West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Masuaku, Rice, Soucek, Bowen, Fornals, Haller. Subs: Randolph, Diop, Johnson, Noble, Snodgrass, Lanzini, Benrahma.
Man Utd: Henderson, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Telles, McTominay, Pogba, Greenwood, Van de Beek, Martial, Cavani. Subs: Grant, Tuanzebe, Williams, Matic, Mata, Fernandes, Rashford.
This Saturday's Barclays Premier League fixture between West Ham and Man Utd will be the first to actually feature fans, albeit a microscopic 2,000 instead of the 60,000 the London Stadium is capable of holding. The visitors are on a fine run of form, as are their hosts, so it virtually inconceivable that the match will finish as a 0-0 draw.
David Moyes has a few decisions to make ahead of facing the club that unceremoniously dumped him before even being given a full season to try and emulate the achievements of Sir Alex Ferguson, a feat that was never achieved by any of the other managers brought in to try and replicate old 'red nose's successes, in fact only Jose Mourinho achieved a better percentage ratio, and he was there for two seasons or there abouts.
Ahead of the fixture Moyes will have to assess whether to stick with his favoured 3-5-1 formation or alter it to 'cope' with Manchester United's fire power and fluidity, he did so against Aston Ballet during the last match, will he do so against the visitors, and what fire power of his own team's does he unleash?
For The 'Ballet School' game, Michail Antonio was clearly unfit and ineffectual, Moyes clearly thought so as he replaced Big Mich with Sebastien Haller at the start of the second half. Haller splits opinions among fans, but his recent performances have shown more commitment and more effort both on and off the ball, which many fans feel is as it should be for the club's record signing!
In addition to selecting Antonio instead of Haller, or playing both of them, Moyes needs to look at the service provided for his strike force, a situation that is kindred to the Elephant in the room, when considering how to deploy Said Benrahma. The twinkle toed ex-Brentford maestro is definitely a class act, one that looks entirely at home in the top tier of English football and a player who could help propel the club upwards. The problem for Moyes is who can make way for the 'Algerian Messi'?
The Hammers manager is in a unique situation, one that few of his predecessors were able to experience, he has a fully motivated and skilful squad that although lacking strength in depth, is more than capable of holding it's own against supposedly superior opponents but crucially those teams that are well below them in the League Table.
Things can change very quickly at the higher end of the Barclays Premier League table, a win at the weekend could see a spot in the Champions League rankings, but realistically a Europa League slot is the best that can be achieved this season, and of course with European qualification comes the added need to strengthen the squad further.
For now Moyes will be the one with the headache, after all it is what he is paid handsomely for, while fans can just enjoy being able to look up instead of behind!-Ed
Just wondering if anyone else saw Hallers improvement when he came on in the second half at one point i swear i saw him sprint into the box on more than one occasion and did some tracking back.....maybe he is at last buying into what Moyes is selling or cynical me is he hoping Monaco are still looking?
Perhaps we at the Org are getting old, but when Jack 'I can drive my Range Rooney Up Other People's exhausts' Grealish did a 'Salaesque' pirouette almost half a second after having been tackled in order to 'earn' his team a free kick from which they eventually scored, opinions about Villa's star man varied from preening ballerina to a lot worse.
Billy Bonds and others must look upon these modern day players will astonishment, there is no doubt that many of them are very talented, but the issue is that they are rewarded so well, at a young age, that they seem to lose all perspective. It is only human nature, if someone continuously tells another that they are special, the recipient of the praise will eventually believe it whole heartedly, and such is the case with Grealish and many others, his petulant 'chirping' to the referee during last night's victory over Villa was nauseating to say the least.
Apparently Big Mich Antonio was of the same opinion and made quite a determined effort at communicating that point to the perpetrator as well as to the match officials, in fact so incensed was the Hammers forward that his manager, David Moyes, took him off at half time! Yes the reason was also tactical, but Moyes knows his players well, and was of the opinion that Grealish, or one of his pals who's Lottery Winning life style is epitomised by their belief that they are above 'lesser mortals', would get Antonio sent off, and you know what? They probably would have!
Dean Smith, Villa's manager, is old school, however he does develop myopia when referring to his own team, inwardly he must cringe at some of his players' antics, but of course publicly he has to back them. Interestingly in his post match presser, Smith said how pleased he was that the team he manages came to the London Stadium and "should have won" to him that was THE achievement, not the result.
Having been the recipients of some appalling V.A.R decisions ever since it's introduction, Hammers were finally given the rub of the green in the dying minutes, and all the preening, posing, poncing and filibustering attempts by Villa to overturn the decision came to nothing, which is exactly what Jack and his pals left with, if you can't play football like a man, don't pretend you can! - Ed
PS: To criticise Declan Rice is taboo as we know, however he might want to reconsider some of his public praise for Grealish, who quite frankly is not worthy of his praise, Harry Kane, despite playing for Tottenham, does deserve Rice's praise, Grealish NOT.
Stockport v. West Ham nice draw if i remember we lost to them decades ago
West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Masuaku, Rice, Soucek, Bowen, Antonio, Fornals Subs: Randolph, Benrahma, Lanzini, Noble, Diop, Johnson, Haller
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Targett, Luiz, McGinn, Trezeguet, Hourihane, Grealish, Watkins Subs: Steer, Taylor, Traore, Nakamba, El Ghazi, Elmohamady, Ramsey
Come on Nev ,is he in or out ?
Maybe i missed this but what happened to the promise of changing our badge back to what we all know,i know there were discussions,is it agreed or another part of our heritage gone?
For Advertising & Site Enquiries Contact: editorialteam@westhamfans.org
Send In Your Thoughts To Our NEW Twitter Account @westhamfans0
Tweet to @WesthamfansO
Useful Hammers Links:
Our original twitter account has changed from @whfdotorg to @westhamfans0
SPONSORS:
We don't have any issues with other media outlets copying and pasting elements of our articles, but do the decent thing and at least give the Org credit it deserves when doing so!
Premier League
Saturday 16th August
Kick Off: TBD
Twitter @westhamfans0 Tweet to @WesthamfansO
Morph Corner
There are currently 8 users online.
