Already well documented were Manchester United’s fitness travails, as they progressed comfortably through to the final of the Europa League in the “game both teams should lose”: Yesterday’s article in Claret and Hugh shed light on the likely missing players from Amorim’s home squad to play the Irons on Sunday.
But it’s worse (or better) than we thought : Manutd.com revealed on Friday afternoon that coach Ruben Amorim rather sheepishly admitted that the Red Devils were further challenged by an injury to warhorse Harry Maguire:
“Amorim is being forced to balance things but did hint during his press conference that Harry Maguire is a doubt, with the centre-back spending a short time down on the pitch towards the end of Thursday’s 4-1 win, even though he did not require treatment.”
That’s in addition to Mathijs De Ligt, Lisandro Martinez, Diogo Dalot, Joshua Zirkzee, Ayden Heaven and Jonny Evans all ruled out whilst Toby Collier is a major doubt. Again from the Manchester club’s official website:
“Noussair Mazraoui was withdrawn, with the boss reiterating the Morocco international was tired, and the same was said about Alejandro Garnacho, who made way for Amad…Ruben Amorim has indicated that he will not take any risks over his players’ fitness when Manchester United welcome West Ham United to Old Trafford on Sunday.”
Which adds up to a whole load of good news if you are a Hammer. We can only hope that Graham Potter reads the room and takes the game to Manchester United rather than sitting back in some planned repeat performance of the valiant ‘smash and grab’ against Arsenal earlier in the season.
The Red Devils are looking anything other than devilish just now as they prioritise getting their squad fit for their Bilbao final in a couple of weeks. A big opportunity for West Ham to leap above them in the league. Mind you, I said that last week against Tottenham. Surely the Hammers can put on a better performance this time out.
Jesus how bad we have got when we get exited about a team who won’t have certain players and maybe we can win because they hsve a more important game coming up ….we are in 17th as if it matters and again this post sums this club up perfectly at the min …..fking sad. ……how bad csn a club get …we were cheering a few weeks ago that we won’t get relegated because there are 3 even worse teams than us.. again don’t you find this really pathetic for a club with the history we have .and 65k a week at thr stadium……wow
thank you
Ha ha, almost the same situation as against Spurs. And do you really think it will turn out any different for us? The manager isn’t up to setting the team up to win and, even if he did, half of the players can’t be arsed. If I was a betting man, which I’m not, I would probably get fantastic odds for a West Ham win up at Old Trafford. Anyway, enough said about betting on a football match involving our team, eh!
3-0 to United, then. Knowing us, we’ll play all four departing players and they’ll perform accordingly.
I remember good performances at Newcastle, Villa first half only in the FA Cup and at Arsenal. Beyond that…
I’m not counting on anything more than we’ve seen recently in the remaining games, I think it genuinely is as bad as that.
You missed out the Liverpool performance.
Hopefully they’ll just put out a ‘B’ team like Spurs did, and allow us to put 5 at the back and play out a draw by simply passing the ball sideways and backwards….
I think you might be right TommyD.
A draw at Ol’ Taffy would be a good result for Potter
Why do you continue to “clutch at straws” in this way ? You said the same for the game against Spurs, & look at the result we got then. I said then, in response to your hopes for a decent result – based on Spurs’ weakened team – that this is West Ham that we are talking about; we don’t do what any other team do against weakened opposition. Where other teams raise their game & attempt to take advantage of the other side’s misfortune, we continue to give a decent impression of being the team which has been deprived of several important players ! We should be trying to win this game on our own merits, without basing our hopes on injuries, tiredness, suspensions & the resting of key players by Man U. When we do rely on such hopes, it rarely works ! Go out there with a motivated team, selected to win the game, & using a game plan that promises to effect a successful result. And one that will truly fight to achieve its objective. I might add that I don’t expect this to happen; but this is West Ham & anything MIGHT happen !