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Allardyce: “Play to City level…or lose”

Sam-AllardyceWest Ham need to put the hype surrounding the Manchester City game to bed if they are to get a result at Stoke City tomorrow (Sat).

Manager Sam Allardyce insisted: “We have to find that level of consistency in performance and results.

“The big danger for us going into the Stoke game is the hype around beating Manchester City cannot be allowed to have a negative impact on Saturday.

“If we don’t go out and play to that level again, Stoke will beat us.”

The Irons were on the wrong end of a losing double against The otters did the Potter last season and a keen to bury that particular memory.

Allardyce said: “They will be looking forward to us coming and Mark Hughes will be saying; ‘Come on, let’s take these to task and see if they can cope after that big result’.

“For me the players have a big test as to whether they can sustain the level of success they have achieved up to now.

Diafra Sakho is still in the balance but both James Tomkins and winger Matt Jarvis will be back in the squad but there is still no sign of Argentina striker Mauro Zarate.

The manager said: “I can’t give you the actual medical term at the moment, but he has got a sort of a thigh strain.He is training as part of his rehabilitation, building to come back to training, certainly by next week.”

If Sakho comes through his late fitness test then Allardyce is likely to stick with the same starting line-up that beat Manchester City, with Cheikhou Kouyate and Kevin Nolan staying on the bench.

If he is forced on to the bench, then the manager will choose between captain Nolan and striker Carlton Cole to partner Enner Valencia up front.

 

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

One comment on “Allardyce: “Play to City level…or lose”

  1. Nolan or Cole upfront ,what rubbish.Nolan isn’t a forward at any level.Save Sakho for next week play Cole and let Stoke play to our level if they can keep up which I doubt.ignore slow Nolan and use the pace of Jarvis or even Lee.high energy is why we are succeeding not ageing fatties.please be more realistic.

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