A midweek defeat at Bolton saw West Ham concentrating on the league, at least until the frozen figners of the FA Cup third round come to visit us in January. By then, we'll also have an idea of what 2010 will bring us. More results like the last few and it will be a nail biting few months. But some good results and solid perfomances and we can enjoy the second half of the season rather than fear it.
Of the places you'd want to visit in search of a result, Eastlands is probably not one of those right now. A cash rich City have bought a very strong team, although arguably their most important signing, Adebayor, finds himself sitting in the stands for this one after raking the face of Robin Van Persie with his studs. The match may well see the Hammers come up against ex Hammers Carlos Teves and Craig Bellamy. Whilst Tevez seems to play an almost apologetic game against us, Bellamy will no doubt be aching to get on the scoresheet.
There is huge debate about our team and formation right now, whether we go 442 or 433. Certainly there are players we are trying to accomodate in the side, such as Diamanti and Hines, as they are the ones looking most likely to get us a goal. At the same time, a gap between our forward line and the midfield appears to have widened and this is something that must be addressed. So, how do we do it?
Green
Illunga Gabbidon Upson Faubert
Parker
Collison Behrami
Diamanti
Cole Hines
Bench: Kurucz, Tomkins, Spector, Nouble, Stanislas, Jimenez and Noble
I think it will be interesting to play Diamanti in a linking position, he works hard, has skill and is not adverse to a long range shot. The bench allows us to change things around or swap like for like, with Jiminez and Nouble available to mix things up in attack. I guess the biggest change may be dropping Noble to the bench, but if Behrami is available, I'd like to see him. If he is not, I'd even drop Diamanti out to the wing and Jiminez as the attacking midfielder.
Key player: Diamanti has gone very close from open play and I reckon he will find himself on the scoresheet
Key Opponent: There's no denying that an on-form Craig Bellamy is a very good player and the boys at the back will have to be lively to him
Prediction: I'll be very happy with a draw here, sadly I can see City edging ahead 3-2 in a tough fought game. I really hope I'm wrong!
Fancy a bet? Well, SkyBet don't seem to fancy us, we are an amazing 7/1 shot, which is a pretty tempting bet. if you open an account with SkyBet using the link below, they'll give you £10 free when you place a £10 bet, so split a tenner on the Hammers with a tenner on Liverpool at home or another banker, and you could have a pretty good weekend!
Up the Hammers!
City fan here -
Quite looking forward to this game - I'd fancy our chances if we had a big presence up front so hoping Roque Santa Cruz gets a debut, without that we'll struggle to crack open a well organised and useful side; Bellemy for me has been sensational on the left wing for the past three games (Arsenal, United and he was one of the better players against Fulham) and your right to point him out as a danger man but for me Nigel De Jong is a class player in the holding role and is well worth keeping an eye on;
Looking forward to see Collison and Cole from you guys (never really been impressed with Cole but from recent performances he's looking quite good)
Enjoy the game but hoping for a long journey back for you guys :-)
Posted by: Blue | 24/09/2009 at 20:58
Thanks Blue, always good to hear from opposition fans, except if they represent Spurs or Liverpool, those people have no manners! De Jong is a really good player, so will be interesting to see our attacking midfielder up against him. I'm hoping Santa Cruz is not quite ready, as he knows where the goal is to. Should be a good one...
Posted by: West Ham Blog | 24/09/2009 at 22:04
I think we could push through and repeat our stronger performance against Liverpool. Also possible we could see Guille Franco?
http://www.inzolawetrust.com
Posted by: Sean | 26/09/2009 at 04:33