Dinamo Zagreb (H) - Thurs 9th Dec, 8pm

OldCastleSwift

Deanscaleshammer said:

I think Moyes has a really important judgement call to make. I can remember promising youngsters being thrown in early to help the team and arguably having their confidence knocked massively. Some never seemed to fully recover.

The best example is when Allardyce put the kids out in an FA Cup game v Forest. The line up that day was:

Adrian; Driver, Diarra, Potts; Jarvis, Morrison, Lletget, Moncur, Downing; Maiga, Whitehead. Subs: Spiegel, Lee, Turgott, Fanimo, Maguire, Gordon, Burke.

Driver, Lletget, Moncur and Whitehead never got a look in again. Bar Reece Burke, the bench never threatened the first team picture either.

When you consider the 'first team' players that day included Diarra, Jarvis and Maiga, who were all pretty poot PL players, I think what we're likely to see on Thursday won't be anywhere near as bad as that.

I trust Moyes' judgement re the youth a lot more than I ever did Allardyce's, so I'm sure Moyes will make the right call.

OldCastleSwift

I've just read The Guardian's live text feed from that game 😅. Some selected highlights:


"Miserable West Ham"

"West Ham were and are dismal"

"West Ham are a rabble"

"West Ham have a corner from which they will not score... told you"

"The senior players have been abysmal"

"Blair Turgott on for Downing, who gives the armband to Matt Jarvis. It's come to this"

"If you didn't know any better you'd say Forest were the EPL side and West Ham were League 2"

""How not very good must you be, it's only 1-0?" the West Ham fans enquire of their Forest counterparts. Nothing like faith in your team"


We've come a long way...

OldCastleSwift

OldCastleSwift said:

Baptiste, Ashby, Alese and Perkins all missing from the U23 squad for this afternoon's game.

Could mean nothing, could mean all four are likely to feature on Thursday.

Beat palace U23s 4-2, by the way. Oko-Flex with a hat-trick. Place on the bench on Thursday I wonder?

claretandbluesky

Oko-Flex must be worth a run out this Thursday !

Hamstew

He isn't eligible for Thursday

OldCastleSwift

How come?

Hamstew

Hamstew

Not my work but someone on twitter that seems to know his stuff.

Dodger58

Longelo was also left out of the U23s game today, so I assume he'll be left back - could be the full U23s back 4. I do hope Kral is fit and given the full game. He and Nobes should provide the backbone in the middle for the youngsters. I actually think Arthur less likely to provide much 'protection' to the less experienced defenders!

OldCastleSwift

Cheers Ham. I thought I'd read that U23s didn't have to be registered, as in the PL, but didn't realise there was the 2-year rule.

So presumably it'll be Yarmolenko and Perkins as the sole CF options for Thursday.

Yeoldhammer

They needed to be born after 1st Jan 2020 lol what ?

Hamstew

Yeoldhammer said:

They needed to be born after 1st Jan 2020 lol what ?

Lol was a typo. He meant 2000

BubblesNeverDies

Yeoldhammer said:

They needed to be born after 1st Jan 2020 lol what ?

Plus they wouldn't have been at the club for 2 years yet.

alderz

"You can't win anything with newborns"

Hammerdublin

2 year-olds can be kinda shaky on their feet.

Pengeman

This story says that Dawson has a bit of a knock. SO I doubt that he would be risked and would hopefully be OK for Sunday's game. So it looks like the academy providing the entire defence. Let us hope that they play well knowing that if you play well you can keep the shirt, as the example of Johnson shows.

Pengeman

OOOppppsss .. .. here is the link https://www.football.london/west-ham-united-fc/news/west-ham-dinamo-zagreb-league-22400016

Hamstew

Now that is a young defence

Yeoldhammer

Exwhuemployee says U23 back 4 and Perkins up front.

alderz

Risky to go for a striker at left back and a left back up front but trust the process I guess.

OldCastleSwift

OldCastleSwift said:

Areola
Ashby Baptiste Alese Longelo
Kral Noble
Yarmolenko Fornals Vlasic
Perkins

Can't risk any of our four fit defenders. Rice and Soucek deserve a rest, as do Bowen and Antonio. If Lanzini has the shirt for the next league game, then one of Fornals and Benrahma can play the No10 role.

To be honest, I'd be more excited to see this line up and see where the kids are than trotting out our 'second eleven' if everyone was fit.

But I reckon if it's a young back four, Moyes will put Rice in front of them to protect them a bit more.

What do I win?

Yeoldhammer

Look at those shirt numbers though

puddleglumhammers

Yeold, so your number might be 1, 773 ?

puddleglumhammers

Looking forward to seeing Perkins and have heard a bit about the young central defenders. Anyone know anything about the RB and LB ?

steve

This should be fun ,Looking forward to it

alderz

puddleglumhammers said:

Looking forward to seeing Perkins and have heard a bit about the young central defenders. Anyone know anything about the RB and LB ?

Ashby played in the cup last season and looked decent, but then spend a lot of the season injured. Plays for Scotland U21s I think.

Longelo played in an FA Cup game early last year I think, and looked very much out of his depth.

Alese and Baptiste have also played a cup game or two each, I believe.

ScotHammer

I know we don’t really care, but how must Genk be feeling about our team? They need us to get a positive result, but IMO it’s positive for us that none of our first eleven are likely to get injured.

alderz

ScotHammer said:

I know we don’t really care, but how must Genk be feeling about our team? They need us to get a positive result, but IMO it’s positive for us that none of our first eleven are likely to get injured.

Genk should have got the business done like we have! That said, I think we could potentially get a result still

MrsGrey

KIDZ!

MrsGrey

Although with Nobes in there, the average age rises to a respectable level.