The form book certainly favours West Ham tonight, having won two on the spin whilst opponents Bolton Wanderers have lost their last three games. But whilst the rest of the division is tipping the Hammers for top spot again, wary West Ham fans know their club only too well to start taking games for granted yet: Out of form Bolton away on a rainy evening is classic ‘banana skin’ territory.
However with a strong line up Nuno Espírito Santo will be hoping to make it another clean sheet and three points taken back with them in the team bus down the M61. The West Ham boss has to juggle injury problems with the possibility of two forwards unavailable plus, of course, Tomas Soucek still working his way back to full fitness.
The line up has just been revealed and West Ham start like this:
West Ham United:
Hermansen | Walker Peters, Mavropanos, Kilman, Scarles | Bowen, Kanté, Engels, Austbø | Mukasa, Pablo
No Taty, no Piroe or Solomon in the starting line up: How the midfield and forwards will line up remains to be seen, probably Magassa will be playing behind Pablo with Kanté slotting into midfield in a 4-4-1-1: We’ll let you know
Check back after the game for Gonzo’s player ratings, making a welcome return, along with my ‘final whistle, first impressions‘ articles. The game will be broadcast live on Sky Sports football for those of you with subscriptions: For all others, you can follow the game on radio via whufc.com although the club have started charging for this.
BBC Radio London will broadcast the game for free or you can watch through various video channels, my favourite of course being Hammers Chat’s free watch along on Youtube with Gonzo’s partner in crime Geo.
Come On You Irons!
Both our backs are menaces. Needs to be changed asap
Schumacher good as his word Bolton are going for it, 4 poor goals defensively and we are unlucky not to be 3-2 up
We don’t have a CDM and it shows someone needs to step on Rodriguez who is probably the most influential player. Dong looks good for them and Mukasa hasn’t found his feet in this formation. Engels having another good game and Pablo causing problems, we have missed 3 great chances by not playing the right passes when players were through on goal. I think we should maybe take Mukasa off or change formation by bring Piroe on and going 442 Orford is needed in midfield to slow the pace down and allow us to time to get on better attacking shapes.
We have the subs on the bench to change this let’s hope Nuno makes the right calls COYI!!!
Proof-reading service completed. It’s Mukasa not Magassa. You’re welcome!
Nuno must have thought “How can we stop his momentum of ours. Oh, I know, let’s start with Pablo up front”.
4-4-1-1 Nuno can’t help himself. A clean sheet means more to him than scoring goals
Pavlo used as a actual striker , should be interesting