Moyes Shows Muscle For Crunch Baggies Clash

David Moyes has opted for a muscular side to face West Brom at the London Stadium tonight. With the physicality of Arnautovic and Carroll up top, along with the return of Winston Reid, the Hammers will pose an aerial presence.

Key to the outcome will be whether Zabaleta and Masuaku can get down the wings and create from out wide. Adrian continues in goal but will be needing to do better than the past two games where we have reverted to our previous defensive chaos. 

If we get ahead then Captain Claret is available to come on to calm things, while if we are chasing then Chicharito is an option. Michail Antonio has failed to recover from injury while Diafra Sakho is absent for uncertain reasons.

The starting XI is: Adrian, Pablo Zabaleta, Angelo Ogbonna, Winston Reid, Aaron Cresswell, Arthur Masuaku, Cheikhou Kouyaté, Manuel Lanzini, Pedro Obiang, Marko Arnautovic, Andy Carroll. 

On the subs bench are: Joe Hart, Mark Noble, Domingos Quina, Declan Rice, André Ayew, Chicharito, Sead Haksabanovic. 

The atmosphere is building! 

COYI!!!

 

It's Time To Stop Blaming Every One Else

It's been a terrible year - it started with the loss of Dimitri Payet and has ended with us lying in the relegation zone. SuperSlaven Bilic has departed after a poor start to the new season and David Moyes has arrived as the supposed saviour. So far with two wins in ten games Moyes can hardly claim to have changed much but we live in hope.

As we entered Christmas there was a sense of genuine hope - a cracking win against Chelsea and a draw with the Gooners, alongside a decent crack at Man City and we rightly felt our defensive woes were over. The dismantling of Stoke looked like the start of a charge up the table but then we follow up by losing at home to a poor Newcastle side and throw away a win against Bournemouth in injury time, on each occasion shipping three goals to pretty blunt opposition!  

Many fans have focused upon the stunningly poor decision of Bobby Madley et al in allowing a blatantly off side and handled goal by Callum Wilson, but you'd have to query how the hell Bournemouth managed to get a chance to score the goal in the first place. having been gifted a win by Begovic's double goalkeeping howlers, how did a speculative lofted ball into the box end up in our net? 

And while we are in whinge mode, we need to face up to the fact that we still lack a decent striker. Andy Carroll and Sakho are too unreliable and at this stage most fans feel should be moved on. Worryingly, Chicharito has stuttered since his arrival and needs a decent second half to the season if he is to justify his signing. After a flying start with a brace against Southampton in August he has managed just 2 more goals in 16 appearances. Is it him or the service?  

The January window is rarely a place where good business is done by purchasing clubs. We still need another 6 wins to reach the magical ten it usually takes to stay up, let's start with a much needed win over Pardew's Baggies. Languishing below us in 19th and with two wins all season this is a relegation six pointer.  

Mark Lawrenson predicts a 1-1 draw. One suspects that Pards will look to keep it tight and hope to snatch a win. We reckon Moyes will outfox the Baggies - an early goal would work wonders in opening up the cagey Baggies. Whichever striker we start with will have plenty to prove.

Anyone for a 3-1 home victory?

Baggies go for Record as Arnie returns

The Hammers will look to build upon Monday night's win over Huddersfield while the Baggies will want to move on from their saggy performance against Brighton last time out. Games between these two can often be dour affairs but last season's OS clash was a humdinger as the Baggies grabbed an injury time equaliser having previously led. The Hammers dominated that day and were entitled to feel hard done by as there were a number of poor refereeing decisions in the lead up to the goal and they will be hoping that Lady Luck favours the Irons on this occasion.

Gareth Barry will become the player with the greatest number of Premiership appearances as he is selected in West Brom's starting line up. Presuming that he doesn't do a Winston on it and get injured in the warm up! Meanwhile, Bilic persists with the Chicarito out wide and Carroll up top that was reasonably successful against Huddersfield with the returning Marko Arnautovic on the bench but surely likely to get some action. Let's hope that Michail Antonio makes that a late option with another barnstorming performance like he provided on Monday night - terrorising the poor Huddersfield defence popping up on both flanks.

You can get 5/2 against a West Ham win which is decent odds, as is Chicharito at 9/4 to score at some point. We are optimistically going for a 2-1 victory as we reckon Bilic has got it right with the three CB formation at the back for West Ham!!!

West Ham United - Hart, Reid, Cresswell, Fonte, Collins, Zabaleta, Kouyate, Antonio, Obiang, Hernandez, Carroll.

Subs - Adrian, Arnautovic, Sakho, Ayew, Ogbonna, Masuaku, Rice.

It's Cheggers Time as Hammers Try to Get Transfer Engine Rolling

Most West Ham fans are relieved that our board seem to have opted to maintain a more dignified silence in their efforts to capture new talent in this Summer's transfer market. Last year the club became a laughing stock as despite all the bravado we ended up having to make disastrous last minute deals for Simone Zaza, Jonathan Calleri and Andre Ayew. Of these, only Ayew has enjoyed any success and even with that many question his £20 million fee.

This year it’s entirely different. As a result, the headline-starved media are coming up with all sorts of bizarre suggestions for transfer deals. One amusingly outdated concept is the player swap - something that has not been a part of transfer dealings for many a year (Think Harry Redknapp and his genius 1993 deal swapping Julian Dicks for Mike Marsh and David Burrows). In the past 48 hours alone, the Hammers have been linked with three separate outlandish swap deals! 

First up, HITC have suggested that West Ham get into bed with West Brom and swap Robert Snodgrass for Nacer Chadli! Chadli can be good, albeit frustratingly inconsistent, but Snodgras surely deserves another run at least until Christmas next year?

Then Football London have suggested Snodgrass could be swapped for Marco Arnautovic at Stoke!

Finally, HITC have decided to really put it out there with suggestions that the Hammers might swap Andy Carroll for Leicester City's misfiring Islam Slimani! Hardly good value to swap the Premiership’s most physically adept forward for a player who has not adjusted to the Premiership with any great success? 

All of which suggests that the days of folk redistributing unwanted underperforming possessions on Swap Shop are unlikely to return! Patience looks to be the best policy in this transfer market - we are not (yet) big enough to drive the market but will be ready to respond once the merry go round starts to gain momentum. 

 

Flectcher's 'Bad Feet' Catch Up With Him Again

Fletch - plagued by vocational misfortune

Norman Stanley Fletcher famously revealed when confronted by the Slade prison medics about his inability to find gainful employment "with these bad feet who'd have me".

And recently released performance stats from the WhoScored system suggest that 'bad feet' are a Fletcher familial affliction as current Hammers' striker Ashley Flethcher has been ranked our poorest performer so far this season!

Having picked up a lowly average score of 6.12 in his 12 appearances this season he finds himself at the bottom of our squad rankings - although treachery and betrayal are not included in the ratings which accounts for Dimitri Payet's splendid 7.8 average score!

The last time we used this gag about the central character in Porridge, it was in terms of West Ham's bid to sign Darren Fletcher who in Jan 2015 had become surplus to requirements at Manchester United. At that point, Fletcher had amassed a mere 34 games in his previous four seasons at Manchester United.

Interestingly, we are occasionally wrong at VERYWESTHAM. In the intervening period Fletcher, having made the move to West Brom, has become club captain and has been almost ever-present for the baggies delivering a whopping 75 appearances.

However, one wonders if Darren would have enjoyed such good fortune with injuries if he had moved to West Ham where for whatever reason we seem to be afflicted by a recurring  injury-plague.

With that in mind and now in the final days of the transfer window, it's time to move on from the Payet farce and focus upon the fact that WE NEED REINFORCEMENTS UP FRONT!!!


 

Are we really that bad?

After yet another defensive circus in yesterday's comical defeat to the Baggies, it is again unfortunately necessary to consider what has gone so wrong at the back? In contrast to last year, where Bilic's side demonstrated an impressive capacity to shut games down, we are now defending like a lower league pub side and for all our alleged attacking flair, canmot seem to get a result to save our lives right now.

Chief to their defensive problems has been the chaos at right back. Having moved on from the crazy experiment using Michail Antonio as a wing back, Havard Nordtveit stepped in yesterday and was the only one of our back four to emerge with any credibility as he stuck to his defensive duties. Unfortunately, his lack of attacking ability meant that in the final quarter as we pushed for an unlikely comeback, the canny Baggies allowed play to shift to the right wing where he repeatedly botched decent attacking opportunities.

The arrival of Alvaro Arbeloa will provide options but he is still somewhat short of match fitness and at 33 years of age is only a temporary solution. Sam Byram needs to get more game time under his belt - but at what cost to results? How SuperSlav must be wishing we still had James Tomkins on the books?

On the left, Arthur Masuaku had a disappointing game - his first for the club but it's worrying that all four defensive positions look shaky right now. Cresswell still has more than a month before he will return but at that point it will be a relief to see a probable starting back four of Arbeloa, Reid, Ogbonna and Cresswell. Presumably Adrian will get over his dip in form - has the call up to the Spain squad distracted him?

In midfield, both Noble and Kouyate look jaded. Neither had major Summertime commitments but for whatever reason the pair are not dominating midfield the way they did for much of last season. It's hard to know what can be done to reinvigorate this pair but Slav needs to do something quickly.

Meanwhile, at least up front things are looking interesting. As the final 30 knutes demonstrated, the Payet-Lanzini-Feghouli triad could well be a winner. All three are defensively weak, but if we can tighten up behind them they will create chances. Zaza needs more time to adjust to the pace of the Premiership but will need to start delivering soon with big Andy back in the next few weeks and (maybe) also a revitalised Diafra Sakho? The League Cup will provide Ashley Fletcher with an opportunity to stake his claim and on the basis of his cameos as a substitute so far he looks odds on to take it.

Finally, the continued rise of Michail Antonio is a real joy to behold. He stuck at it when things were really going against him earlier in the campaign. Maybe we all need to take a leaf from his book and get behind the team - the results will surely follow.

Hammer Time for Saggy Baggies

It's back to the grind today for Slaven Bilic's troops who will be looking to bounce back from last week's embarrassing implosion against Watford where they were rampant for the first 30 minutes before squandering a two-goal lead.

Perhaps the biggest question is how Bilic will try to turn things around. There have been calls for wholesale changes to the starting XI as fans look to kick start the stuttering season that sees the previously buoyant Irons lurking on the edge of the bottom three after four games.

Bilic has been applauded for his ability to manage his players expectations and even though Adrian had a howler against Watford, one suspects that SuperSlav will avoid the temptation to over-react and will persist with the usually excellent netminder.

In contrast, the Collins vs Ogbonna conundrum raises a variety of issues. Collins was a major culprit for the first two Watford goals and may well be benched to allow for the return of Angelo Ogbonna who has been strangely overlooked since returning from Euro 2016.

However, Ogbonna engaged in some foolishly ambiguous social media activity after the Watford game that may have annoyed Bilic who demands discipline and loyalty from his players. On balance, it seems likely that Bilic will feel obliged to make at least one change to his leaky back four and with Alvaro Arbeloa (probably) still short of match fitness, Ogbonna seems the obvious choice.

Elsewhere, West Ham will be hoping to emerge with a similar silkiness in attack that graced the first half hour last weekend. Having Lanzini and Payet together again is a big boost creatively, while Michail Antonio is simply on fire and will relish the chance to add to his haul of four goals in as many games this season. Newby Simone Zaza impressed in spurts last weekend and will hopefully have found his Premiership gear for today.

If Bilic wants to shake it up he can bolster the defensive side of the midfield with Havard Nordtveit, while up front Sofiane Feghouli is ready to return and many fans are predicting that he can form a brilliant partnership with Mr Payet.  These options seem more likely to be used from the bench according to how the game sits after an hour or so.

Meanwhile. the Baggies are not in a good place right now with manager Tony Pulis unpopular with many fans. Having amassed four points to date, they haven't won at the Hawthorns for almost six months and will hope that West Ham's visit might provide suitable fodder for a much needed victory. Soloman Rondon will be vying for a starting place with Saido Berahino. The Baggies will be hoping to exploit West Ham's disorganisation out wide with recent arrivals Nasser Chadli and Matt Philips served with trying to open up the Hammers defence.

West Ham will need to be patient as Pulis sides rarely panic in response to crowd tension and even as the home side will be only too happy to absorb some pressure if it creates space for counterattack.

Probable West Ham Starting XI (4-2-3-1): Adrian; Byram, Reid, Ogbonna, Masuaku,  Kouyate, Noble, Antonio, Lanzini, Payet, Zaza.

Payet Responds to Criticism

It's pretty difficult to find fault with Hammer of the season Dimitri Payet. His footballing skillset is simply jaw dropping and surely unmatched in the Premiership. However, it is his effectiveness that really catches the eye. With nine goals and ten assists he is the principal reason the West Ham are on the verge of qualifying for European football.

Payet's precision from set pieces keeps the opposition constantly under pressure not to concede free kicks or corners, in turn creating space for his attacking colleagues with only the most foolhardy defenders daring to lunge into the challenge once we are in shooting range. Perhaps his contribution in defence is less visually impressive, but his ruthlessness on the break seriously discourages opponents from pushing too far forward and makes for an easier ride when we are defending a lead.

However, just recently Payet has been criticised for trying too hard with some of his efforts described as Hollywood in their flamboyance. In the lead up to the European Championships, perhaps Payet is trying to grab the attentions of Didier Deschamps? As such, it was reassuring to see him get back to basics yesterday where he played a key role in two of our goals by letting the ball go early.

Poor West Brom need the season to end so that they can rebuild. Despite a bright start whereby Adrian had to be at his best to prevent the Hammers falling behind, once Kouyate scored there seemed to be only one likely outcome as a ruthless Hammers inflicted an embarrassing defeat on the home side.

Next up Swansea at home. In truth, Arsenal's win yesterday probably ended our Champion's League hopes. Barring a collapse by Manchester City West ham fans will be left rueing those four consecutive draws where crazy refereeing robbed us of 8 crucial points. Europa League qualification looks very likely with any finish above eighth but with all sorts of records still at stake (highest Premiership finish, best ever Premiership goal difference, longest home run unbeaten in the league etc) Slaven Bilic will be trying to maintain the hunger. The prospect of Man United in a fifth place decider to finish the season also provides ample encouragement to keep our focus - especially after the recent cup exit.

All of which is undoubtedly bad news for Swansea who come visiting Fortress Boleyn next week!

 

Proof: The Referees a Merchant.....Hammers Bottom of Good Fortune League

Time and again we are told that those game changing decisions all balance out eventually. At the end of the day, the best rather than the luckiest sides come out on top. Indeed.

But is that really the case? Few fans would agree, but they are hardly neutral. So what happens when we get the opinions of neutrals using all the technology that is denied to match officials?

The dudes at Teamtalk.com run an ongoing table that monitors key decisions - red cards / penalties etc. It makes for fascinating reading and will do little to quell the paranoia of many fans who believe that the 'bigger' clubs get a disproportionate number of close calls going in their favour! The table shows that the top six 'lucky' sides include an obvious five, along with top of the table Leicester. Hmmm.

As for the Hammers, we are the joint unluckiest team in the Premiership just now with a whopping 80% of key calls going against us. In fact, the teamtalk guys only based their Gestede/Ogbonna decision on the contact that led to the penalty but overlooked the blatantly illegal shirt pull on poor Ogbonna immediately before the contact!

Adjusting for that we are officially the most unlucky side in the league! One can only imagine where we would be in the league if a few of those calls had gone our way!

Let's start a campaign. We demand a fair deal from the match officials or we will refuse to play in the Europa League ever again. Also, maybe Slaven needs to be less 'reasonable' with the referees? Take a look for yourself...