Leicester (H) 12/11 k/o 15:00 🦊

Ravel49

A rare 3pm Sat kick off.
Maybe Brendan Rodgers will like the look of the place and fancy this as his new home 😜

OldCastleSwift

Ravel49 said:

Maybe Brendan Rodgers will like the look of the place and fancy this as his new home 😜

ASLEFshrugged

Leicester beat Newport 3-0 in their League Cup tie on Tuesday but they started four first team regulars (FB Justin, CB Faes, DM Soumare, LW Barnes) and James Justin picked up a knee injury - currently being assessed

Two other FBs are unavailable, Ricardo Pereira (Achilles) and Ryan Bertrand (knee), neither has played this season and neither is expected to be back anytime soon. CB Caglar Soyuncu hobbled off a couple of weeks ago against City with a hamstring

Timothy Castagne has nailed down the RB slot and ex-Leicester youth Luke Thomas played LB against Newport and possibly could get his third PL start this season

BubblesNeverDies

This is one for Alderz or ASLEF: when was the last time West Ham lost 3 home matches within the space of 7 days?

thornburyiron

Don’t know the last time but I think I know the next.

ASLEFshrugged

I'm not even sure we've ever played three home matches in 7 days let alone lost them all

ASLEFshrugged

Apparently, we played three home games in 7 days twice last season

Three wins 21 - 27 October
Two wins and a loss 9 - 16 January

I'll keep looking...

Lukerz

This won’t be the side, but I’d go

Fabianski
Kehrer - Dawson - Zouma - Cresswell
Fornals - Rice - Paqueta
Bowen - Scamacca - Benrahma

Hamstew

I'd swap Bowen for Antonio

ASLEFshrugged

I've gone back as far as 1993/94 season but still haven't found three home losses in 7 days

Moyes says Emerson has a broken nose, Cornet out until after the World Cup, otherwise a couple of niggles and knocks but no names

ASLEFshrugged

Rodgers says Justin will be out for the season with an Achilles so Castagne and Thomas are the only fit fullbacks tomorrow

Best guess

Ward
Castagne Amartey Faes Thomas
Soumare
Maddison Tielemans Dewsbury-Hall Barnes
Daka

IronHerb

Hamstew said:

I'd swap Bowen for Antonio

Offering what? 🤔

buffybegood

Hamstew said:

I'd swap Bowen for Antonio

Antonio hasn't got 90 minutes in him, so you've got no cover for Scamacca if he gets tired or takes a knock. Makes no sense whatsoever to me.

EXETERHAMMER

Bowen stepped up as the front man when he had to last year. We need to change things up.

Hamstew

My opinion is that Bowen is offering nothing and Antonio is offering slightly more. Even if it is randomness. I still and have always thought Antonio is more of a wide player than a striker.

Lukerz

I think there may be some changes today from Moyes…

I think he’ll give Aguerd a game knowing he’ll play at the WC anyway. I think Soucek will have the game off after he was subbed last weekend in our performance & I think Fornals will start after his last 2 performances.

Fabianski
Kehrer - Zouma - Aguerd - Cresswell
Downes - Rice
Bowen - Paqueta - Fornals
Scamacca

This side will also allow us to build play better form back to front. Aguerd, Cresswell, Rice, Downes, Fornals, Paqueta gives us a nice balance on that left side to build attacks.

3 wins & a draw in the last 4 against them. I think we may surprise today. 3-1 (Bowen to get 2).

MrsGrey

Hamstew said:

My opinion is that Bowen is offering nothing and Antonio is offering slightly more. Even if it is randomness. I still and have always thought Antonio is more of a wide player than a striker.

I like the idea of a player adding randomness.
The chaos theory of football 😂

Lukerz

Hmm I don’t think any of our players have been bad enough to be pulled out of the side for the sake of it. We all agree Soucek has struggled for a long time &, given Moyes wants us to dominate the ball more, I don’t see him as being as necessary as he was 2 years ago, because simply winning headers in our box is not enough, IMO. He seems a sensible player to lose. Now we could go with Downes/Rice as a two or maybe a 3 with Fornals/Lanzini supporting Rice, with Paquetá in there too. Bowen is one of our best players & will get to his levels again. I think he’ll have a point to prove today & he has a good record against Leicester (3 goals in last 4 games).

buffybegood

Moyes is pretty stubborn, so I can see exactly the same starting 11 as last week. I can't see him bringing Aguerd and Downes in for Dawson and Soucek in the final game before the break; if he's going to do that it'll be when we resume on Boxing Day imo. Fornals has played well in the midweek games, but Benrahma doesn't deserve to lose his place although that doesn't always seem to count personally for him with Moyes. Bowen should be the one most worried about missing out to a return for Fornals, but I suspect Moyes will stick with him.

Fabianski
Kehrer Dawson Zouma Cresswell
Soucek Rice
Bowen Paqueta Benrahma
Scamacca

IronHerb

Lukerz said:

Hmm I don’t think any of our players have been bad enough to be pulled out of the side for the sake of it. We all agree Soucek has struggled for a long time &, given Moyes wants us to dominate the ball more, I don’t see him as being as necessary as he was 2 years ago, because simply winning headers in our box is not enough, IMO. He seems a sensible player to lose. Now we could go with Downes/Rice as a two or maybe a 3 with Fornals/Lanzini supporting Rice, with Paquetá in there too. Bowen is one of our best players & will get to his levels again. I think he’ll have a point to prove today & he has a good record against Leicester (3 goals in last 4 games).

You do realise Soucek has won more tackles and interceptions than Rice so it's not all to do with winning headers. His passing has gone awry but he still does a lot of the 'dirty' work that is required. Downes isn't up to it yet and offers little going forward. Bowen has been sussed for the moment as he always cuts in onto his left foot to shoot. I agree he will come again but we shouldn't be playing players in the hope they will get their form back.

Fortuneseeker

I expect he won’t be picked but who else but Aguerd is going to deal with the threat of the pace that Vardy or Daka or Barnes have?

Lukerz

Herb - I agree he does a lot of disciplined work but I do think something has to give. It’s like Dawson. Great pro & most of our wins have come with him playing, but how do we realistically build possession with Fab (who takes an age to release the ball), Zouma, Dawson, Soucek? It’s one of the main reasons our play is so laboured. That’s such a bad way to start attacks from deep. Paqueta needs to stay near Scamacca. Instead he drops into defence to pick up the ball but by the time we get forward he’s nowhere near the box.

IronHerb

That's fair enough Lukerz but Downes doesn't really add to our speed going forward at the same time being less effective in the DM role.

Lukerz

True, but can he move the ball about that bit quicker?

OutcastLondoner

IronHerb said:

That's fair enough Lukerz but Downes doesn't really add to our speed going forward at the same time being less effective in the DM role.

I think he’s more active in winning it back, which increases our ability to counter attack, and does move it quicker. Soucek dawdles a bit and tends to move it sideways. I agree he adds a lot otherwise and don’t think he’s poor, as some claim, but is kind of average most of the time.

I just think it’s worth with Downes to try him out. We don’t know what he adds offensively for sure yet.

welovethehammers

Downes wins the ball back in a more tenacious manner and quickly releases to those with more quality on the ball such as Rice or Paqueta. When the pass is released quicker to them, they are more likely to make things happen as they’d generally have more space.

welovethehammers

I’d like to see:

Fab
Johnson Dawson Zouma Cress
Downes Rice
Antonio Paqueta Benrahma
Scammaca

We can always bring on Bowen if Antonio is blowing in the second half (score/tactics dependent)

Lukerz

I always feel Soucek takes about 5 stages to get a ball under control and pass it. Downes can do it in 1-2 (although it is often sideways).

Ravel49

🦀 🦀 🦀

Lukerz

Fornals has to start today, not sure we’ve ever put in a decent performance when he hasn’t started.

buffybegood

As predicted (by me at least😂🤣😂):

Fabiański, Kehrer, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell, Rice ©, Souček, Bowen, Paquetá, Benrahma, Scamacca
Subs: Areola (GK), Johnson, Coufal, Fornals, Lanzini, Downes, Ogbonna, Aguerd, Emerson