Manchester Utd 1-0 West Ham Utd (22/1/22)

[hammerman11]

wouldnt be surprised to lingard start as rangneck tries to out do us mentally.

hopefully we will start well and strong and be up for it big time . a big win would send a positive statement to lingard and others who are thinking about joining !

fabianski
johnson dawson zouma cresswell
rice soucek fornals
bowen antonio vlasic

not the game for lanzini as too lightweight.

subs areola ashby diop alese masuaka noble yarmolenko oko flex lanzini

no point kral being on the bench !

hammers win 2-1 ant and bowen

COYI

[pdbis]

Surprise, Surprise another defeat.

[hammerman11]

nice and positive then !

[Eastleigh Hammer]

If I'm being honest with myself, I know this'll be a loss but something about this West Ham does keep that glimmer of hope alive. Losing to Saints and Leeds but winning at Old Trafford would be the most West Ham thing I can think of

2-1 loss but giving it a damn good go.

[stu1]

If we had Zouma and Oggy at CB I’d be confident of getting at least a point but if Dawson and Diop start I think we’ll lose.

Moyes has a huge decision on whether to play Zouma or not. If we lose this game we are back down to effectively 7th, the loss to Leeds really was a huge chance wasted as we could have heaped a ton of pressure on our rivals.

[funky chicken]

It’s all well and good hoping Zouma can play. But if our midfield fails to offer any protection to the back line, which it did last Sunday, then it’s irrelevant who plays at the back. As they’ll still have a lot to deal with.

[El brooko79]

not the game for lanzini as too lightweight.

COYI

He isn't too lightweight to play against Man utd.
He just can't play as a deep lying CM in games we're we conceed a majority of possession.

As a 10 he can play against anyone. Particularly with Rice and Soucek behind him.

[prophet:marginal]

Cavani and Greenwood will cause (different) problems for our defence all day long (I personally think Greenwood is a stronger prospect than either Rashford or Martial). Fernandes, too, will be a big handful and appears to be in form at the moment.

We, too, have striking/forward options who can shine at OT this weekend.

In fact, both teams are fine in terms of one end of the pitch and patchy at best at the other. In Man United's regard, De Gea is doing reasonably well this season, but none of the normal defensive options are doing all that well (even Varane has looked poor recently).

For me, West Ham at the moment are always going to struggle to keep clean sheets with both Diop and Dawson as the 2xCBs and Soucek missing through illness.

It might be useful for us to go 3-4-3, even in Zouma's continued absence, with pacy/energetic wide players in the 4 and Lanzini ahead of them, but withdrawn behind Antonio and Bowen

Fredericks vs Shaw (for up and down that wing for 90 minutes)
Fornals vs Wan-Bissaka (keeping their player mindful of ours close control)
Lanzini on their deep-lying midfielder and not sitting immediately in front of Diop/Dawson.

If we simply sit back, we lose another game at a significant juncture in the season.

We need to mix it up the pitch and basically outscore or equal score them.

[stu1]

It’s all well and good hoping Zouma can play. But if our midfield fails to offer any protection to the back line, which it did last Sunday, then it’s irrelevant who plays at the back. As they’ll still have a lot to deal with.

Soucek will be back.

The Leeds game showed how important he is to us, despite many claiming he’s not playing well this season (imo just cos he’s not scored as much). The bloke is a machine who covers every blade of grass and wins absolutely everything in the air.

[ageing hammer]

I think Moyes will pick this if all fit.

-----------------Fab

Coufal--- Dawson--- Zouma---- Cresswell

------------Soucek---Rice

Bowen-------Lanzini------Fornals

---------------Antonio

[hammerman11]

Coufal has Bern poor recently rather start Johnson at right back

[WestHamLyallStyle]

I’d be more confident with Ogbonna and Zouma at the back but Dawson is your typical battle -hardened ‘ body on the line ‘ centre back who wears his heart on his sleeve and I’m never disappointed to see his name on the team sheet. Diop is doing his best to prove me wrong as he doesn’t seem to be improving at all

Get amongst ‘em and try to upset the luxury players like Pogba. Let’s not be overawed and mix things up a bit. They are distinctly average.

[dasnutnock3]

I never thought we’d win a league game at Anfield. Took a calamitous bit of management from a badly misfiring Liverpool team, but it still finally happened. Circumstances at OT aren’t that far from where the scouse were back in 15-16, so this is as good a chance as we’re likely to get, barring future miracles.

[El brooko79]

It might be useful for us to go 3-4-3, even in Zouma's continued absence, with pacy/energetic wide players in the 4 and Lanzini ahead of them, but withdrawn behind Antonio and Bowen

Fredericks vs Shaw (for up and down that wing for 90 minutes)
Fornals vs Wan-Bissaka (keeping their player mindful of ours close control)
Lanzini on their deep-lying midfielder and not sitting immediately in front of Diop/Dawson.

The thing with our wing backs picking up their full backs is that if Greenwood and Rashford play wide they will be in front of the full backs.

So our wingbacks will have to pick them up leaving their full backs free.

I thought man utd played with more width vs Villa twice than they did vs Wolves.

Back 4 for me

[Diogenes]

Surprise, Surprise another defeat.

I think we need to keep a little perspective here. For the first time in donkey's years we go into games with a good chance of upsetting the apple cart. I am no longer filled with a forboding of imminent doom. Sure I get dissapointed, frustrated etc. but it shows how far we have come in the past 18 months. We can (and have) beat anybody. At the very least I am looking forward to an improved performance and giving them a proper game.

[BobbyMooreLower]

Coufal has Bern poor recently rather start Johnson at right back

When you say recently, do you just mean the Leeds game? Where the whole back 4 and Midfield were poor.

The game before that Coufal kept a clean sheet and provided an assist

[iLoveLasagne]

It is like playing Arsenal when we go up there. Even when they are in awful shape and simply there for the taking, even when we play well, we either shoot ourselves in the foot or we get conspiring bad fortune.

I feel a new signing or if we could rotate it would invigorate the players and fans. Things seem a bit flat.

[Danny's Dyer Acting]

Should be a good game this. They looked decent for an hour against Villa, we have to see a reaction to Sunday's performance.

Would love it if Moyes had some options to freshen up the front four but they don't exist sadly. Still think we might see Masuaku in for Vlasic and a back three, Man U have plenty of players they can try to isolate against Cresswell if he plays left back.

[sendô]

I think the only change we'll see is Soucek coming back into midfield, and Vlasic missing out.

If Moyes thinks Zouma is fit enough then he will play, and I'd wager it'll be Dawson dropping out if the rumours he has been playing through injury are true.

[HammerMan2004]

Lingard to get the winner and the points we lose ultimately cost us a Champions League place.