West Ham’s European ambitions will surely be defined by the next five games on the fixture calendar.
All the talk of investment in the squad is very fair and it will be needed big time should we qualify for the Europa League – or dare we dream – the Champions League.
Our current fifth place is an extraordinary achievement given what went before and it’s perfectly fine to believe we are on our way into the Euro big time.
But the reality check will come over these five games against Spurs (h), Man City (a), Leeds (h), Man U (a) and Arsenal (h).
Personally -and just for the record – I’m looking from three points each from the two north London opponents, three from Leeds and one from Old Trafford.
Should we manage that then I will believe we are red hot candidates for the Europa League places.
That we can even talk like this is an amazing achievement given the size of the squad – a situation which Moysie claims to prefer.
And given the various decisions he has made in using players that’s easy to see why. So five games and 10 points for me.
Let us know your personal points tally!
Big test against these teams especially with no striker and kids on the bench .we will see if we can cause problems against these teams with the thin squad we have ..let’s hope we can..
This no striker thing ? Are we tlking about a target man. I don’t recall Cottee and Macca fulfilling that role?
No not at all hugh ,…there is lots and lots of plus points you are putting out there like we trust in Moyes and don’t need a big squad and so on ….and I’m happy to jump on board , but we are talking about a prem club with no recognized no.9 in our whole squad ..sounds funny when you say it ….if we keep riding our luck and keep winning, then great …but we have started to pick up a few injuries now and you have to wonder what would happen if we lost bowen or lingard now ..Dosnt have to be a lump at all but having no one in that position sounds a bit crazy to me ..its got to be a first in prem history..let’s see how we do in the big games the nxt few weeks and let’s see if we can get lucky with injuries..also what if lingard Bowen have bad games..what options do we have ….??? For me its mostly having a striker but whether Moyes likes working with a small squad or not we are very very light on numbers no matter how you dress it up..imo
Believe it or not Childish, there’s only one person making the decisions and if it was your beloved DS lol I’m not sure we would be in this happy position So I’m cool wkith whatever DM decides as things stand.
Cottee and Macca were out and out front men to be fair Hugh, whereas in our current squad we don’t have any of note. I include Antonio in this, as he is a converted midfielder and as much as I love him, he is not a natural finisher?
Exactly mate
I agree with your points tally, Hugh. We could take a draw at Man City, if the footballing Gods were on our side. United at Old Trafford could see three points too, if Moyes releases his defensive demons but I doubt that’ll happen. I’d take a draw against the Spuds Sunday though, them being a wounded beast and all
As I wrote in a previous post;
I think the results from the next 4 or 5 games will show where we actually are. Hopefully we do get a win or 2 from these games.
Personally, I think West Ham at best may be good enough for the Europe League IF we improve the squad. Champions League would be a step too far too soon with the current squad.
I think we will take Spurs, Leeds and Arsenal. ManU is inconsistent, even when they play their first team, so toss the dice. ManC is solid but so are we. As long as our young players aren’t awed by them we stand a chance.
As for Europe, it would be a Pyrrhic victory. We cannot field two first teams so fatigue and injuries will mount. Rather build on our successes and look to 2022 to enter Europe.
An optimistic 8 points for me – 3 v Leeds, 3 v Arsenal, draws v Spurs & Man Utd. Nothing from City.