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Three big match fitness questions

 

Three key West Ham players had questionable match fitness on Saturday at the London Stadium during the opening defeat against Newcastle United.

Declan Rice who suffered from an ankle injury and short illness during his time off looked out of form. He didn’t look match fit when he played for England either and one could argue he should have skipped international duty to concentrate on recovery and his club’s start to the Premier League.

Issa Diop too appeared to lack match fitness sharpness, he has recently suffered from a calf injury and a mystery illness and was for this game. The centre backs were missing for the first Newcastle goal.

Tomas Soucek too was a question mark over the weekend, he was forced to self isolate in the Czech Republic after his massuer was tested positive with Covid  forcing him to miss valuable training days.

But with lack of depth in the squad David Moyes probably felt he had little other choice then to play all three.

This all goes some way to perhaps explain the poor level of performance perhaps.

 

About Sean Whetstone

I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk. A Blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball, I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh. Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons! Follow me at @Westhamfootball on twitter

5 comments on “Three big match fitness questions

  1. Absolutely agree the players who spent last week on international duty would have been tired and travel weary. We all knew Dec and Issa were carrying injuries – Nobes and Cresswell were jaded. I’ve always said that in a back four the full backs must primarily defend – if out of position you are asking two centre backs to cover everything.

  2. It was selfish of England to play DR after he had just come from an injury. Club before country all the way and as far as I’m concerned WHU are far more important that England ever will be! Wish these internationals were times better but it is what it is. Just rest him up for the cup game tomorrow and play some young blood. We have the ability to win if we have the right mental attitude and I’m sick of these players who are too weak and sensitive to play well week in week out. Anyway I digress, and hope DM plays the youngsters with Anderson, Yarmo, Lanzini and Randolph in goal. Rest the main players and please keep Noble on the bench from next saturday going forward…

    • Play your best XI, which probably includes Yarmo, Anderson and try and get the team gelling. If they can’t do it against Charlton, then tell Moyes to move aside. Football is all about winning, and after 5 wins in 20 it is about time Moyes started to find a way how. Playing with no striker and deep lying wide men with Noble trotting about as no 10 is not going to cut it in the top league. We need at least 3 or 4 attack minded players in team, every other club does. We are playing one in Antonio, with Bowen transformed by Moyes from a right sided attacker who runs at defenders into a player who primarily assists the full back in defending

      • I agree that football is about winning games. It’s also about putting in your best effort and showing the fans you’re hungry to win and play for the team. I have every faith in Moyes and he will take us forward. He is clearly working under an unhelpful board but he has the right coaching staff to achieve better results. I am still surprised by his approach to last saturday as that line up wasn’t what I expected and we do need to be more attacking in our games rather than inviting the opposing team to attack. We can’t afford that especially with our crappy defence as is.

  3. In Anderson and Haller we’ve got 80 miilion pounds worth of players sitting on the bench. Surely we should be trying to get them producing on the pitch. Play them in the cup. Hopefully a good performance from them will be a confidence boost going forward. We are also lacking creativity in the midfield. I’d like to see Wilshere and or Cullen tried in the Noble role.

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