West Ham v Norwich Saturday 18th December 2021 @ 15:00 @ London Stadium.

Hamstew

Let's give this a go.
Loss.
Darren Huckerby screamer.
Moyes out

FlorinRaduclious

Darren Huckerby was such a player off the bench for my West Ham team in one of the early champ man games..

Really, really need a win here.

I'm struggling to put a team suggestion, as no idea who is available / fit to play!

Which players are still fit from the Ars game, but also gonna be fit enough for the Tottnm game Weds? Although can we even afford to rest players atm? Or do we need to rotate anyway with starting players on shaky form?

Will Cress be back? Will Johnson be back? Will Fredericks return from the black hole I can only assume he's fallen into?

Just please win.

OutcastLondoner

This might be a bit harsh but I’m starting to think Antonio might be the problem for the midfield. He’s still working hard but he’s doing so much wrong as well especially with movement and maybe that’s making them all second guess their passes but they often link up well together, deeper. A game on the bench might help him. Who to go with though?

I actually don’t really rate Bowen as a striker, I think he only really had two good games there (Wolves and Leicester last season I think) when we were playing full throttle football with Lingard. Maybe it’s worth another go or instead putting Benrahma as the false 9 or trying Vlasic. I think it also facilitated Bowen’s most dangerous run which is drifting in to the centre/left side of the box.

I guess Ashby will play RB. Hope Cress is back, it’s a bit worrying how long it’s been now.

OldCastleSwift

I don't think it's harsh, Outcast. Antonio is struggling to do anything well, be it holding the ball up or getting in behind the back line, which naturally means the midfield will think twice about passing it to him for fear of losing possession. We saw it time and again last night.

He's been getting dominated by centre backs lately which is the biggest worry. He's never been technically great, but his pace and power caused plenty of problems early in the season. If PL CBs have learnt how to handle that side of his game, then he becomes very ineffective.

And this is why not getting another striker was a ridiculous decision. Haller, for all of his exploits with Ajax, didn't work out with us (although I think he'd have done well in this new West Ham), but there was no excuse for not getting a second option in during the summer.

I mean, we dropped £25-35m on Vlasic but he doesn't play. With one senior striker in the squad we probably shouldn't have blown half of our budget on an attacking midfielder that Moyes has never seemed confident in.

alderz

We need to try something different up top. Nobody other than Antonio is really capable of playing there alone, so why not try something different?

Assuming nobody is available who wasn’t last night;

Fabianski; Ashby Dawson Diop Masuaku; Fornals Soucek Rice Lanzini; Bowen Benrahma

OldCastleSwift

As for the Norwich game, I think we need to see a few changes:

Fab did well last night, but his distribution is poor. I'd be tempted to give Areola a game. I think he's as good a shot-stopper as Fab, but is better with the ball out.

Ashby will have to play, but against a poor Norwich team it wouldn't be the worse game to make your first PL start. Dawson and Diop start, obvs, but hoping that Cresswell is fit because we've missed him a lot.

I'd probably go with:

Areola
Ashby Dawson Diop Cresswell
Rice Kral
Bowen Fornals Benrahma
Vlasic

But that's being generous on Benrahma and Fornals, both of whom have struggled lately. This is a big run of games for us coming up. We've had a tricky spell, with some excellent results, but some disappointing ones too.

OldCastleSwift

alderz said:

We need to try something different up top. Nobody other than Antonio is really capable of playing there alone, so why not try something different?

Assuming nobody is available who wasn’t last night;

Fabianski; Ashby Dawson Diop Masuaku; Fornals Soucek Rice Lanzini; Bowen Benrahma

I agree that something needs to change, but I'm not sure 4-4-2 is right. At least not with that personnel. Maybe Bowen and Benrahma wide and Vlasic and Lanzini through the middle?

Or give Oko-Flex or Perkins a start. Throw in a complete unknown against a below-average defence?

IronHerb

OldCastleSwift said:

As for the Norwich game, I think we need to see a few changes:

Fab did well last night, but his distribution is poor. I'd be tempted to give Areola a game. I think he's as good a shot-stopper as Fab, but is better with the ball out.

I don't think we can drop Fab. Last night he made two top saves, the pen and the shot from Tierney. He has been in pretty good form imo. His distribution isn't great but at the moment we are having trouble playing out from the back with two right footed CB's. Areola also has issues with his distribution so I would leave well alone.

alderz

OldCastleSwift said:

alderz said:

We need to try something different up top. Nobody other than Antonio is really capable of playing there alone, so why not try something different?

Assuming nobody is available who wasn’t last night;

Fabianski; Ashby Dawson Diop Masuaku; Fornals Soucek Rice Lanzini; Bowen Benrahma

I agree that something needs to change, but I'm not sure 4-4-2 is right. At least not with that personnel. Maybe Bowen and Benrahma wide and Vlasic and Lanzini through the middle?

Or give Oko-Flex or Perkins a start. Throw in a complete unknown against a below-average defence?

My logic is that the two top players are likely to play pretty wide, and the two wide players are likely to come inside. I just think Bowen and Benrahma are our most likely players to create something and to break quickly, so I'd like them high up the pitch.

IronHerb

I would just like to congratulate Hamstew for the wonderful thread heading. 👏👏👏

Expat_Hammer

WOW, so easy to read and full of useful information too.

steve

moyes likes having a small squad .in todays game i cant see how you can

Dodger58

IronHerb said:

I would just like to congratulate Hamstew for the wonderful thread heading. 👏👏👏

I do think he went on a bit though

BubblesNeverDies

Picky I know, but I'm not keen on the use of the aspersand twice in the same heading.

IronHerb

On different rows though. 😁

Hamstew

BubblesNeverDies said:

Picky I know, but I'm not keen on the use of the aspersand twice in the same heading.

Noted for next time

PrestonHammer

I thought @ meant at, I didn't know it had another name. You learn something new every day.

MrsGrey

An ampersand is &

Oh, that's a funny font.

The thing that means 'and' on the number 7 key of the qwerty keyboard, usually.

BubblesNeverDies

MrsGrey

http://editingmonks.blogspot.com/2010/02/ampersand-vs-asperand.html

Where would we be without t' 'net

MrsGrey

Memo to self, pay attention!

I didn't know it was called that.
Every day's a school day :-)

MrsGrey

Here we call it a 'papaki' - no idea why. A literal translation is ... duckling.

Expat_Hammer

MrsGrey said:

Here we call it a 'papaki' - no idea why. A literal translation is ... duckling.

maybe because it looks like a ducks egg

Hamstew

& just like th@t the thre@d is off top!c

MrsGrey

Needing that ;wahoo

alderz

MrsGrey said:

Memo to self, pay attention!

I didn't know it was called that.
Every day's a school day :-)

I googled it earlier too and the website I found said asperand was “so rarely used” that it “isn’t included in most dictionaries” so at least you’re not alone!

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

Game off.

yoyo

Boooooo

Hamstew

Yep that sums up my luck. Should never had don't the match thread

jay_in_cpt

Hamstew said:

Yep that sums up my luck. Should never had don't the match thread

We didn’t lose 😊

steve

Means Coufal misses the spurs game i guess

MrsGrey

They are going to have to suspend the League, aren't they.

Doing a BoJo is just delaying the inevitable and creating more confusion, frustration and anger.