The official, unofficial match thread(West Ham)

Might as well have a bit of chat about the game before THFC6061 returns from sunning himself in the Seychelles, or whatever he considers more important than making match threads for us

So how do we think we'll line up, what's the injury news and how do you think we'll do against the new tika-taka Hammers?

As far as I know it's only Walker and Dembele that are inured, although I'm not sure about Vertonghen, Dawson and Chadli.

I'm expecting us to line up like so:

Lloris
Naughton, Kaboul, Vertonghen, Rose
Capoue, Holtby
Lamela, Eriksen, Lennon
Soldado

In all honesty, I don't know how we'll do. Their fans have forced Allardyce to play a more attractive style if football but I don't think that will be starting on Saturday, Fat Sam knows that their fans won't give a s**t how they play against us so long as they get a result. That's where I don't know really what to expect, in preseason the closest to a tough tackling defensive side like West Ham has been Chicago Fire, who were a poor side on any scale so Saturday will be a new test to us as they won't be anywhere near as open as Celtic and Schalke were in our last friendlies. I'd take a win however it comes on Saturday but I wouldn't be too displeased with a draw, I don't see it being an easy game for us.


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I think Adebayor will start over Soldado but apart from that I would go with that team.

I'd take a draw now to be honest. Given our 3 defeats last season it would be an improvement. Obviously a win would be amazing but we generally start quite slowly so I'm not very confident. I can see a 1-1 draw or a narrow loss.
It's a really tough opening game that's for sure. I am looking forward to it but I don't think the match itself will be that enjoyable.

 

Sod off YV! We want THFC6061's threads!

Team I'd expect to see would be:

Lloris,
Naughton, Kaboul, Vertonghen (though risky due to no pre-season practice), Davies
Capoue, Holtby
Lamela, Eriksen, Lennon
Adebayor

Vorm, Rose, Dier, Sandro, Townsend, Soldado, Kane

Chadli, Dembele, Bentaleb to feature in the squad once they've got a bit more game time.

Nothing less than a win for me, can't go 4 games without beating these mugs.

 

THFC6061 and notso, probably sitting there sunning themselves and laughing at us.

In the meantime ...

They played for both : Paul Stewart.

 

THFC6061, aka Paul Yarden, is contactable outside of not606. He's been posting elsewhere only yesterday, about Chelski of all teams.

I'm sure he'll be here. I'll message him if he stops posting the excellent match threads.

 

It's probably him at the other end of @MyFootballFacts on Twitter and I saw a tweet about Arsenal today. Time to get back to important matters. We are reduced to having Match Threads without pictures!!! (BTW thanks for posting YV )

 

I am interested to see who he picks at LB. Will it be Rose or Davies. Really can't make my mind up as I think Rose has looked decent enough during pre season and I thought Davies was a bit erratic on one or two occasions on Saturday. Got a feeling he might go with Rosé.

 

Have to say, Rose has looked the better of the two, although obviously early days for Davies.

 

Agree I think it should be picked on form and Rose has looked better in pre season. I think it's his place to lose and Davies needs to earn his place in the team.

 

"Got a feeling he might go with Rosé."

Enough about his wine preferences. What about the starting LB ??

 

That's him. He's on Google+ too. Posted about Loserpool yesterday also. One of us? C'mon THFC6061. You know you get the most appreciation on not606's threads.

Oh yeah, thanks YV... An almost excellent match thread so far.

 

Rose is the more attacking of the two, but Davies looks more stable at the back and has several inches in height on his competition.
It is West Ham, after all!

 

There's a few arguments about who should partner Kaboul in this one: some say Eric Dier had a good game against Schalke so deserves his first Premier League start, others say Verts is our best defender so it makes sense for him to play, and others saying Daws may have been crap last season, crap in pre-season and earmarked for the exit - but his experience and commitment will nullify some of Twat Sam's agricultural tactics.

Zeki Fryers must be upset, nobody seems to want him to start this one...

 

Fryers is too much like Rose overall. Is Dawson still carrying an injury ??

 

Fryers must be doubly upset considering Naughton is now a shoe in!

 

I tweeted THFC6061 and he said he will do a match thread. He is researching it as we speak.

 

You're all ungrateful sods, no wonder THFC6061 doesn't want to do a match thread

 

I'm sure that we all appreciate your effort, YV. We wouldn't want to be like some other fans, would we?

 

THFC6061 will publish in the next 48hours.

No more picture less threads then

 

Thanks very much for your magnificent effort, YV. Now how many more minutes till THFC has his match thread up?

Lloris,
Naughton, Kaboul, Dier, Davies
Bentaleb, Holtby
Lamela, Eriksen, Lennon
Adebayor (Soldado on at half time)

Other subs: Kane and Townsend if we're behind. Capoue if we're ahead or drawn.

Well, here we go with just about the least tasty game we could have. Allardyce's tactical plan writes itself. Park the bus, clog and hit us on the counter. Why wouldn't he do that? It's worked the last three times, and it's the obvious way to play against a high pressing team.

I'm hoping (without much hope) Poch has something special in store. Southampton had a draw and a two goal loss to West Ham last year, so it would have to be something he's come up with for this year.

So I'm very excited about the new season, but kind of dreading this game.