Pellegrini Looks To Bar The Blues With Youth

On the back of an incredibly busy December and a very busy January, Hammers manager Manuel Pellegrini will be forced to 'shuffle his pack' ahead of this Saturday's early FA Cup tie against Championship high flyers Birmingham City at the London Stadium. The need to rest his squad will have to be delicately balanced between the need to progress in what realistically is the only trophy available to the club, a good FA Cup run can revitalise a club and it's fanbase.

Much has recently been made of the once famed 'Academy' which is now producing talent along similar lines to those of back in the Rio and Lampard era. Pelle has already shown his willingness to use youth players and Saturday's match agaainst Birmingham City will surely see him utilising players from the U-23 squad in order to give the senior squad a brief break from their recent travails whilst at the same time as running the rule in a competitive match over the fringe players like Diangana who have already made their first team debuts, as well as others like Silva and Holland who have not as yet.

Of course fielding an under strength team would be a complete folly, but Pellegrini has to be mindful of the long game and may have to shufffle his pack accordingly, expect wholesale changes for a match that will be 'cannon fodder' in terms of shirt sales due to what will be a large amount of fans who are not season ticket holders but are looking to enjoy a good day out with their friends, families and other supporters who do not normally have access to what is gradually becoming less of the 'Souless Dome' that it once was! - Ed

Comments

I expect a pretty weakened team tomorrow

Due to injuries & the preferance of prem safety over the " not important anymore" F.A cup!!apparently only 10 games tomorrow kick off at the normal 3 o'clock slot...sad imo

Put Oxford in the Shop Window!

Great chance to both give this lad a chance or show that he is available and what he can do.

If we didnt have the injury situation Pell would have taken the FA Cup serious, this season he has no choice but to be cautious.

Agree about the Less Soulless Dome, its beginning to feel like home. Im not going, I was there on Wednesday night but hope its a great day. I do have a problem with this fixture, mentioned previously by 65, Birmingham are bad boys and I hope its trouble free. The crowd (our support) will be different, much more families which is a concern, I hope to be proved wrong. Be safe folks!

Second that Dartford

Hope its trouble free for anyone going,they have an unsavoury element, & possibly made worse by this board's previous involvement with them.i did consider going but decided against it after the poor atmosphere at the last cup game I went to...

well 65, I hope we are both

well 65, I hope we are both wrong and sorry that you are not going. Wednesday was really good, not the ideal result but the record says nearly 60K tickets sold... not bad for midweek, mid table compared to Spudz , home to Saints 33K!!! Just imagine the support if we had a winning set up!

Be honest with you mate

I'm of the opinion after trying it many times that I won't miss going to home games anymore.the boleyn has gone & that connection I had has gone too.cant see me ever taking to this new stadium.im not interested in how successfull we are,it hasn't bothered me for 50 years so I'm not about to to worry about it now!!what will be funny imo is if tomorrow both sets of fans let the dildos know how they feel!!;)