This Irons starting X1 means goodbye Nolan

We now have so many options available, working out the Hammers first team is a little tricky – or is it?

With nine new signings nobody will dispute that this was – as David Gold claimed – “one of the best transfer windows in our history.

But for all the hype and hulabaloo the simple fact is we haven’t seen enough of any of the new arrivals – Kouyate excepted and Song’s pedigree accepted – to know how well they are going to hack it.

One thing that looks apparent however is that Kevin Nolan may well have reached his shelf life given the number of midfielders who are now battling for a place in the team.

With absolutely everybody fit we have 12 of them but in reality nine will battle for the available places:  Nolan, Matt Jarvis, Stewart Downing, Cheikhou Kouyate, Ravel Morrison, Mark Noble, Morgan Amalfitano, Diego Poyet and Alex Song.

Along the way Matthias Fanimo, Sebastian Lletget and Blair Turgott will be looking for a sniff although our exit from the Capital One Cup has made that infinitely more difficult for them.

We are very thin at the back so the defence – assuming they are all  fit -virtually picks itself whilst up front we have Sakho, Valencia, Zarate and on his return Carroll to accommodate.

As things stand right now here’s how we see the team for Hull given reports that both Jenkinson and the strikers are set to be fit.

Formation: 4-1-4-1

                                                            Adrian

                               Jenkinson, Reid, Tomkins, Cresswell

                                                             Song

                                 Downing Noble Kouyate Zarate

                                                         Valencia

Bench Jaaskalanen, Collins, Burke, Amalfitano, Poyet , Sakho, Jarvis