There is the danger of the discontent off the pitch becoming an all consuming distraction from the football on it. West Ham take on Tottenham tomorrow in a London derby which used to be hotly contested but whilst recent events have been tepid, the Mohammed Kudus; transfer and his comments thereafter have the capacity to fire up the somewhat war-weary West Ham home crowd.
Announcing at his press conference that Tottenham forward Dominic Solace will miss the game with an ankle injury, along with long term absentees Radu Dragusin, Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison, Thomas Frank delivered a little bright news for West Ham fans. In addition, the major boost for Graham Potter’s side is that the game likely comes too soon for the Spuds’ new recruit from PSG Randal Kolo Muani who had not been in training before moving to North London.
Whilst fellow new signing Xavi Simons is ready to play against the Hammers, Frank admitted “Randal has not played since the Club World Cup and did not really train at PSG so he is not as fit as Xavi”( spurs-web.com):Which likely spares the Hammers from coping with Kolo Muani on top of kudus and Simons.
West Ham will have their own selection headaches with new signing 21 year old Soungoutou Magassa surely ready for a debut in midfield ahead of Guido Rodriguez. With the battle likely to be fought in midfield, West Ham do appear to be in better shape than twelve months ago.
Paqueta, Magassa and Fernandes looks a whole heap better than Ward Prowse, Soucek and Rodriguez. But that’s providing of course Graham Potter doesn’t revert back to a defensive formation that can’t defend and pick his favourite James Ward-Prowse who’s passing ability still reminds me of that old Second World War joke about one enemy, infamous for surrendering, having tanks with four gears, all of them backwards.
I think we could see Margassa and Igor Julio make debuts, there’s been talking up of Julio. It will be an interesting thing in its own right what team is chosen.