I'm pleased to have seen that line up too. I like Chambers but we need Clyne back in for that balance and width. Also, I think bringing in Jay to add to Rickie and Dani is probably the right way to go.
The only question with that lineup is the ever-present "who provides the final ball?" Runs will be made with Osvaldo/Rodriguez out there; just need to hope that some combination of Lambert/Lallana will provide the creativity.
Very glad those 2 are back in, Clyne offers more going forward then Chambers (Although that will change when he gets more experience/gametime, same with JWP, not knocking either of them, they've been great, but we do have better players on the bench atm) and Rodriguez adds in the pace that will help stretch WH's defense. Ramirez on the bench is a nice option to have at the moment as well. Weather's looking bad, so most likely will be a scrappy game, but with those two back in the 11 I'm much more confident of a positive result, with the added pace to unlock West Ham's inevitable 11 behind the ball tactics.
Good to have Clyne back - feel a little sorry for JWP who has played well this season. Not sure where the creativity is going to come from in this lineup - Lallana hasn't done it for me this season. Given our poor scoring form of late (I read somewhere that its a low as 4 from our last 8 games in the EPL - is that right?) I can see this one fizziling out to a 1-1 draw with a Lambert penalty cancelled out by Nolan... Hopefully, my predictions will continue to be 100% wrong and we win by a margin of 3 to go above Chelsea!
Shaw and Clyne should make us more attacking, though I think JWP and Chambers have done well. Prowsie will take it well as long as he is allowed to do the post-match interview
I have promised my son that I won't watch this match with my new dickie heart...same old heart, just newly dickie. I usually end up turning the tv off to prevent the opposition scoring, but I'm not supposed to even start watching. That will be hard, so don't be surprised if one of my comments trails off with West Ham have scoreddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd
I guess maybe they see him as a bit fragile for a physical game like this, and the set-pieces are likely to be defended better by West Ham than most teams I suppose. Utter rubbish I'd say.
Agreed. First name on the team sheet. This game is perfect for Victor, but is anyone else pretty much unimpressed with him so far? He's been very dependable, but it's all sideways passes. As far as I can tell, Cork could do everything he's doing, but with a bit of imagination going forward.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24092977 big vic reckon we can make it to the Champions league. EDIT: Annnndddd it's already been posted. My mistake!
Might have been West Ham's plan, but not ours. Rickie had only just signed a new contract. We needed another striker (which we got with Dani)...selling Rickie would put us right back where we started...light on strikers. Rickie has started in all our games, so is obviously in MP's plans. (Have to say however that little surprises me any more).
I don't know if I'd say Cork can do what Wanyama does, they have a very different style, but I do agree that Wanyama hasn't really brought anything to the team that we missed when Cork was playing. It's early days obviously, but I'd like to see Cork get some more game time. Maybe even instead of Schneiderlin who doesn't have to play every game; let's see what Wanyama can do given licence to push forward a bit more.
Yea Wanyama does the simple stuff, but his game isn't to make runs into the box. Others need to step up and do that. He just wins the ball back, and recycles possession, and does that pretty well.
I like the look of that. Hopefully lallala playing in the space behind the 3 strikers. Anyone worry too attacking?
I don't know if anyone has mentioned it before but feel like we need a player like Jack Cork in the centre of the park today. His work rate and fitness would benefit us against a team that are likely to pack the midfield and hoof upfield. I would have all three of Victor, Jack and Morgan in there.
Speaking of Wanyama, nice piece on him in the guardian today: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/sep/14/victor-wanyama-southampton-celtic No, we're at home, and we'll need to break down a determined defence; if anything it's not attacking enough!
