With games against Premier League runners up Manchester City next Sunday afternoon and Premier League winners Liverpool on Monday 24th February David Moyes has two free hits to get the right formation to integrate new signing Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen.
While I am sure the Hammers will give it a ‘good go’ defeat in both games now seems inevitable.
Soucek started on Saturday against Brighton and showed some promise but as defensive midfielder many were surprised that both Declan Rice and Mark Noble also started so it will be interesting to see where he fits in a fully fit team.
Jarrod Bowen is primarily a right winger which begs the question where you fit him in a team with a fit Michail Antonio?
Do you push Antonio up front with Sebastian Haller or do you drop Haller to the bench?
With thirteen games remaining the Hammers need to target five wins to avoid relegation.
On paper the seven winnable games in which to get those 15 points are Southampton, Newcastle United, Burnley, Norwich City, Manchester United, Watford and Aston Villa.
A noticeable thing in the three games with clean sheets being Bournemouth Southampton and Chelsea Diop was not in the starting line ups and we held on to win all three ? Might be a chance to change the middle positions of two at the centre or three at the back and give Cardoso a try worked with the young right back against Liverpool (kept the score down) trying him out gave the centre backs more responsibility and they concentrated more? I would never ever use Masuaku in defence ever again!!!
Don’t forget Sean we still.have to go to Ars and I think they are a more viable proposition for 3pts than Mank or Spuds .
testing times on the heart and nerves for sure🙊🙊
Thing is, you can look at the fixtures for ‘winnable’/’no chance’ games but once a team ‘clicks’ they all become winnable, but if they don’t even an apparent easy fixture becomes another potential disaster. Remember the Great Escape season. Was it 7 wins from last 9 ( including an away win at Old Trafford)? I remember a victory against Bolton- who were a top side then, but had just fallen out with Big Sam & he had just gone or was about to. A key thing with United was they had nothing to play for & (I think) big cup games still to come. On the other hand in 2011 we just gave up & the season petered out. The key is getting that change of gear. Is Tevez still playing…..
These games are not free hits, I want to stay up we need to pick a minimum of 1 point and hope the other results go are way.