow 10am.
Set up correctly and with the right players and we would win. That means playing with a back 4, setting up with the intention to press, attack and trying to win. We have better players than them everywhere other than in central defence. Even in defence players like Dawson aren’t exactly world beaters. Other than Rice who do they have that anyone decent would want? Zouma maybe, but that’s it. Players like Soucek, Bowen, Benrahma and Fornals are distinctly average.
Unfortunately we all know what the set up will be and we will be lucky to scrape a draw. West Ham love the hoof, are full of big physical players and they will bully us. Perhaps if we drop Moutinho and Coady for Boly and Dendoncker we would stand a chance but that won’t happen.
I predict 3-0 with Antonio looking like Drogba on roids.
Wolves are in decent form themselves, we have won 5 of our last 6. 15 points. They have won 4 of their last 6. 13 points. They lost to Palace last time & didn’t really turn up, other than that they have shown top 6 form over the last couple of months.
It’s also important to see how we deal with the loss of Ogbonna & the various players who have traveled around the world the last two weeks, with limited preparation time for this game.
I think we are all expecting that result to come where we think the wheels have come off, but this side hasn’t really had that in two years. I’d make us slight favourites for the game but I don’t think a draw is a shocking result.
Well for a start, they speak the same language so communication will definitely be better.
Diop was very shaky in our last Europa game if I remember rightly…
I definitely do agree though that the French connection is something that could be very good for the future, but for today, IMO he is too inconsistent and Dawson starts…COYI ⚒️⚒️⚒️
Something I think matters is that Zouma, Diop and Dawson all prefer to play on the right side of a two. Diop has looked ok when switching sides, and Dawson has never played on the left for us. I think the question for me is how affected will Zouma be by playing on the left? What’s a better partnership - a slightly less good Zouma on the left and Dawson, or a slightly uncomfortable Diop on the left and Zouma?
I could be way off tho and totally wrong, who knows, just my thoughts.
I do agree tho Alderz that if we want to hang on to Drop he does need to start playing more often than just a few cup games, time will tell I suppose.
I am definitely interested in seeing Zouma and Diop partnered at some point.
@alderz I think Zouma moved to the left side against Liverpool after Ogbonna went off.