Not really. It's good to be positive, especially at home, and those 4 (Lallana, J Rod, Rickie & Osvaldo) will give us the best chance of creating some openings and able to take those chances. We need runners to arrive into the box, similar to how Welbeck played for England against Moldova alongside Rickie, and I think they can do that.
Yea excellent piece in the guardian. Seems a really humble, shy guy. I do think some people, especially those muppets on the saintsfc hashtag on twitter, were unfair on him when the deal was on and off in the summer. That was more his agent, who has previous, and Big Vic, to me, just seems grateful and happy to be playing in the PL when 10 years ago he was playing barefoot in Nairobi. (forgive me for sounding like a patronising football journalist. At least he hasn't worked in a beetroot factory..)
Really hope MP gets it right today, he has yet to register a PL home victory against a team in and around us. Our pressing style effective against top teams that play more open but we have struggled against the lesser teams who employ more defensive tactics, WHU will without doubt set up with the latter tactics. WHU are also without their main goal scoring and creative threats so will be very disappointed if we don't win. Think Osvaldo gives MP more options and wouldn't be surprised to see Rodrigues playing to inject some pace in the last third. If we score early I think we will go on to win comfortably, if not will be very interested to see if MP has come up with a plan B.
West Ham are a stubborn, hardworking side. Allardyce really has turned them into a solid mid-table side. Even without Carroll, Downing and Joe Cole, they will be tough to beat, and will undoubtedly settle for a point after their disappointing display against stoke.
True. We can't just resort to long balls in the box if things aren't going our way. West Ham will eat them up.
Mine too, the majority of teams coming here will be defensive. Our home form has been mediocre under MP, now with the added quality to our squad MP needs to find solutions to improve it or he will soon find himself under pressure from Mr Cortese.
You're description of West Ham could equally apply to us imo. We're a better drilled side under Pochettino than we were under Adkins, but not nearly as cavalier or, dare I say it, creative. We may need to be patient this afternoon, though of course an early goal could change everything. This is a massive afternoon for us, a win and we can start to gather some momentum, anything less and we may be in for a long and possibly dire struggle for points.
A win and we will all be talking champions league or europa this season. If we loose people will begin to question MP. (Begin?). Still very very early and we have 3 new players who have only just started playing together. In the event that we do lose can the doom mongerers please stay away?!
I have a feeling that this will be a tight affair, and could end up a draw. Obviously hope it isn't, and that the attacking options that we clearly have are on song and give Spam a lesson. Fancy Osvaldo to get a goal today.
True. But we need a run of wins under our belt to turn those aspirations into reality, and today could well be a defining afternoon for our season. Get the win and kick on from there, or spend every week scrabbling for much needed points. If we win this one, confidence in the squad will get a massive boost I think, because whatever you think about West Ham, they are a) very hard to beat, and b) the sort of team we really need to be beating at St Mary's.
Can't post a link as you have to pay to see The Sun website. But it basically said people and Roy shouldn't be writing Rickie off. That he is a far better player then people think and he's like Teddy Sheringham.
I've heard that opinion before. Hodgson isn't stupid....he has now had the chance to see Rickie close up and has probably watched the game videos many times. At least if RL is dropped, it will be the result of a considered opinion. Personally, although I don't see him as a starter, I think Rickie is the man in possession that other strikers have to displace. If he continues to have a good PL season, he has a good chance of getting to Rio.
