West Ham (a) Pre-Match Thread (League)

[Pleatfooted]

A mate who works for Virgin trains at Stockport just txt me saying Vinnie got on train to London alone? TV work maybe?

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

A mate who works for Virgin trains at Stockport just txt me saying Vinnie got on train to London alone? TV work maybe?

Transfer to Palace. That's why he played Saturday, so they could have a look. ;-)

 

[Pleatfooted]

Transfer to Palace. That's why he played Saturday, so they could have a look. ;-)

Haha

 

[finlay14]

Looking really forward to this game. Think we can move on from some bad results and put a decent run together till end of season our pace and power upfront is freetnin :) im going 4-1 city cmon you blues

 

[BLUEMATT23]

All these line-ups show me one thing. The imbalance between our defensive talent and attacking talent is shocking.

Expecting a tough match but hopefully that stadium and pitch will bring out the best in us again.

It's unbelievable really. If only the powers that be addressed the ageing defence in the summer we still could have been in the title race.

 

[alibenarbia83]

This is a must-win game, so we need our best available starting eleven which simply cannot include the complete liablility that is Claudio Bravo.

This season Sagna, Zabaleta, Kolarov and Clichy have consistently proved they cannot be trusted in the full-back areas, so the only option is to play a back 3 and use Fernandinho and Delph as auxiliary full-backs when we don't have the ball- both certainly have the legs to cover. This will give Sterling, De Bruyne, Silva and Sane the freedom to do damage in the attacking areas and feed a rested Aguero, who should be hungrier now he has Gabriel Jesus as competiton.

Caballero

Sagna Kompany Stones

Fernandinho Delph

Sterling De Bruyne Silva Sane

Aguero

 

[mat]

A mate who works for Virgin trains at Stockport just txt me saying Vinnie got on train to London alone? TV work maybe?

He's a secret trainspotter and a class 37 he's not got is at Euston this evening and he didn't want to miss the opportunity to take a photo of it.

 

[Marvin]

12 months ago, it was Willy bashing as we prepared for the League Cup Final and i's

This is a must-win game, so we need our best available starting eleven which simply cannot include the complete liablility that is Claudio Bravo.

This season Sagna, Zabaleta, Kolarov and Clichy have consistently proved they cannot be trusted in the full-back areas, so the only option is to play a back 3 and use Fernandinho and Delph as auxiliary full-backs when we don't have the ball- both certainly have the legs to cover. This will give Sterling, De Bruyne, Silva and Sane the freedom to do damage in the attacking areas and feed a rested Aguero, who should be hungrier now he has Gabriel Jesus as competiton.

Caballero

Sagna Kompany Stones

Fernandinho Delph

Sterling De Bruyne Silva Sane

Aguero

I like that team apart from Stones at left centre-back. Would either be Kolarov or Otamendi I think if we played with a 3

I think Guardiola has it in mind to eventually play with a 3 at the back as it was very noticeable in the Summer that we made no effort to bring in full backs and were chasing centre-backs the whole Summer.

 

[RayCTID]

I don't think Ferny will go straight back into the side. For now there is no indication from Pep that he is going to drop Bravo. Komps is a tricky call. He needs the game time but West Ham isn't the game to ease him back into first team action. Other than that it's a similar line up that played against Palace.

 

[Marvin]

I don't think Ferny will go straight back into the side. For now there is no indication from Pep that he is going to drop Bravo. Komps is a tricky call. He needs the game time but West Ham isn't the game to ease him back into first team action. Other than that it's a similar line up that played against Palace.

I'll be surprised if Fernandinho does not start. for me he goes straight in for Yaya. Toure might be exceptional on the ball, but he still struggles off it, although I thought it was brilliant the way he was trying to close players down against Palace. When Toure is chasing and closing players down you really know hat Guardiola is getting the players to follow their instruction.