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Leroy’s lowdown on season ahead

LEROY (1)I’m gonnoa get this out of the way straight off. I’m really glad Diafra Sakho is still at the club this season.

For me he’s a top striker and that he failed a medical at West Brom will have focused his mind and see him more than dedicated to the West Ham cause.

There remains a lot of pressure on Andy Carroll to stay fit but knowing Sakho is still around is a big comfort to me personally and I really hope the lad settles down to it, gets fit and gives us what we know he’s got.

Several of Slav’s signings are a bit of a mystery to me. I can’t tell you a lot about Tore and Feghouli despite them having reasonably big reputations.

Nordveit is a decent player but it really isn’t possible for me to say to what extent the team has been strengthened. We’ll all have to wait and see.

One thing is for sure though – Andre Ayew is a very good signing indeed and he already has a close relationship and undertands the way Dimi Payet operates so that could be dynamic.

He scores goals and we should be able to rely on 10 or 12 from him out of midfield which is a huge bonus for any team.

I think his best position is as a number 10 and linking up with Dimi is gonna cause a lot of teams nightmares – trust me on that. With the Frenchman playing him in behind, a lot of teams are going to be in trouble.

With everybody fit I would see us lining up like this: Adrian; Antonio, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Nordveit, Kouyate, Lanzini, Payet, Ayew and Carroll.

But we have a big squad now and the extra players are there for Europe and a competition which can bring more pressure. However, I think we have the squad to cope with that plus injuries and suspensions.

Once we have settled down to life at the new stadium I reckon we’ll be fine but first there is the away trip to Chelea and I see us getting a 1-1 draw from that with Carroll a decent bet for our goalscorer.

With the European campaign on hand I reckon a top eight fnish would  result but no predictions on anything until we get the firt few games out of the way.

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

11 comments on “Leroy’s lowdown on season ahead

  1. Antonio is a ? But I can see where you’re coming from , to accommodate lanzini and have the bard bombing on ,
    You gone for all out attack there Leroy , you weren’t a striker was you by any chance . Hahaha.
    This should be interesting. ?

  2. Leroy, how could you have left out Nobes ;-(

  3. Stroll on Ron its going to be difficult to choose the best first XI if we dont have lots of injuries.I mean we always do but with a squad like this some good players are going to miss out sometimes!

  4. Everyone is not fit so leave out cresswell and Lanzini. Don’t see how you can leave out the skipper noble and I’ve seen enough of feghouli in the last two games to say on current form at least he is a player you can’t leave out of the side. As for sakho, he played well for half a season two years ago under Sam allardyce. How long do we have to wait for him to sort his head out?

  5. If you read it he said ‘when everyone is fit’.Its only his picks,his opinion.

  6. Nobes must start if fit, he’s the club captain

  7. Leroy with the exception of Nobes who will probably be in the squad in the place of Lanzini I suspect you are right but hope you are wrong. Byram is a right back that can get forward and deliver top quality passes and crosses and Reid should be replaced by Collins who is a better defender. I hope that Slav gives Oxford his chance next to either Reid or Ogbonna but I think in the first match he is likely to play the back 5 that none of us agree with Adrian Massuaku, Ogbonna, Reid, Antonio, if he plays them I think we will be hit for 4 or 5 goals against Chelski, I hope he plays Adrian, Masuaku, Reid, Collins, Byram, Nordveidt, Kouyate, Noble, Feghouli, Tore, Ayew and Carroll. I chose Reid over Ogbonna because against Juve Oggy looked off the pace, I think that is the safe selection and if we play them I could see us winning 2 or 3 nil.

    • just noticed I put 12 in the team definitely a 2 or 3 nil with them, so I would take out Tore from that team putting Ayew left side and play as a 4-1-4-1 formation with Nordveidt as a sitting DM in the way Makelele used to play.

  8. Lol I think he forgot the captain

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