Declan identifies the Cardiff danger tactic

(Photo by Avril Husband/West Ham United via Getty Images)

Declan Rice has been watching Cardiff City closely – along with the rest of the squad – and has pinpointed the danger area for the Hammers.

The teenager claims that the Welsh outfit will be at there most potent from set pieces and thus Hammers defensive discipline seems to be key in that area.

The Irons are going to have to deal with that if they are to gain only their second back to back win in nearly two years – an astonishing statistic.

Neil Warnock teams are always extremely well organised and the current team is very direct which is unlikely to change at the London Stadium tonight.

Rice declared: “The main thing with Cardiff is they are strong on set pieces. They put it in the box from everywhere – from throw-ins, from the halfway line – and that’s what they do. They play to their strengths.

“You saw on Friday night that they scored from a volley inside the box and then a second one where they threw it in and it dropped to them and they scored.

“We’ve got to be on our game on Tuesday night and if we win, we get to 18 points and it’s a massive chance to move up the table.”

Obviously the squad has studied the threats likely to be posed by a team currently sitting in 16th place with 11 points – a decent recovery from their early season form following promotion.

But having identified the threat they pose they threat it’s easy to imagine the depth of anger there will be from the manager if the Hammers don’t deal with set pieces. It’s expected!