West Ham Utd 0-5 Manchester City (10/08/19)

[Marky]

Wiltshire just can’t play with Lanzini as we are too light weight.

What does Lanzini have to do to be dropped? He hasn’t played well post injury. He needs yo be an impact sub for now

[BethnalGreenHammer74]

If not Diop, then why don’t we try Cardoso in there alongside Rice?

[Georgee Paris]

Yeah we could try a youngster most of us had never heard of a week ago in a different position - suppose there’s a chance him and rice hit it off... there’s also a chance they will get distracted looking at their panini stickers.

[Colours never run]

As we are crying out for a midfielder to protect our back four, what are people’s thought’s on maybe putting Diop in there alongside Rice?

Crazy idea I know, but someone like Mark Noble?

[Patito]

He's injured atm though, CNR. Once he's back perhaps.

Fornals has to be in there for me as well. His ability to press coupled with his passing/vision will be key for us getting a grip of games.

[Turns to Stone]

If not Diop, then why don’t we try Cardoso in there alongside Rice?

It might work.

But my issue is that this is not a new problem. It's not an issue caused by injuries. It's caused because of bad management and planning.

This was a problem at home to Wolves last year when we started with Noble and Wilshere in midfield, and that was in August 2018. Here we are one year later and the problem has actually been exacerbated as we have lost Obiang whilst Noble and Sanchez are another year older.

For me, looking at that squad we just seem completely one-paced in midfield and that is where I would be targeting if I was an opposition manager. Kick Wilshere out of the game, double-up on Rice, push the full-backs on and wait for our ageing and injury-prone midfield to tire and wilt.

[Turns to Stone]

As we are crying out for a midfielder to protect our back four, what are people’s thought’s on maybe putting Diop in there alongside Rice?

Crazy idea I know, but someone like Mark Noble?

He's actually our only option to do it. Which means that when he's injured you end up screwed. Which is frustrating considering it's such an important position.

[westhamlinnet]

I agree we cannot play lanzini Wilshire and Anderson together we are crying out for a tall box to box midfield player perhaps in short term zabletta defensive midfield player the neglect in finding this player over the last two seasons is laughable. I wonder what joy Brighton will have from corners next week

[Colours never run]

He's injured atm though, CNR. Once he's back perhaps.

Fornals has to be in there for me as well. His ability to press coupled with his passing/vision will be key for us getting a grip of games.

He still likely to be out? Thought he was back amongst training after his dead leg in pre season.

[BethnalGreenHammer74]

I was only suggesting other options as Noble is injured at the moment. Having him in the team last season still didn’t stop us conceding a lot of goals, and getting overrun in midfield most games.

Just thinking at other options.

[JustJoe85]

Might be in the minority when it comes to Wilshere but I thought he was a huge part of why we were competitive first half. Not many sides match City for possession and Jack had excellent pass completion, only gave the ball away once, was the most fouled player on the pitch and got a couple of tackles/interceptions too (and high up the pitch).

What was noticeable is we struggled more in the middle of the park after he went off (maybe down to tiring legs or change of gameplan) but I actually liked what I saw from Jack as an all round midfielder. Way more than I expected.

Thought he was far more effective than some but he seems to be copping a lot of the stick today.

[Patito]

He still likely to be out? Thought he was back amongst training after his dead leg in pre season.

I'm not sure mate. I hope you're right.

[Patito]

Might be in the minority when it comes to Wilshere but I thought he was a huge part of why we were competitive first half. Not many sides match City for possession and Jack had excellent pass completion, only gave the ball away once, was the most fouled player on the pitch and got a couple of tackles/interceptions too (and high up the pitch).

What was noticeable is we struggled more in the middle of the park after he went off (maybe down to tiring legs or change of gameplan) but I actually liked what I saw from Jack as an all round midfielder. Way more than I expected.

Thought he was far more effective than some but he seems to be copping a lot of the stick today.

I thought he did well first half too.

[Turns to Stone]

Don't get me wrong, I like Wilshere. I just don't think we can afford to have him and Lanzini in the same team against good, powerful sides.

[SiO]

Don't get me wrong, I like Wilshere. I just don't think we can afford to have him and Lanzini in the same team against good, powerful sides.

Indeed, even the invinsibles Arsenal team of ball players had enough hard beggars in there... Both central midfielders for a start and defenders who defended on the whole... They still had enough going forward

[HammerAl]

I would like to see Wilshere playing in front of Rice and one other, not alongside him. And if that means that Lanzini is dropped then that’s fine by me.

[the pink palermo]

So, Saturday, a lack of physicality alongside Rice, fullbacks that struggle defensively, and a game plan that was beyond naive.

Why all the surprise we got torn a new one ?

Pelle's sent out a relatively attacking line up, yet we barely made their keeper do a thing, so what was the point of it ? City were a bit rusty for the first half an hour or so - we kind of competed in so much as we didn't concede for 25 minutes, but they kept with their standard rope -a dope tactic of sucking opposition players forward to create space, stretch the gaps between our lines, and then they simply pass the ball through us and score at will.

22 times now at the London stadium.

For the umpteenth time, they are not going to score against us from deep inside their own half: surrender that space - because it simply doesn't matter -and defend our own half, and specifically our own box.

We've got people describing the City manager as some kind of messiah when in truth all he is doing is setting teams up for sucker punches all day long.

And Pellegrini fell for it. Again.

Yellow card for the manager from me.

[Patito]

I don't think people are that surprised tbh.

[Diogenes]

Might be in the minority when it comes to Wilshere but I thought he was a huge part of why we were competitive first half. Not many sides match City for possession and Jack had excellent pass completion, only gave the ball away once, was the most fouled player on the pitch and got a couple of tackles/interceptions too (and high up the pitch).

What was noticeable is we struggled more in the middle of the park after he went off (maybe down to tiring legs or change of gameplan) but I actually liked what I saw from Jack as an all round midfielder. Way more than I expected.

Thought he was far more effective than some but he seems to be copping a lot of the stick today.

I agree.

[HammerAl]

I certainly wasn’t surprised, especially once I saw the lineup!