Five things we learned from Anfield

The Hammers can feel somewhat unlucky not to have stolen a point in their clash with Liverpool last night but now its back to the drawing board for Moyes and Co. 

In an intriguing tactical battle there were many talking points to consider:

1. Declan Rice IS world class and was by far the best midfielder on show last night. The experiment with a Rice-Downes-Soucek triad in midfield looked solid and significantly limited Liverpool's penetration. The big question now for Moyes is whether he should start with Soucek or Downes when he just needs two in central midfield?

2. Ben Johnson still hasn't pushed on as a right back. He continues to turn infield or backwards and really needs to try pushing up the wing a lot more. Too often Liverpool forced the Hammers to distribute out of defence through Johnson and it didn't allow us to progress up the field and when he got crossing space it lacked belief. Is he destined to play as a centre back rather than full back? Just now, Thilo Kehrer looks like our best option at RB. 

3. Benrahma is our most in form winger of late and made a huge difference when he came on in terms of penetration and was behind the opportunities to snatch an equaliser that we created in the final quarter. If Pacqueta had played last then West ham would probably have gotten a point.

4. We need a top class penalty taker. In fairness, Bowen's was a good effort but a miss is a miss. Can Scamacca take penalties?

5. The combo of Antonio and Scamacca is an exciting option if we are chasing the game. Their speed and physicality is a real problem for any tiring defence and the more game time they get together the better their link up play will become. 

Next up is Bournemouth at home - we really need three points!

Team analysis as Moyes shakes it up for Anfield

It's mixed news for Hammers fans ahead of tonight's visit to Anfield. The defence looks more coherent with Zouma returning to a back four, with Coufal and Emerson on the bench. One wonders with Salah back on form whether this is the very game in which Emerson should start so that he can cover Aaron Cresswell in his efforts to contain the talismanic Egyptian.

The bad news is that Lucas Pacqueta has succumbed to the heavy handling at Southampton and is unavailable for the matchday squad. In comes Flynn Downes for his first taste of the big time - after excellent performances in Europe (albeit against lesser opposition) he comes in to add weight to the Soucek-Rice midfield combo.

How this additional central midfield body will apply tonight remains to be seen. Many fans feel that West ham's poor record against Liverpool (last away win in 2015) reflects the fact that Moyes takes a very cautious approach against top sides and, perhaps, gives them too much respect!

So, our money is on a packed midfield but Moyes may instruct Rice to push up and pressurise Thiago et al, which may be a good ploy.

Up front it's Bowen, Fornals and Scamacca. Antonio and Benrahma are available from the bench. For Scamacca, it will be a real test against Van Dyck who will be brimming with confidence after his good showing against Erling Haaland on Sunday where he reminded us that he is the best physical CB in the league.

That said, Scamacca has the knack of finding opportunities and could surprise the Scousers with his quick thinking. 

No Dawson but we are unlikely to get a ton of corners and in reality Kehrer is probably a better CB fit against the current Liverpool front three. 

Perhaps the best pressure point for West ham to exploit is down the wings. Trent Alexander-AWOL returns at RB while on the keft Scimecas will have his hands full with Jarrod Bowen. 

Similarly, if Scamacca can get himself isolated with Joe Gomez his aerial power could offer opportunity.  Whether West ham can control the game enough zonally without Pacqueta remains to be seen.

There's no Jotta or Diaz for Liverpool with Nunez and Carvalho looking to shine. Henderson and Thiago will be an interesting match up with Rice-Soucek-Downes but Liverpool play a fluid system and will try to bypass that central midfield collision that Moyes is seeking. 

Liverpool are unbeaten at Anfield this season and on the back of a demolition of Rangers and an impressive win over Man City. But, we are an unpredictable circus at the best of times. You'd take a draw tbh!!!

COYI!

West Ham Starting XI: Fabianski; Johnson, Zouma, Kehrer, Cresswell; Rice, Soucek, Downes; Fornals; Bowen, Scamacca. 

Subs: Areola, Emerson, Coventry, Lanzini, Antonio, Ogbonna, Benrahma, Randolph. 

The Trouble with Tribbles

It's finished 1-1 at St Marys as a dominant West ham couldn't find that crucial second goal to take all three points.

Southampton have reached crisis point with double-barrelled names fielding Caleta-Car, Maitland-Niles, Walker-Peters and Ward-Prowse...so much so that they had to substitute Armstrong for an Armstrong as there aren't any surnames left!

For West ham, the lack of potency at corners was our undoing. Who would have thought that 12 months ago we could get 14 corners and not even trouble the opposition! How we missed Dawson and Zouma in that regard.

Benrahma continued his good form with a crafty assist for Captain Krispies to bang in his first in a year.  Otherwise, we huffed and puffed, dominating possession (61%) but simply didn't quite click. 

But the talking point was the Southampton goal. Walker-Peters feet were clearly in an illegal position as he took the throw in, while the ref got in Bowen's way as he tried to break up the attack. Then a wicked deflection spun into the Hammers net to complete a triad of misfortune. VAR looked but didn't intervene. Damn!

As a final aside, Hassenhutl made a quadruple substitution just before the end making for probably the highest number of surnames ever fielded by one team in a Premiership match as the Southampton team list grew like tribbles.

Sadly we didn't have Captain Kirk to solve the tribble conundrum but we did have Declan Rice to at least grab a point.

An away point. We move on. Scouseland on Wednesday - they'll be low on confidence after a probable Haaland-De Bruyne mauling. Now there's a thought for the ultimate double-barrelled wannabe surname!

COYI!!!

More VAR nonsense as Hammers concede

Errr. The Hammers are one down at St Marys after VAR failed to rule out a Southampton strike that followed and obvious foul throw by Walker-Peters!

The bottom line with VAR is that the final decision involves humans. Hmmmm.

Amazing - we need to come from behind once again. Southampton haven't kept a clean sheet in their last 25 games and Scamacca has already served notice that he means business.

We can do this but the next goal is key.

COYI!!!

Hammers Defence has Moyes Full Backing

It's a bit of a patch up job at the back as West ham travel to St Marys for today's clash with Southampton. The injuries are mounting after an intense series of matches in Europe and the Premiership.

Moyes is without Dawson and Zouma with Ben Johnson and Thilo Kehrer filling the CB berths. Along with Emerson that makes for a defence composed of five full backs and no dedicated centre back in the starting XI!

Angelo Ogbonna is approaching full fitness and available from the bench if needed.

Otherwise, it's a predictable side with Scamacca leading the line and Pacqueta in behind with Emerson and Bowen on the wings. 

This presents the chance to make it three wins on the bounce but Southampton usually make it difficult, especially at home.

COYI!!!

West Ham Starting XI: Lukasz Fabianski; Vladimir Coufal, Ben Johnson, Thilo Kehrer, Aaron Cresswell, Emerson; Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek; Jarrod Bowen, Gianluca Scamacca, Lucas Paqueta

Substitutes: Alphonse Areola, Darren Randolph, Angelo Ogbonna, Conor Coventry, Flynn Downes, Manuel Lanzini, Said Benrahma, Michail Antonio, Pablo Fornals

Hammers lament VAR absence

Until recently (last weekend to be precise) many Hammers fans would have celebrated the retirement of VAR. After a series of harsh VAR calls in recent seasons, the belief had formed that the technology was stacked against the Irons.

But last weekend's tussle with Fulham certainly changed all of that as the Hammers benefitted from three dodgy decisions to gain three valuable points that have got their season back on track!

Wind forward to the VAR-less Europa conference and suddenly West ham were looking for a video review as Ben Johnson appealed the refs decision to (incorrectly) award a penalty by signalling the need to look at the tackle on screen.

Sadly there was no screen to look at and the Hammers had to endure a tricky 6 minutes of injury time as Anderlecht were gifted the chance to steal a draw in a game where they had been hopelessly outclassed. 

Images clearly indicate that Johnson was hard done by as he pinched the ball and was kicked by the Anderlecht forward.

Alphonse Areola did his best but couldn't provide justice with a save. The keeper had pulled off a fabulous save from a curling Esposito effort midway in the second half which ultimately proved crucial to the unneccessarily narrow 2-1 win. 

Areola had another good night, again demonstrating his excellent distribution skills as the Hammers opted to play out from the back as they did not have any of their big target men up front for most of the game.

Either way, it was a job well done and the Hammers march on to the last 16.

A week is a long time in politics, and the pro-VAR vote has surely risen substantially amongst the Hammers faithful!

COYI!!!

Outrage at scenes from West ham!

As West ham eased their way into the last 16 of the Europa Conference thingy, fans joy turned to outrage as Anderlecht fans chose to ruin the night for everyone.

With West ham cruising at 2-0, Alphonse Areola stepped up to take a free kick from deep in the Hammers half. Suddenly, a very Belgian-looking ruffian stole onto the pitch and attempted to rob the ball from the Hammers stopper!

Areola may have a mere one-star rating for ball skills on FIFA but he responded calmly with a simple pull back that left the invader on his behind and, no doubt, feeling like the utter idiot that he is.

Responding afterwards, our top sports psychobabblologist - Dr Hansi von Fleishbanger- captured the ire of fans as he noted "pitch invasion without at least 50% nudity is a disgusting insult to the legends of streaking from the 70s and 80s - these idiots of the modern game couldn't tie the bootlaces of the likes of Mark Roberts, Michael O'Brien and Erica Roe"

Von Fleishmuncher duly elaborated "these pretenders need to complete extensive training before taking on these these responsibilities, quite frankly, a simple Youtube search can clarify the three key ingredients of a proper pitch incursion - nudity, nakedness and no clothes-ness"

In other news, Jarrod Bowen is bloody brilliant and Flynn Downes looks set to nail down a well deserved starting place in the midfield.

West ham are MASSIVE!

COYI!!!