Sunday Sizzler Or Damp Squib?
West Ham travel across London to White Hart Lane for Sunday's derby fixture against Tottingham which sees both teams in need of a win for differing reasons, the hosts need to overcome the loss of their captain, a recovering from surgery manager and several key players out injured.
Not to be out done, Hammers can 'boast' of in excess of £250 Million worth of injured players of their own! Injuries to Nayef Aguerd, Alphonse Ariola, Gianfranco Scamacca, Lucas Pacqueta, Kurt Zouma and forgotten man Maxwell Cornet show the Irons aren't up for being outdone on the injury heroes list!
Taking off the Claret & Blue glasses for a while, this game illustrates the differing fortunes of both clubs, Hammers sign good players to replenish an ageing squad instead of using the pool of youngsters at their disposal, their opponents on Sunday spend big, not necessarily wisely, but they DO use their youth players. For some obscure reason David Moyes has gone from being a manager known for championing youth players to a stick in the mud who won't play ANYONE under 21!
In case he hadn't noticed, they DO play under 21 players at Barcelona and Madrid as well as several other leading European clubs so why not West Ham? Hammers junior players are highly sought after by everyone except their own club it seems, the departures of Sonny Perkins and Harrison Ashby being the most recent of a long line of players desperate to leave in order to get more game time and yes more money!
Sunday's game could see West Ham 'rocket away' from the relegation zone or once again find themselves deeply embroiled in the bottom half of the table instead of fighting for a European slot which had been envisaged at the start of the season given the considerable investment made in the squad.
Come on Moysie pull your finger out! Stop signing players and setting about destroying their confidence in order for them to fit into your 'tight' system, try embracing the skills that brought them to the club in the first place! Dumping Aaron Cresswell is a start, Cress has been a great servant for the club, but his youthful appearance masks the fact that he is in his thirties and has lost so much pace that he fears venturing forward as he once did, not only that he cannot take corners from the right side of the pitch because he simply doesn't have the pace to recover should the ball go the opposition.
Ahead of Sunday the Physios will need to earn their corn, surely it is worth including a few players who don't have a full game in them but can still come off the bench and more importantly show the opposition that the team means business, having two goalkeepers on the bench DOES NOT FRIGHTEN the opposition!
There are several isolation tank facilities littered around London, they are not cheap to use, but perhaps David Moyes might wish to avail himself of this 'modern age' technique in order to help make him at the cutting edge again instead of the blunt butt of criticism, after all it isn't as if he is short of a few quid is it? LN
