THE MAIN question this afternoon is of course whether Nuno will grant a debut to new signing Pablo Felipe: The young Portugese striker travelled in such haste to get hi medical carried out and registration completed that you’d assume he was going straight into the match day squad if not the starting eleven.
With Nuno nothing is certain and it is always possible that ‘#19 Pablo” -as his shirt name labels him – will start, allowing the Hammers to use Callum Wilson as Nuno’s favoured super-sub option. Which begs the other question over Crysencio Summervile starting or coming on alongside Wilson to terrorise a tired Wolves defence.
Trying to second guess the normal ultra cautious Nuno we’d plump for a cautious start with Bowen, Wilson and Paquetá up front, the side unchanged from the Brighton game apart from the worrying absence of Jean Clair Todibo. That also assumes the Brazilian has recovered from his sore lower back arising from the Brighton fixture.
West Ham have kept their cards close to their chest this week with no ‘training video’ released: About time they wised up, frankly, in repeatedly tipping off their opponents as to their squad fitness.
Which means our best guess is that West Ham will line up as follows:
West Ham United – predicted:
Areola | Walker Peters, Kilman, Mavropanos, Scarles | Potts, Magassa, Fernandes | Paquetá, Wilson, Bowen
Score Predictions:
Gonzo 2-1 West Ham
Martin 2- 0 West Ham
Matt 2-1 West Ham
Sean 1-0 West Ham
NUNO ESPIRITO SANTO’s line up will be published here at 13.45 so check back and see who is in the line up against Wolves: It is a 3pm kick off so we will have ‘Gonzo’s player ratings’ and my ‘Nuno rated or slated’ articles immediately after the final whistle at 5pm.
Makes sense, and I don’t think the problem is the line-up or the players.
The thing that will change our fortunes, is the manager’s instructions.
Rather than sitting back and watching other teams play, he needs to afford some confidence to our front 6 and let them play football. Take teams on in games like this and let the boys off the leash.
Christ I’ve just seen this Pablo guys figures…
99th percentile European based strikers chance conversion rate.
10 goals in 13 appearances.
18 shots inside the area.
He’s got to play.
I don’t think it’s going to be a pushover, both teams are poor, both drew last time out.
We must win but I think it’s going to be 1-1
I want to see Pablo !
On the bench, I think, John…