Forum | Non-Football Related

Saturday's trip to Wolves will be a seminal game for David Moyes, Molineaux is never a good place to get a result, under Bruno Lage Wolves have consolidated and are now on an upward curve playing some decent football in the process. Part of Hammers recent success has been based on being able to name an unchanged starting line up, that of course will not be possible this weekend due to Angelo Ogbonna's injury.

So who does David Moyes bring in as Ogbonna's replacement, Craig Dawson or Issa Diop? Moyes is known to be a cautious type and may select Dawson on the basis that he was a regular starter until he was replaced by new signing Kurt Zouma.

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Both Dawson and Diop have their plus points, but they both have areas of their game that need improvement and will struggle to fill Ogbonna's boots. Dawson has a tendency to commit fouls in dangerous areas and lacks pace, whereas Diop has all the pace in the World, but lacks judgement on crucial decisions.

If this were a purely academic situation then Diop would be the obvious choice, he is a superb athlete and possesses good footballing skills, he DOES make errors, but then it is easy to forget how young he is due to his impressive 6'4" frame. We believe that if he plays more games he will get better and better, the problem is the Premier League is an unforgiving environment where errors are invariably punished.

Dawson is an out and out old school centre back who rarely ventures forward successfully, except when it comes to dead ball situations when he suddenly becomes an aerial beast, ironically fans have been heard saying he MUST be brought on in games where Hammers are up against a resolute defence, JUST because he is so good at corners and free kicks.

Both Dawson and Diop are decent replacements for Ogbonna, the are not perfect but they could be a lot worse and will have to get on with it. Moyes will probably elect to play Dawson, but with 'Les's' selection comes the caveat that he could get 'shredded' by Traore, to be fair most players would, but we feel Diop is better equipped to deal with Traore's speed and physicality.

Moyes will be only too aware of the threat Traore represents, the Iron's manager and his staff will have measured up the pro's and con's of both players and come to their collective decision Of course Moyes could throw a curve ball by selecting Jamal Baptiste instead! - Ed

In the light of UEAFA's 'sudden' ban imposed on Hammers travelling fans, many who have already purchased tickets AND paid substantial amounts of money on hotels and air flights intend to go to Vienna to be part of the game and take in the atmosphere, either through sitting in local bars with fellow Hammers supporters or, more controversially, by accessing tickets originally intended for home supporters.

It is believed that in excess of 1000 tickets that would place West Ham fans among the home supporters have been snapped up via the 'grey' market in Vienna's re-sale underworld at vastly increased prices. This is a set of circumstances of UEAFA and 150 morons' making, it does not bode well for the future and could seriously threaten Hammers European Trophy and potential Champions League qualification aspirations.

It would only take a small spark to ignite a potentially dangerous situation and perhaps UEAFA might have thought through the implications that their 'last minute' decision would have on 'legitimate' fans who had already arranged to attend the game.

We accept that sanctions had to be made and understand that by banning fans from the the upcoming fixture it technically opened the door for fans to be there for the knock out stages of the Europa League Cup, unfortunately having 'disgruntled' travelling fans mixed amongst home fans is a recipe for disaster!

We are NOT suggesting that Hammers fans would be attending looking for trouble, but unfortunately as the song goes, "You looking for trouble? Well you've come to the right place!" is a rather apt musical analogy of 'Rabid's' fans, well at least those who were on display at the London Bowl earlier in the competition.

In order to comply with UEAFA regulations, West Ham will HAVE to officially advise fans against travelling to the Vienna game under ANY circumstances, this will leave the club between a rock and a hard place and the possibility of watching future games being in the hands of those who do choose to attend the game irrespective of the guidance.

Fans have waited YEARS and YEARS for the opportunity to finally see their club playing in a 'meaningful' European competition, it would be a crying shame if they were denied this unique prospect as a result of the actions of a minority of individuals.

David Moyes, his coaching staff and yes even the board as well in their own way, have created a new West Ham that is no longer content with being occasional achievers sandwiched between continuous failures into a team that has genuine aspirations of dining at football's top table. Indeed there is every chance that Hammers will be back in European competition next season, either one way or the other, so there is NO need for fans to panic.

It will take a long while for long suffering fans to acclimatise to the rarefied air that comes with life near the top of the table, but make no mistake, what is happening to club at the moment is REAL, so we would ask fans to show some intelligence and not blow what could be a golden era for the club by their foolish acts even if they are frustrated by UEAFA!

Think about the future!- LN

Having been repeatedly ignored by Gareth Southgate, Michail Antonio chose to represent Jamaica instead of England, he scored for the Reggae Boyz against El Salvador the other day and has just scored a stunning goal against the USA, from OUTSIDE the box!

In his entire career at West Ham United Big Mikey has NEVER scored from outside of the box, in fact we are not sure if he has EVER scored from the distance he did tonight.

Take a look, he's gone to another level on the pitch, but now he has to undertake a massive 14 hour flight to get back to England from Jamaica. Hopefully the journey will not take too much out of him and that he is sufficiently rejuvenated for what will be a challenging fixture away to Wolves on Saturday. - Ed