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Moyes must trust this Iron against Manchester City

By Dave Langton

Ben Johnson has to be named in the first team this weekend.

The Hammers are preparing for  one of their biggest tests at the London Stadium against Pep Guardiola’s outstanding side.

City are doing everything they can to keep Liverpool off their tails in the title race, while the Irons know that winning their final two games would seal a sixth-placed finish and qualification to the Europa League.

City will either play Raheem Sterling or Riyad Mahrez on the right wing and, given how our Europa League campaign went, it’s debatable as to whether Aaron Cresswell can be trusted.

He was sent off twice in two ties, the first leg of the quarter-final, and the second leg of the semi-final.

Can we really trust him to go up against two of the very best wingers in English football?

The answer, here, is surely to play Ben Johnson at left-back, with Vlad Coufal at right-back. Johnson actually played in the snowy reverse fixture, which City won 2-1, and he impressed at right-back.

He should have another chance to play against Guardiola’s men.

 

About Dave Langton

A journalist with 10 years' experience of working on National newspapers, now chief reporter covering the club that I've loved since I was a boy. Upton Park remains the greatest football stadium ever built.

4 comments on “Moyes must trust this Iron against Manchester City

  1. We don’t need to win any of our last two games to qualify for Europe. We are five points and 14 goals better of than Wolves. One more point is sufficient. Also, pretty disrespectful article to Cresswell, imo. His first red card (against Sevilla) was outrageously wrong according to this site. So you are doubting and undermining him on one game. How many assists has he got this year?

    • One of their games is against Norwich so there is a good possibility that after Sundays fixtures there will be a two point difference, if there is a two point difference that will mean that Liverpool have already lost the league because of their inferior goal difference and may play a reserve team in their final game against Wolves to protect their best players for the CL final in which case that game becomes a lottery, they may even not want us to qualify for Europe if they are interested in Rice and could throw the game… we have a terrible record against Brighton who are better in possession than us and could well win that game, we need a result against City if we draw or better we are in with a good shout for Europa league and definitely will get conference league so imho we should go all out for the win against City.

  2. Am I being stupid or is the answer not obvious . Play Johnson at full back back and Cresswell in front of him playing wide midfield . Johnson is not great going forward and delivering good ball so it is a match up made in heaven ..Good delivery and the possibility to double up against City danger men . . COYI .

  3. Agree with your assessment Dave, Cresswell is a liability against players making runs from deep, City and many other teams have been exploiting that for years, Bubbles idea might not be a bad shout to play Cresswell as a winger and to help out defensively although doubt thats what Moyes will do, he may play five at the back though with Cressie as a left sided cb and Johnson as a wingback, its proved profitable in the past to play with that formation against City because it means less space for their players to run into.

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