West Ham Utd P Wolverhampton Wanderers P (09/01/10)

[King Guy]

Right, wanted to get in here early as it's my first match thread and the first match I'll be attending in over a year so quite a special one for me...

Daprela's performance today puts him ahead of ilunga for me so should start, also if Parker's back he's an obvious shoe-in for Kovac despite decent recent performances... Behrami was a giant today and will definitely be starting for me. Diamanti looked decent so should start as supporting striker, and stanislas offers a bit of width and strangely is one of our few players not afraid to spank it at goal. Not sure about central defence, Tomkins looked very shaky today and seems to be totally inconsistent, although there's got to be a reason GZ doesn't fancy da Costa...

------------------------------------Green------------------------------------

--------Faubert-------Upson-------Tomkins-------Daprela'--------

-------Behrami-------Parker-------Collison-------Stanislas-------

--------------------------Diamanti-------Franco--------------------------



Come on you Irons! Another battling performance to get us up to 12th

[East6]

kovac WILL be starting mate

[Wade]

I would like to see Sears and Franco up front.

Sears has more experience behind him now so lets see how he plays in a 4-4-2 formation with a quality player in Franco.

Same Midfield and defence, Franco in for Jimenez.

I take it Cole, Parker are all still out

[FDiMcA]

kovac WILL be starting mate

Kovac is getting a run as the holding player as Parker is crucial vs a weaker team like Wolves in a ore general midfield.
Kovac with Parker and Behrami ahead of him will be atypicaly guttsy for gentle West Ham.

Stanislas is still being used cautiously (rightly so) and is needed off the bench as the "impact" sub of modern parlance,

[durham city hammer]

Kovac will not be dropped and it would probably be a little harsh on him if he was tbh but after watching behrami today
i think him and parker would be an unbelievable pairing in the middle!

******** green ************
Faubert Tomkins Upson Daprela

Collison Parker Behrami Stanislas

Diamante

Franco

[Hugh Jargon (Old)]

Green
Faubert
Tomkins
Upson
Illunga
Collinson LM
Beahrani RM
Kovac
Parker
Franco
Diamanti

[If only....]

Massive game. A win pulls us up to maybe 14/15th and drags Wolves firmly into the smellies.

Real test for Zola/Clarke on getting the mindset right coming off a good performance with a crap result into a vital game. A game that could set the tone for a string of upcoming relegation scrap games. We have to attack those teams and break them down while being solid at the back and not letting in soft goals. We have to win these games. Not draw.

COYI

[FDiMcA]

Kovac will not be dropped and it would probably be a little harsh on him if he was tbh but after watching behrami today
i think him and parker would be an unbelievable pairing in the middle!

******** green ************
Faubert Tomkins Upson Daprela

Collison Parker Behrami Stanislas

Diamante

Franco

Im fascinated by Parkerslong term position.

After today (Diamanti Right), Diamanti will move forward to replace Jiminez.

Behrami right covering Faubert, Collison left, Kovac holding seems intuitive.
That leaves Parker in the middle.of things where he likes it.

At some point of this trend Kovac may have replaced Parker as the #1 holding player (physical he makes more sense back there, especially if behind him Upson is sold and Tomkins-Da Costa need someone infront defending them even more.

If Parker is being used in the middle to be all action Behrami is better, but Parker cant play wide,
If Parker is being used in the middle to link to attacks Noble is better but Parker has the shirt.

The Parker/Behrami/Collison midfield triumvate may lack attacking potency.
With Diamanti being hailed as the only player prepared to shoot, perhaps one from Parker/Behrami would be sacrificed to encourage more goals from midfield.

Its great because it means we may be close to having competition for places.

Behrami is versatile, Collison is cultured and technically supreme, I expect (not all maybe not all managers but) Zola will see them as automatics, as with Diamanti on current form (compared to our other attacking players).

The day Kovac becomes our first choice holding player, Parker (who Zola didnt want in a general midfield role last season) will wonder where his normal position is long term.

[coxy]

Diamanti has to come in from the right as opposed to the left, he is much better cutting in that way and shooting across goal, a bit like today. Assuming Parker is fit and Cole can make the bench I would play:

Green

Faubert
Tomkins
Upson
Daprela

Behrami
Parker
Kovac
Stanislas

Diamanti
Franco

[IIIronss]

Unsure on what team I would go with, I would want Kovac, Parker and Behrami there, but wouldn't want any playing out wide.


-------------Kovac-----Behrami------------
Diamanti----------Parker-------------Stanislas/Collison

Give Parker the attacking freedom.

[FDiMcA]

Assume Bolton loose the game in hand this week to Arsenal (at Emirates) then next Saturday Arsenal beat Everton by 2 goals or more; and Birmingham loose to Man Utd, on the rebound from Leeds,

Take as FACT that
Blackburn will not play (away to City) till the Monday after we play Wolves and that whatever happens Burnley v Stoke one of them will have more than 21 points

Then you only need Wigan to draw or loose v Aston Villa

to mean that 3 points for us vs Wolves will put us in 13th and we will be 1 point behind Everton (in 11th or 12th) with equal or better GD

The following 7 teams would be bellow us: Portsmouth (potless) , Wolves, Hull, Bolton, Wigan, Blackburn and one from Stoke or Burnley.

We would probably still be at least 10 points off 10th spot, but a win v Wolves (with or without a takeover and transfer funding) could well be the psycholgical buffer we need against relegation.

[the pink palermo]

FdiMca

Thanks for working all of that out , but really , you need to get out more .

[prophet:marginal]

We can beat Wolves.

Franco in for Jimi.

Collison or Noble in for Stanislas.

[-DL-]

We are going to loose 4-0, Zola is going to blow his brains out on the pitch at full time, and the bullet is going to ricochet of a pillar in WSU, hit Duckers in the chest, he will bleed green blood, and then Tony Fernadez will fly down like a phoenix, set fire to WHU, and then out of the ashes will rise a champions league club that stomps all over that is before it.

I might need more help than I thought.

3 days sober! :raver:

[Matt of iron]

We are going to loose 4-0, Zola is going to blow his brains out on the pitch at full time, and the bullet is going to ricochet of a pillar in WSU, hit Duckers in the chest, he will bleed green blood, and then Tony Fernadez will fly down like a phoenix, set fire to WHU, and then out of the ashes will rise a champions league club that stomps all over that is before it.

I might need more help than I thought.

3 days sober! :raver:

Well done mate, Hopefully your leaf turning will result in an upturn in results.

[East6]

Assume Bolton loose the game in hand this week to Arsenal (at Emirates) then next Saturday Arsenal beat Everton by 2 goals or more; and Birmingham loose to Man Utd, on the rebound from Leeds,

Take as FACT that
Blackburn will not play (away to City) till the Monday after we play Wolves and that whatever happens Burnley v Stoke one of them will have more than 21 points

Then you only need Wigan to draw or loose v Aston Villa

to mean that 3 points for us vs Wolves will put us in 13th and we will be 1 point behind Everton (in 11th or 12th) with equal or better GD

The following 7 teams would be bellow us: Portsmouth (potless) , Wolves, Hull, Bolton, Wigan, Blackburn and one from Stoke or Burnley.

We would probably still be at least 10 points off 10th spot, but a win v Wolves (with or without a takeover and transfer funding) could well be the psycholgical buffer we need against relegation.

very very true and should be possible, one thing though stoke are playing on tuesday as well! so they could end up getting more points there

[nickkarkie]

............................Green....................................

Faubert.........Upson...........Da Costa........Daprela

.............................Kovac..................................

...........Behrami......Parker........Collison..............

..................Diamanti.........................................

..............................Franco................................


Parker bursting forward, Diamanti wandering and a fluid midfield.

[dodger]

Green
Faubert
Tomkins
Upson
Illunga
Collinson LM
Beahrani RM
Kovac
Parker
Franco
Diamanti

Agree with all that, apart from some interesting spelling of players names.

[westlondonhammer]

I really dont want to see us play a 5 man midfield against Wolves... Diamanti in an advanced position still will turn into a 4-5-1 as we have seen previously and we should not be approaching this game negatively! Assuming Ilunga and Noble are not fit, I would like to see:

Green
Faubert
Upson
Tomkins
Daprella
Diamanti (RM)
Parker
Kovac
Behrami (LM)
Nouble
Franco

subs: Stech, Da Costa, Spector, Jimmi, Collison, Sears, Stanislas

I believe with a front 2 Nouble and Franco would not be so isolated and wont be so knackered after 65-70 minutes... it would also mean little would need to be changed when Cole is back the following week and for me this is quite an attacking lineup

[stu1]

I think Tomkins looks shakey, he mis reads the game (quite poorly) at least twice a game. I know we have been better at the back decently but i think id give Da Costa another go.

Green

Faubert
Da Costa
Upson
Daprela (give Ilunga a kick up the arse)

Kovac
Behrami
Parker
Collison

Diamanti
Franco