Time to put the toys away lads! |
West Ham's preseason has been far from impressive with a series of embarrassing results out stateside followed by a thumping from Rubin Kazan. Things got even worse during a disastrous win over German second tier side Karlsruher CS in which defensive star Aaron Cresswell sustained a serious knee injury. As it stands, West Ham keep thumping on about a 50M striker, have bought two wide attacking players (Tore, Feghouli) but have no experienced full backs. Having conceded a whopping ten goals in five preseason fixtures, the Hammers need to tighten up their defence!
It will be fascinating to see how Bilic handles the full back crisis against Slovenian side NK Domzale tomorrow night. Despite Cressy's injury, Stephen Hendrie remains on loan at Blackburn which reflects poorly upon his progress to date, while Lewis Page, who has just turned 20, will be hoping to build on his experiences in last season's Europa League. Meanwhile, Sam Byram has been looking excellent in preseason and will hopefully prevent a return to the folly of playing Michail Antonio out of position at right back.
In midfield, it looks like it's game over for Diego Poyet who is not in the Europa League squad for the trip to Slovenia. With Obiang, Nordtveit, Cullen, etc all queuing up for berths it may be time for Diego to move elsewhere. Its a pity as its hard to see what he has done wrong when he's had the (rare) opportunity to shine. As for Josh Cullen, many are predicting that this season will see him push further up the ranks and into the first team proper. Tomorrow night should provide a platform for him to shine.
On the up side of things, Andy Carroll's latest injury scare seems behind him and he looks ready to get stuck into early season action alongside the impressive young Ashley Fletcher. words is that the pair took time out to share some quality time fishing whilst in Austria on preseason. I guess you could say that they are well perched to take their plaice at the top table.
Kick off is at 19:45 and its live on BT Sports....Here we go again!!!
Rather misleading headline, I wonder why that would be.
ReplyDeleteBored, just like everyone else...we do need full backs though if we want to push on from last season's successes. The Sakho situation is saddening - let's hope it can be sorted out cos he's still our best striker.
DeleteA corrosive article in respect of the 'embarrassing results, 'thumping from Rubin', 'thumping on (about signings / unfortunate repetition showing a lack of vocabulary). It was pre-season for God's sake; the games were part of their training schedule and were against sides further ahead in their season/preparation. I, too, have reservations about Antonio at right back, but 'folly'? Such arrogance. T think Bilic has the experience & record to qualify him for a bit more respect: I think he did that to preserve and extend the scoring from midfield (& right back!) to compensate for the lack of goals up front, and we were the third highest scoring side as a result. Sam got criticised for being too defensive and now Bilic for being too attack minded. Sense of proportion and a level of deserved trust needed here I think!
ReplyDeleteAntonio is a forward and a damn good one. He lacks the positional sense of a RB and that was exposed quite a few times towards the tail end of last season. TBH I'm still sore about Tonks departure which still makes little sense. You are right that SuperSlav demands our respect but I am sure he is far from happy with the lack of experience at both full back positions. Last year there was lots of noisy speculation before Payet, Lanzini and Ogbonna quietly arrived. No doubt there will be similarly restrained signings ahead that will hopefully turn out to be the diamond that those three have.
Deleteagree with other people. sensation before truth in all things journalistic, unfortunately. West Ham have got an excellent steady squad, and the task is integrating the new players. WHU have not had to rebuild, but get new strikers in is a must, and a stand-in for Cresswell. Pre0season training is just that, getting match fit, not that the professional is going to go to seed over the summer break! Sign Calleri and one other, and cover for RB and we are sorted. Bring it on.
ReplyDeleteDisagree....OS, SuperSlav, Payet.....19th richest club in the world......time to go for it, big time. Experienced full backs and a top striker and we are potential World beaters. Try thinking big....at the very least it's good fun!
DeleteI will never read any of your articles again
ReplyDeleteYou'll still have to take in the headlines though won't you?....some torture never ends...
DeleteThis website needs to burnt to the ground. Impossible I know bit it's a nice idea.
ReplyDeleteoooogh an arse-onist....do you torture animals and wet the bed as well?
DeleteYour anger is getting me all moist, big boy!