18/11/2017

Deportivo Hammer

It´s never nice to have to change manager during a season, it´s usually a sign of things not going well and a team under performing.  Thank you for your time Slaven Bilic.  It was a marvellous first season in charge, bringing an end to Upton Park in a fitting way, coming from behind to beat Manchester United 3-2, I will forever be grateful.   But things did turn as they always seem to do.  In the end he had to go, he just wasn´t getting the best out of the team anymore, and things were going South quickly.  Enter David Moyes.

As I understand it he is only here for a short while and lets face it, survival is the end game here if we manage to climb out of the relegation position we find ourselves in Moyes would have done his job.  Whether that´s enough to get him the job on a permanent basis  who knows.  But for now we have to think short term.

We travel to Watford tomorrow,  who had been flying at the start of the season, but now seem to be struggling losing their last 3 games, as the depth of their squad gets tested.  Even so 9th place is a much better place to be than 18th  Manager Marco Silva seems to be a man in demand with Watford turning down an approach from Everton recently apparently.  I really can´t see him staying there for long.

The 30th of September seems such a long time ago now but it was when we last won a league game against Swansea.  Since then we have lost 2 home games and drawn the 2 away games.  So maybe this game coming away from home is not such a bad thing.  We have on each occasion been in a winning position to only throw it away at the end.  Maybe the pressure of playing at home has become too much for some players.  Whatever it is Mayes has his work cut out for him.

Watford will be without a number of players tomorrow Chalobah, Success, and Cathcart are all long term injuries while Gomes, Pereyra, Prodl, Kaboul and Kabasele are all doubts but could feature for the Hornets

West Ham as ever are going to be without some very important players Hernandez has managed to pick up an injury while playing for Mexico, Collins, Fonte, Byram and Michail Antonio are all missing due to injury.  There is some news of an illness to Andre Ayew who might also miss the game.

Predicted Line ups :

Watford : Karnezis, Femenia, Mariappa, Britos, Holebas, Hughes, Cleverley, Doucoure, Richarlison, Okaka, Gray.

West Ham United : Hart, Zabaleta, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Obiang, Noble, Kouyate, Arnautovic, Lanzini, Carroll.

Subs: Sakho, Martinez, Fernandes, Quina, Masuaku, Rice, Adrian

I can’t see David Moyes going for anything but a flat back 4 and lots of bodies in midfield for this game.  He has only been at the club a short time and will go for what is a very much tried and tested formation.  It may not be pretty but it should be enough to get things done. I´m going for a 0-2 win for West Ham because I hate going against us and always think we can get the win. Time to get behind the team and the manager as its only by sticking together we can get out of this mess and start climbing the table.