'Hammering' away
This topic contains 85 replies, has 17 voices, and was last updated by nine nine nine 5 years, 6 months ago.
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September 20, 2018 at 8:44 pm #1677939
Trying to be cute with the thread titles. Anyway I expect us to be at full strength against West Ham…minus Pedro. Willian, who played well, will operate the wide forward positions with Giroud through the middle. I’ll advocate Barkley starting ahead of Kovacic but maybe he’ll be knackered from his efforts in Greece. Otherwise the team picks itself.
Kepa
Dave
Rudiger
Luiz
Alonso
Kante
Jorg
Barkley
Willian
Hazard
GiroudSeptember 21, 2018 at 8:03 am #1677990Would not disagree with the team selection based on potential injuries. My feeling is that if Kovacic is fit then he will get the nod. Obviously feel much more comfortable and confident that we will score when Hazard and Giroud start. Just hope that defensively we can look to keep a clean sheet
One victory for Wham does not mean they have turned the corner but was given this little snippet of wisdom from a Wham colleague of mine and that is, along with Swansea, Chelsea have suffered the most defeats at Stratford of any team…!!
We need to be focussed and take our chances and trust that if/when fatigue sets in that Sarri makes the right substitutions at the right time. Assuming that he does and we take our chances then I fully expect another 3 points in the bag but also expect a tough game and as always, we may leave it late once they are knackered from chasing the ball for most of the game. KTBFFH
September 21, 2018 at 2:11 pm #1678184Looking at how Morata created chances, I think for the first time I would advocate Morata for our starting striker (If he is not fatigued due to Europa). West Ham play at home, they won’t be sitting defensively. They will play football. Based on this, Morata may be better situated than Giroud as he has speed and techniques. And the contrary, I always advocated for Barkley to start, but I think Kovacic is solid and should start if fit (which I don’t think, his injury looked bad last weekend). Pedro won’t be ready I think, his injury looks very bad. So my team: Kepa – Azpi,Luiz,Rudiger,Alonso – Kanté,Jorginho,Kovacic – Hazard,Morata,Willian
West Ham got their first win at a bad moment for us, just a match before they play us. They would be in a good level of confidence now. They are a dangerous side with Arnautovic who is able to score from any angle, but also Felipe Anderson who is the creative force. I think this would be a quite open match and more than one goals would be scored here. Hopefully we score more goals than them !
September 21, 2018 at 3:59 pm #1678211Teamtalk predicted a draw for us against WHU: https://www.teamtalk.com/news/predictions-man-utd-to-slip-up-liverpool-and-arsenal-to-cruise
September 21, 2018 at 4:43 pm #1678219I’m somewhat relieved that the Hammers have won a game before our match, reason being so many times have i witnessed a team break their losing momentum when they faced Chelsea. i still expect a tough game and W Ham do have very good players, only that it hasn’t clicked for them yet.
As for my prediction, my head is telling me we will lose this one but my heart which i’m going to stick with says W Ham 2 Chelsea 4. ( 2-1 to them is what the shaky head says )!September 21, 2018 at 6:21 pm #1678256This is a real banana skin fixture we lost I think something like 5 out of our last 6 visits there. Would be great if we could better our record of 5 straight opening wins. Hope for the best and some good luck upfront. Games are all difficult.
September 21, 2018 at 6:32 pm #1678261Hoping we can ram it down Mark Lawrensons throat with a win at WHAM and with any luck the ex scouser will also see his current lot lose their next 3 matches!!!
September 21, 2018 at 6:40 pm #1678264agree with Notnice. It’s an away fixture, a London derby, and we lost a lot there before. So we should not expect a walk in the park. Moreover, the return plane from Greece was 12 hours late, that hinders our preparation. Hence my previous suggestion to rest our star players from Europa matches for the moment. Hazard and Luiz and Kovacic (if fit) at least stayed in London. But I can imagine the fatigue experienced by players who travalled (and not only who played in the match!). Still hoping we would win this match. But agreed, it’s a real banana skin for us
September 22, 2018 at 9:02 am #1678314It’s a London derby and as such think we may drop our first points of the season. Think the hammers will get a draw and the wee man chicarito grabbing the equaliser.
Form goes out the window and it’s a game of who wants the points more
September 22, 2018 at 9:10 am #1678318Agree with Zizi it’s good that West Ham won their first game last week.
West Ham away is always difficult they raise their game when they play us as do their fans following the Lampard transfer but it’s not as intimidating in the London Stadium as it was at Upton Park.
Playing on Thursday and the long flight delay is unhelpful but you’ve got to get over these things and if Hazard continues to be on fire I think we will.
As Not Nice says all games are difficult get over this one and Liverpool away in the Carabo and then home in the PL will be difficult Bournemouth at home and Newcastle away were difficult. COYB.
September 22, 2018 at 11:03 am #1678355Going to be tough, always is away to West Ham. 1-0 goal Hazard.
September 23, 2018 at 2:31 pm #1678833Hope 2nd half brings a change in tactics…keep trying to thread the needle through a crowded midfield…not working. Loads of possession but West Ham had the better chances. Maybe bring on Barkley and Morata after an hour of it’s still level…earlier if we behind.
September 23, 2018 at 3:37 pm #1678859Everyone just a little bit off today inc Hazard.
September 23, 2018 at 3:51 pm #1678862We were off. We looked tired. Our passing isn’t as accurate as usual. We dominated but were toothless. No real chances except Morata who again showed he is good in wasting good chances. Only Barkley tempted to shoot from outside, very disappointing. Kudos to WHU, they executed a perfect game plan. They almost won, Yarmolenko and Antonio had the best chances of the match. We were too dependent on Hazard. Why every pass must go through him? Other players must be able to help. Kante showed again not to be suitable for his new role. Cannot pass, cannot shoot.
I would be happy for us to finish in the top 4. This match shows we’re not ready yet to compete with the big guns like Pool or City. But we should be good to finish in the top 4. Outside top 4, it would be a disaster
September 23, 2018 at 4:34 pm #1678873We lost here last season…in fact we were battered. I’ll take that as a point gained. Yes we lacked that final quality ball and we were a bit toothless upfront but we dominated the game. We knew when the transfer window closed that our strikers were our weakness. So why are we surprised? Sarri has won 6 from 8 so far, he’s been with us less than 3 months. Give the man time. Liverpool and City have managers who have had years to build their sides…and who’ve been backed in the transfer market. Hence the reason why they’re ahead. My expectation is top 4 with a run in one of the cups…hopefully the Europa. It hasn’t changed.
January should be interesting. A shout for a striker who could be available…Mitriovic from Newcastle. 14 goals in 25 for a struggling side. Very decent record.
September 23, 2018 at 5:19 pm #1678883Luckily WHAM are as crap as us in front of goal or we would have lost today. Still as Stuilse we lost her last season so thats a positive. However asi said before i am jist not interested in possession if it leads to nothing. We cNt just blame Morata for the lack of goals – they are all responsible. Got to improve if we want top 4.
September 23, 2018 at 5:38 pm #1678886Completely agree with Stuilse re the game and our problems.
Mitrovic may be the answer but he’ll probably cost us circa £50m now when he went for £22m in the Summer even assuming Fulham would sell him?
Plenty of chances missed before Morata came on in the 65th minute and he was a bit unfortunate because the ball hit Fabianski in the face and he knew little about it.
Very similar game to Thursday night imo.
Lots for Sarri to work on ahead of next Saturday. Think we should have had CHO on the bench he would frighten defences to desth in the last 20 minutes.
Still I think we would all have settled for 5 wins and a draw from the first 6 PL games before the season started.
Chelsea are the real deal but missing a striker and there’s an over reliance on Hazard.” Graham Souness Super Sunday 23/09
Sounds about right to me.
September 23, 2018 at 8:51 pm #1678922Fancy football, lots of possession, no width, trying to walk the ball into the net, playing players out of position, no plan B, not worried about about having a Captain!!! …….. Has Wegner been to the make up artists from Face Off and Mrs Doubtfire. Maybe someone could have a tug at Sarri’s boat race during his next press conference, see who is underneath. It failed for Wegner and that was even in the days that the only real opposition came from ManU and ourselves!
If we are totally honest we have to admit that we have more than ridden our luck in 3 of the games so far, where the shockingly poor quality of oppositions finishing has overridden our defensive frailties. If that continues, so be it, but I don’t think it will. Combined with the curse of Thursday night/Sunday football I reckon we will be 6th at best come Christmas.
We have been sussed early on and as I have said before Tammy and Michy, as poachers, are far better suited to Sarri ball than the more physical, holding striker style of Giroud or Morata as they need more space to operate in as opposed to the London Underground congestion that is the opposition penalty areas we face at the minute.
Sarri needs a plan B and C that can be used both for and during games.
Kante is wasted where he is. He is not a natural crosser of the ball or a natural finisher and I suggest we have better suited in the squad for his present position, which actually lessens the effectiveness of Jorginho who is not a natural defensive player, bit sits deeper than Kante. To my mind we are weakening the team both offensively and defensively which will be very telling when we come up against the likes of City and the Bin Dippers. Even the Jose will fancy taking points of us.
Sarri ball is nothing new, and even when we get used to it, it’s style will win admirers but nothing else.
September 24, 2018 at 12:00 am #1678936We might need to adjust Kante’s position v Liverpool and the other big teams to give the back 4 a bit more protection with Jorginho playing in Kante’s position. In terms of Sarriball there’s nothing wrong with it imo that a regular goal scoring striker wouldn’t put right Costa in his pomp would be banging them in with these tactics.
September 24, 2018 at 2:50 am #1678938We seemed to be pretty stale and played into West Ham’s hands. We must remember they didn’t have to travel across Europe and play on Thursday night as we did. Clearly we have to play a second eleven in the Europa from here on in through the group stages not just 4 or 5 changes. Normally Hazard takes his chances, today he seemed to be more determined to get others on the score sheet than just put the ball in the net himself and it cost us plus when he did have a pop the shots were a bit weak, not what normally happens when Hazard shoots at goal. Having said that West Ham should have won it with that late header and they also had two of the better chances in the first half. We don’t have to wait long to see where we are at with Liverpool coming up not once but twice.
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