West Ham Utd 3-1 Cardiff City (04/12/18)

[The Old Man of Storr]

Collins isn't the Welsh representative...



So, you're missing

1. A CB
2. A pair of midfielders...

.

Was Jack Collison the Welsh lad ?

[arlhe]

Jacc scored at their place in a 2-0 win. We won the second leg from such a dangerous lead....

[Castle]

Think there will be a few changes for this at full back. With this in mind I would like to see us go 3-5-2

Fabianski
Diop
Rice
General
Antonio
Arthur
Noble
Snodgrass
Anderson
Arnie
Hernandez

[prophet:marginal]

Collins isn't the Welsh representative...



So, you're missing

1. A CB
2. A pair of midfielders...

.

Was Jack Collison the Welsh lad ?

Correct.

One of the missing English players actually played for Cardiff, before he joined us...

[prophet:marginal]

Jacc scored at their place in a 2-0 win. We won the second leg from such a dangerous lead....

He did, although the last match against them was in the Prem.

[hammer1975]

Could be a bit of a patched up back four

Cresswell looks likely to be out
Zabaleta to be rested given Pellegrini’s comments?
Balbuena being reported as having a dead leg

[johnnyb]

They will kick lumps out of our lot and try to bully. They don't shirk a tackle that's for sure.

[TommyHammer]

Cardiff were one of Allardyce's first opponents in our dug-out, after we were relegated with Grant at the helm. They beat us on that date, 0-1 at The Bolyen.

Since then, we've beaten them in every match, more often than with a clean sheet to boot!

Here's a clue to our line up in our last match against them:

7 Englishmen
&
1 each from Spain, Wales, Rumania and Cote D'Ivoire.

Anyone going to tell us who played?

Remember this game perfectly! Herita Ilunga doing what he does best and letting Rudy Gestede breeze past him before knocking it into Kenny Miller who scored their 90th minute winner. Also remember the police bizzarely clearing out the whole trevor brooking stand as if we were playing Millwall, even though they were in the normal away end for the second leg of the play off semis.

[The Old Man of Storr]

I've seen Cardiff City play a couple of times this season and they've impressed me - they work hard , as hard as any team in the Premiership and they've beaten teams that we failed to get the better of so they should not be underestimated , the only teams to beat them comprehensively have been Chelsea , Manchester City and Liverpool .
Having said that we're a team that creates chances , even when losing 0-4 to Manchester City we were still carving out chances , ok , Cardiff aren't going to come at us the way Manchester City did and so we're going to have to take the game to them . When teams sit back we haven't done so well , Huddersfield managed to hold us to a draw and Brighton beat us by one goal but we did put 4 past Burnley and they went to Cardiff and won .

It's going to be a difficult game , of that I have no doubt but Pellegrini knows what he's doing , he rotates the squad well and not only keeps us guessing he keeps the opposition in the dark too . We may see Antonio or Diangana return , he might start Andy Carroll and Jack Wilshere , that's the beauty of having a strong squad - Pellegrini believes in these players whether we'll set up with two strikers on Tuesday remains to be seen but you can bet there'll be at least two on the pitch by the time the final whistle blows , he's not one to see out a match . I think it'll be a hard fought match but we'll have too much for them by the end .

Two in a row , two in a row...........

West Ham United 3 Cardiff City 1

[e17]

1-1 I reckon

[bubbles1966]

Our centre backs have struggled against big lumps up front - see Burnley/Huddersfield, but we should have a lot more than them on the deck to compensate.

They have one point and two goals scored in six away games this season. They are picking up their points at home.

Their form against bottom half teams in good though - P 6 W 3 D 2 L 1 .

They have only been tonked by three teams - Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea - so they should be competitive.

[Burnley Hammer]

We play well when we can counter against teams that commit too many forward and leave themselves open at the back. We struggle when we can't counter and have to break down a stubborn defence. We won't find this game easy. I'd play Carroll for this, Snodgrass out wide, and have Carroll back defending corners.

[The Old Man of Storr]

Correct.

One of the missing English players actually played for Cardiff, before he joined us...

Didn't read it as a centre half , for some odd reason I was thinking it was 2 midfielders [ a CM ] - Gabbidon and Collins represented both teams , Bellamy was born in Cardiff but never played for them , the missing player is..........Relegation Roger Johnson !!

[prophet:marginal]

He was indeed one of the missing Englishmen.

The other was an Allardyce signing...more than once...

[ironsjh]

He was indeed one of the missing Englishmen.

The other was an Allardyce signing...more than once...

Matt Taylor?

[The Old Man of Storr]

Didn't read it as a centre half , for some odd reason I was thinking it was 2 midfielders [ a CM ] - Gabbidon and Collins represented both teams , Bellamy was born in Cardiff but never played for them , the missing player is..........Relegation Roger Johnson !!

My mistake , Craig Bellamy did play for Cardiff , I think he ended his career there , silly me .

[waynepin]

the sort of team that cause us trouble, Anderson will get kicked all over the park and will need to be strong, they will try every trick in the book constantly foul, press and work really hard if we match that we beat them by 2 or 3, maybe give oxford a go at rightback see how he copes, ogbanna if he plays and Arthur will have their hands full, cool heads required

[funky chicken]

I would use Zabaleta in this game, as Palace on Saturday will have a lot of pace. And that is the sort of game Zabaleta will be found out in. The likes of Zaha will rip him a new one. So would it really make much difference if Antonio played there anyway, as neither will be any better against that pace defensively. But at least Antonio will have a bit of pace on his side.

It's far from ideal as it would be better to have a recognised rightback to come in. The only other player I think could've done a job there is already out on loan (Fernandes).

And one thing to bare in mind is after picking up another yellow card against Newcastle Zabaleta is now 1 yellow card away from a 1 game ban. So play him in the Cardiff game against the slightly more physical side and just pick up that yellow card to get the suspension out of the way.

I would've liked to keep the back 4 together longer as after a clean sheet I am a firm believer of keeping a team together.

Hopefully Cresswell will be okay, but I have a feeling Pellers was planning to play Masuaku in one game and Cresswell in another. Maybe if Tuesday's match is too soon Masuaku will play against Cardiff and Cresswell will play against Palace?

The same story with Obiang, Diangana and Antonio. Some will play in certain matches and some in others.

Obiang I would bring in for this game to add a more combative midfielder to the team. Maybe Noble will be dropped for one and revolve around with Snodgrass too for the final midfield place.

Antonio save for Palace as I mentioned, and Diangana I imagine will come in for either Arnie if they don't won't to risk worsening his injury, or Hernandez. Carroll could maybe come in for Arnie if Pellers decides to stick with 2 up top with Hernandez.

Hernandez for me may be better coming off the bench against Palace so I would stick with him for this game.

They will I imagine be very similar to Burnley, Huddersfield and Newcastle. I.e. We will struggle to cope with them in the air, so Pellers' attitude will be to just keep bombarding them and try to outscore them.

Pending on no more injuries and if Cresswell misses out, which sadly I think he will, this is the team I think Pellers will go with:


----------------------------------Fabianski--------------------------------

-Zabaleta-------------Balbuena---Diop---------------Masuaku-

----------------------Obiang----------Rice-----------------------------

-Snodgrass------------------------------------------------Anderson-

-----------------------Hernandez----Arnautovic---------------------


Subs: Adrian, Ogbonna, Wilshere, Noble, Diangana, Carroll, Antonio.

[StackerJJ]

Be happy with a 1-0 win to be honest, if we can keep creating chances we'll keep giving ourselves a chance to win.

My biggest concern this game is who's playing fullbacks. Zaba needs a rest, cresswell probably too soon for him. Confident we have an abundance of talent in the forward positions but full backs I'm concerned about. We'll miss Zabaletta massively in my opinion.

I'm putting my tin hat on but I'd like to see rice move to full back in place of Zaba and put Obiang or Wilshere in the middle. I think we'll have enough in there to compete with Cardiff and I trust Rice's professionalism, awareness and ability at full back more than anyone in the first team squad.

----------------Fab--------------
Rice - Bal - Diop - Cress (if fit)
--- Snod - Noble - Wilshere ---
Arnie.-- Chicha -- Anderson

2-0 hammers

[Puff Daddy]

We play well when we can counter against teams that commit too many forward and leave themselves open at the back. We struggle when we can't counter and have to break down a stubborn defence. We won't find this game easy. I'd play Carroll for this, Snodgrass out wide, and have Carroll back defending corners.

Good call that. It'll give Cardiff's defenders something to think about and a different type of striker to face, which I am not sure they have encountered so far