Villa may be Moyes’ “correct moment” for radical move

David Moyes is hoping and praying that Sebastian Haller is going to prove him wrong!

The Hammers boss is believed to have had private doubts about the striker over recent weeks preferring, like most of course, the more physically and aggressive approach of Michail Antonio.

But he has been dropping hints of late that he could team the pair up and the match against Villa may be a good opportunity to do so,  assuming Antonio’s fitness.

Commenting recently the manager said: ““We have seen it before [playing together]. It was only through injury that changed it around. You stumble across something and it works.”

And speaking to BBC Sport he went even further,  saying: ” I want to be flexible and play with a back four when we need to and play with two centre forwards when the right time is correct as well.”

Should Mikey Antonio be fit this weekend the Villa match could present the right sort of opportunity the manager is talking about.

With only one defeat in seven and back to back wins against Fulham and Sheffield United, this may be the moment to give it a go.

The pair were in dynamic form together when we beat Southampton in a vital game at St Mary’s last season which, as far as I recall, was the last time the pair were together. The pairing looked very good indeed at a time when it really needed to.

There’s another big reason for giving Haller a run as we need to see him hike his value up to something near to what we paid for him.

We can expect a big loss on Felipe Anderson when and if we eventually fins a buyer and it would be a serious blow if the same applied to the Frenchman should he fail tomake a big impact this term. He has to be given the chance at some point.

Were it to happen this weekend the team may look like this: Fabianski,  Coufal, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Rice, Soucek, Bowen Masuaku, Haller, Antonio.