Forum | General Discussion

This is what we have been told by a previously reliable source, Antonio's absence from the game against Manchester United meant the difference between the two teams, there is every possibility had he played that he would have 'feasted' on what could have become an extremely porous defence for the visitors.

Antonio was imperious against Dinamo Zagreb, making their defence look completely 2nd rate as he bossed them all over the pitch. West Ham are a different team when he isn't playing, there is still speed and guile in abundance, but no one can recreate his bustling, brawling and bullying of defenders.

The issue for David Moyes is does he cotton wool is prize attacking option for the Barclays Premier League game against Leeds on Saturday, or does he risk him for a virtually worthless competition? There is a caveat to that statement, IF Hammers were to have progressed and won the competition, then fans would have rightly celebrated winning some silver ware, albeit for a devalued Cup.

However without wishing to be pessimistic, that 'ain't gonna happen' as the club play Ronaldo fest part deaux, except it will now be Lingardfest 2:0! With the best will in the world it is hard to compare each club's B teams, David Moyes has done a magnificent job towards building a superb 1st team that can take on anybody on their day, unfortunately the gulf in the clubs' relative resources is absolutely vast beyond compare!

There is pride to play for and perhaps that goes some way to explaining Antonio's presence, whether the plan is to start him and pull him out of the fray early in the 2nd half, or if he is being earmarked s a super sub is a matter of conjecture.

Although he 'cocked up' the Noble penalty decision, Moyes generally gets things right considering the resources he has available to him, he takes advice from his medical team and staff before making selection decisions. There are two schools of thought regarding the fixture and playing Antonio, one is that he needs to at least have a run out to avoid 'burn down' ahead of the Leeds fixture, those hamstrings are high maintenance you know! If worked too hard too often they give up, paradoxically if they are not worked regularly enough, they tighten up risking injury.

We have a Poll running as to the team that should be put out, even IF Moyes does play Antonio for some part of the game he HAS to rest other key 1st team players, particularly Tomas Soucek, Declan Rice, Aaron Cresswell and Pablo Fornals, he will probably rest Vlad the impaler and Jarrod Bowen as well.

A team devoid of those players would be very hard pushed to get a result at Old Trafford, so what would be the point in playing Antonio other than to give him a 'bit of a run out'? It seems like a massive gamble to take, the very fact that there are such huge stakes resting on Antonio's fitness and availability for games firmly compounds the folly of NOT signing a back up striker during an otherwise successful transfer window, it's a decision that could possibly haunt Hammers up to January and beyond if the club doesn't manage to reinforce during the impending window.

Tomorrow's a dead rubber, apologies for the defeatism but pragmatism has to be the order of the day, it is honourable that Moyes wants to send a team out that won't embarrass the many fans who will travel up for the tie as well as the thousands who will watch on TV. The bigger picture is more important for now however, but one day the time will come when the club can really take on the 'mighty' clubs, that is of course assuming the board don't blot their copybook with their manager. LN

Normally most post match articles contain a player rating of some sort, however the post match analysis of West Ham players who featured in the game against Manchester United might concentrate on how knackered they were. By the end of the game even Pablo Fornals, who usually makes a Duracell bunny look lethargic, was on his knees and breathing through his proverbial.

Said Benrahma fared even worse and was hardly able to jog off the pitch when he was replaced by Manuel Lanzini, Aaron Cresswell made more misplaced passes than he had made in all the previous games of this season put together! However the biggest concern, as alluded to by other Hammers sites including Claret&Hugh, is the collateral effect so many games are having on Tomas Soucek.

He still performed admirably, but his spark, particularly going forward, hasn't been there for the last few games, and no wonder. Essentially he hasn't had a break since project restart and is definitely showing the signs. He is too good a player to let ruin himself through his devotion to duty, he MUST NOT play on Wednesday for the thoroughly pointless 'moose cup' fixture against Ronaldo United, he deserves a break.

Král was signed for the exact purpose of relieving the pressure on Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek, so Wednesday definitely represents the ideal time to give him his debut, possibly alongside Mark Noble who will of course have fire in his belly in order to atone for Sunday's penalty miss against the same opponents that the team faced on that fateful day.

Wholesale changes have to be made to give players a much deserved rest, don't forget that after the Leeds game on Sunday, the vast majority of the 1st team will be flying off for yet more International commitments! Obviously Moyes doesn't want to send out a team that will get slaughtered, but he will also be mindful of what a handful Leeds will be at the weekend.

Starting with Areola in goal will also give Moyes the chance to run the rule over the keeper with a view to giving Lukasz Fabianski some 'reflective' time as the games come thick and fast, Kurt Zouma looks as if he can easily play three games in a week, but we are not sure of the wisdom in taking that risk, especially as he has a ready made replacement in the form of Craig Dawson.

Given the need to give players a break, here is a line up that won't break the bank! : Areola, Fredericks, Johnson, Dawson, Diop, Král, Noble, Lanzini, Vlasic, Bowen, and our surprise card Armstrong Okoflex instead of Michail Antonio. Conventional wisdom suggests a slightly more conservative: Areola, Fredericks, Zouma, Oggy, Cresswell; Rice, Kral, Lanzini, Bowen, Vlasic, Antonio line up, but that risks injury to Antonio when it isn't really worthwhile, IF there was a European qualification slot available as a result of winning the 'Moose' Cup then of course David Moyes should field a strong team, but currently there are bigger fish to fry!

Our message to David Moyes? Give the lads a rest now while you can, instead of waiting until you have to.- Ed

Just five minutes before Jesse Lingard scored what proved to be the winning goal at the London Bowl, Hammers manager David Moyes was seen to be going apoplectic in his assessment of how Andriy Yarmolenko had been performing having come on to replace Nikola Vlasic in the 62nd minute, the Iron's manager could be seen screaming at the front man.

Talented he may be and a prolific scorer at International level for the Ukraine, but Yarmolenko's work rate is nowhere near the required level for the Barclays Premier League, you could see the veins in Moyes' temples from a hundred yards, thank goodness Stuart 'Psycho' Pearce was up top doing his aerial observations of the game, a ploy first deployed when David Moyes was self isolating having caught Covid, it worked so well it has become part of Hammers match day practise, both home and away.

Psycho would have blown a gasket watching Yarmo lumber up and down the pitch, how can a professional on £115,000 per week not run or try to harry an opponent on the pitch, especially when they only have to do it for half an hour? Michail Antonio runs more in 3 minutes than Yarmo does in 30! No one expects the player to emulate Antonio, but he could at least try, on numerous occasions he just watched as the ball passed him by, barely moving a muscle to try and intervene.

This is simply NOT good enough, Moyes would be better off bringing on a youngster like Okoflex for the closing period of a game, what he lacks in experience he would more than make up for with effort. This is exactly what the team DOES need as they attempt to either close out a game or retrieve it from a losing position.

There is NO point in playing Yarmolenko just because he is being paid a king's ransom every week, that was a past error that Moyes had nothing to do with, he can however stop perpetuating the mistake by simply not selecting a player who is far more interested in playing for their country than for their club, Real Madrid fans will tell you all about Gareth Bail's attitude!

Next season such talk will be academic, as Yarmo's ludicrous contract will have finally come to an end, one thing that is certain, there won't be ANY club on the planet willing to pay even HALF of his current wages! Hopefully the lesson will be learned with regards to signing expensive injury prone players and giving them massive contracts on insane wages.

You may quite reasonably ask why on earth the club sanctioned such a deal, along with all the other 'tragic' signings of the Pellegrini era, with the exception of Diop, Fornals and Fabianski. The answer using a motoring trade analogy is, players like Yarmolenko are similar to expensive luxury cars that come on the market towards the end of their official shelf life. They have usually not received the manufacturers servicing that was specified and as such will become increasingly expensive to maintain to the point that eventually they become financially inviable, leaving the owner with an expensive Turkey that no one else wants!

Moyes is well known for encouraging youth players, surely now really is the time for him to bring one or two through? They would be raw, but they couldn't have done any worse than Yarmolenko who's lack of discernable effort sends a clear signal to the opposition that become endemic, especially for fans looking on, indeed there are some who even left the Stadium on seeing him enter the fray!

It's not Yarmo's fault he was handed such a crazily generous contract, and it isn't as if the club doesn't have a history of handing out such contracts, Carroll, Reid and Wilshere were all handed insane deals that came back to bite the club hard, if it doesn't learn from the past then there is no way forward until the lessons are learned.

Some might think we have an 'agenda' regarding Yarmolenko and they would be correct, however we also had an agenda with Carroll, Wilshere and more latterly have one with Winston Reid. To try and put things in perspective, Willian realised he wasn't cutting the mustard at Arsenal following his lucrative move from Chelsea, his resolution? To take a massive cut in wages to go and play football and NOT steal a living, just a thought!- Ed