A tough one this Saturday as the Hammers face title-win-chasing Liverpool at Upton Park. With the Premier League title still a possibility and no other trophies left to compete for, the Scousers will be looking to keep the pressure on leaders Manchester United. From the Hammers perspective, a place in Europe and finishing above ‘big club’ Spurs are the priorities for the rest of the season.
Last time out, the Hammers battled and played their way to a great result at Stoke. Hopefully Saturday will see more of a football match rather than fending off long balls for 90 minutes. But the spirit of the club seems high and the way we have captured results despite the injury crisis is a great credit to Frankie and Stevie.
Team News;
West Ham: Collison could make a start having come on against Stoke – Kyle Reid and Jordan Spence have returned from loan spells and could make the bench
Key man: Let’s hope Tristan can continue to find his form, if he doesn’t, we may struggle to score
Liverpool: Alonso likely to be out following Joey Barton’s horror challenge last weekend. Torres and Mascherano hoping to be fit.
Key man: Think we will all be happy if Torres does not make the team sheet
Hammers line up:
After a pretty successful day at the office last weekend, I’m not sure we need too many changes. Guess the question of whether Collison starts is Zola’s biggest headache, but I see no need to rush the guy back as we head towards the end of the season, so another bench place for him I reckon before maybe a start against Everton.
Green
Illunga – Upson – Tomkins – Neill
Stanislas – Noble – Kovac – LBM
Tristan – Di Michele
Bench: Lastuvka, Collison, Spector, Savio, Sears, Payne and Lopez
The game is live on Setanta and will kick off at 5.30pm. It’s a tricky one to call, we can certainly give them a go and if the crowd get behind the lads it could be one of those evenings. We are pretty resilient these days and Chelsea and Man Utd only went away with hard earned 1-0 victories. I reckon we can do this 2-1 to the cockney boys! Come on you Irons!!!
With only 3 games left, they will want to keep the pressure on Manchester United. Without any other competitions to play for they would have had a week’s rest to focus on this game, and in truth I think Liverpool has rediscovered their early season form over the last couple of weeks and played some impressive football.
West Ham have also been impressive of late, and find themselves contending for a European spot. However, their injury list reads more like their teamsheet: Carlton Cole, Dean Ashton, Behrami, Gabbidon, Scott Parker, Kieron Dyer, and James Collins. Although they have a big squad and are therefore not stretched at the moment, I think they don’t have quality in depth, and against a pretty much full strength Liverpool side they will indeed struggle a lot.
Posted by: Boon | 08/05/2009 at 19:01
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Posted by: aardvark | 09/05/2009 at 19:33