Under The Hammers

Matchday: West Ham host Burnley

With Dimitri Payet having spent the week on the massage table are we due a happy ending tonight?

West Ham Burnley Although Burnley have been only occasional visitors to the Premier League their years spent in the top division of English football (they were a founder member of the Football League in 1888) is roughly similar to our own. In the days of the leveller playing field they actually managed to win the First Division title on two occasions; initially in 1921 and then again, under manager Harry Potts, when they become the first of 8 different sides to be crowned champions during the 1960’s. The interesting feature of that campaign was that all other games had already been completed while Burnley had an outstanding fixture at Manchester City to fulfil. The Clarets needed to win to become champions which they duly did to step into top spot for the first time that season. As an aside only 9 of the 22 teams that competed in that 1959/60 season are in the Premier League today.

Current manager Sean Dyche is adhering to the more parochial standards of bygone days by employing a largely British and Irish group of players in his squad. Of the starting XI in their match against Bournemouth at the weekend only Steven Defour was born overseas – although Ashley Barnes and Scott Arfield have played their international football for Austria and Canada respectively. No disruption by the African Cup of Nations for them.

We need to beat Burnley and we need the points. It has been a difficult schedule and we have been waiting for these home games.

– Slaven Bilic

Dyche’s well organised side have made a respectable start to the season based on impressive home form. On their travels they have taken just a single point from 6 games and scored just the one goal.

Having negotiated the run of ‘difficult’ games West Ham now embark on a series of supposed ‘winnable’ fixtures between now and the New Year. A hard earned point at Liverpool will hopefully provide the impetus to collect several more over the next two weeks.

Head to Head

A generally even head to head record where history has favoured the home team but can that run be extended to the new home venue? Of the last 12 encounters, West Ham have won 7 times with 2 defeats and 3 draws.

	P	W	D	L	F	A
Home	39	23	8	8	76	49	WLWWWD
Away	39	6	10	23	55	88	WWDLWD
	78	29	18	31	131	137

Team News

Cheikhou Kouyate may return for the Hammers and if this is the case I expect Bilic will, despite everything, retain the 3 at the back formation with Kouyate teaming up with Reid and Ogbonna. The remainder of the lineup will then depend on who starts as lone striker. After two appearances off the bench it may well be time to start with Andy Carroll. Failing that it is likely to be Michail Antonio which would be preferable to playing your leading scorer at right back.

We know we have to go down there and give an even better performance because we haven’t got a win away from home yet. We know we’ve got to correct it.

– Sean Dyche

I would much prefer a back four even if we have no proper right back solution. I don’t know what happened to Arbeloa at the weekend (he is not shown as injured) but I would plump for Fernandes at right back who looks much more of a footballer than hapless Havard does – I wonder what Adrian is like at right back! All a little academic a I believe Slav is smitten with his Back 3 plus two wing backs tactic.

The remainder of the midfield will likely be Obiang, Payet, Noble and one of Lanzini/ Ayew. I have read that Dimi has been having special personal service treatment on the massage table this week and so if all goes well we can expect for a happy ending to the evening.

Slav’s Team

My Team

Randolph

Kouyate Reid Ogbonna

Antonio Obiang Noble Creswell

Ayew Payet

Carroll

Randolph

Fernandes Reid Ogbonna Cresswell

Antonio Kouyate Obiang Payet

Lanzini

Carroll

Man in the Middle

The whistle blower tonight is Robert “Bobby” Madely from West Yorkshire. This is his second visit to the London Stadium this season having previously officiated in the win against Sunderland. We have yet to lose in a game where Madely has been the ref including a Capital One cup win at Burnley in 2013. In Madely’s 13 games this season he has brandished 64 Yellow and 2 Red cards.

I Wouldn’t Bet On It 21

Success at the weekend urges a little caution for the midweek flutter.

Fancy A Bet

Success at the weekend with the following bets:

10 points on West Ham to win or draw the game @5/2 (35).
1 point on a 2-2 draw @16/1 (17)

Our balance was down to 80 points after placing the bets, but our winnings of 52 points increase our total to 132, making us 32 points up for the season. In my case at £1 per point I am £32 up.

The temptation is to stake big following a good win, but that is an easy trap to fall into. I will resist going too mad, so just a simple bet on the Burnley game. Potential return if correct in brackets.

12 points on West Ham to win at 4/6 (20).

For the first time in a while I am not placing a bet on Pedro Obiang to score, so perhaps he will?

What are the chances?

West Ham v Burnley preview

‘Twas The Night Before Burnley!

51tht5c1y0l

Once again I will return to my rhyming theme as it has generally brought us a good result or a fine performance. I have written a number of poems based on the famous ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. I included similar poems in my book, Goodbye Upton Park, Hello Stratford, which is available in paperback or Kindle on Amazon. So if you are looking for a last minute Christmas present for a West Ham fan, then look no further. I have been a regular at Upton Park for almost sixty years, and the book chronicles the last famous season there.

‘Twas the night before Burnley, you couldn’t hear a sound
Just wait till tomorrow, for the noise in the ground;

Three tough league away games plus one in the cup;
A home game v Arsenal, and they’re on the up;
Performances were mixed, for a short time we fell
Into the bottom three, cos we weren’t doing well;

At Tottenham we led with minutes to go,
But two very late goals dealt us a blow;

The Old Trafford league game, we started full throttle;
And Jose was sent off for kicking a bottle.
Sakho was back in the lone striker role;
With two minutes gone, he headed a goal;
Zlatan equalised, I thought we were gone;
But 1-1 was OK, we were able to hold on.

A few days later, they opened the scoring,
In the EFL cup it was getting quite boring;
But then at his old ground up popped Ashley Fletcher;
But the second half was awful, the less said the better;

Arsenal at home, it wasn’t much fun;
Sanchez was brilliant, they beat us five-one.

At Anfield one down, looked like we were done,
But a Payet free kick and the score was one-one.
Antonio pounced to give us the lead;
Nordtveit was given a rollicking by Reid;
Then a simple mistake, we’ve made a quite a few;
A Randolph disaster, Origi, two-two.
Many years at Anfield, t’was always the same;
But in the last couple we’ve given them a game.

So now we face Burnley, then Hull City too;
Six points for the taking? I hope it comes true;
However we play, I’ll take two wins gladly,
It won’t be that easy they haven’t played badly;

At Turf Moor they’re good, five wins to their name;
But out on the road, it’s not been the same;
Just one point away, they’ve found it quite hell;
On other teams grounds, they’ve not played that well;

They’re keeper’s a good’un, he’s known as Tom Heaton,
But six away games, and five games been beaten;
Fifteen conceded, and only scored one;
And that was a pen, they’ve not had much fun;

I do like their colours, I’ll give them their due;
For this game they’ll change out of claret and blue;
Today I’m convinced we’ll go for the kill;
We’ll be at our best and beat them four-nil.

Counting Sheep – 12 – The Letters (V,W, X, Y, Z)

Finishing off the last of the series of alphabetically themed West Ham teams.

It had been a really good summer this year with hot days and warm nights. I began this series of articles by describing how, whenever I have trouble going off to sleep when the night temperatures are high, I think of teams of West Ham players. So I forget the idea of counting sheep and try to select a West Ham team that I have seen whose surnames all start with the same letter. It was harder, in fact impossible, for me to select players beginning with a single letter in many cases, so I’ve combined the letters in some cases to form a single team.

For the final article in my feature I now move on to the very end of the alphabet and have chosen a team whose surnames begin with V, W, X, Y or Z. Not surprisingly I couldn’t come up with any players beginning with X. But less surprisingly no Ys either! Can somebody help me out here? I honestly cannot remember ever seeing a West Ham player whose surname begins with Y.

So far I’ve picked eleven teams, “B”, “C”, “D”, “F”, “S”, a combined “G” and “H”, a combined “J”, “K” and “L”, a combined “M” and “N”, a combined “P” and “Q”, a combined “R” and “T”, and “Vowels”. So here is my V/W/X/Y/Z team (with no X or Y!) in a 3-3-4 attacking formation:

Walker
Walford,
Ward (E)
Winterburn
Woosnam
Ward (M)
Van der Elst
Wright (I)
Zamora
Zaza
Vaz Te

Players left out include Richard Wright, Williamson, Whitton, Whitbread, Valencia and Zarate

I’ve probably missed someone who I should have remembered. Would you have selected any of the players that I left out of my final XI?

And who would manage the V/W/X/Y/X team? It has to be Zola.

So I started at the beginning of the alphabet and worked my way through selecting twelve teams to help me drop off to sleep. I was disappointed to only manage five teams with single letters, but it was a fruitful exercise, albeit much harder than I thought it would be when I began. It helped me drop off to sleep, worked my brain, and brought back memories of the best players I’ve seen playing for West Ham. The summer is now behind us so going off to sleep is not a problem. But if I can’t drop off I can always revert to counting sheep.

The Lawro Challenge – Week 16

Midweek madness takes hold as we continue to battle Lawro for the prediction crown.

Lawro Crystal Ball Fifteen rounds of games in the Premier League have now been completed. That means we have now predicted the results of 150 matches. In Week 15, Rich again came out on top scoring 8 points while Geoff and Lawro could only scrape together 4 points each. In this challenge we award one point for a correct result, and a further two points (making three in total) if the score prediction is spot on.

The predictions for the pre-Christmas midweek games are below anticipating a continuation of the recent Premier League goal-rush. Even the ultra cautious Lawro, who rarely expects any team to score more than two, has pushed the boat out in the spirit of seasonal exuberance. Whether his new found daring can make any inroads on Rich’s lead in the predictions table remains to be seen.


	Rich	Geoff	Lawro
Total after 14 weeks	122	77	110
Score in week 15	8	4	4
Total after 15 weeks	130	81	114

Predictions – Week 16
	Rich	Geoff	Lawro
TUESDAY
Bournemouth v Leicester	2-1	1-2	0-2
Everton v Arsenal	1-1	1-3	1-1
WEDNESDAY
Middlesbrough v Liverpool	1-2	0-2	0-2
Sunderland v Chelsea	0-2	0-1	0-2
West Ham v Burnley	4-0	2-1	2-0
Palace v Man Utd	1-1	1-2	1-2
Man City v Watford	4-0	4-1	3-1
Stoke v Southampton	1-1	1-0	2-1
Tottenham v Hull	4-0	3-0	3-0
WBA v Swansea	2-1	2-0	1-1

This Week in Hammer’s History

A thrilling drawn London derby and League Cup incident in the week 12 – 18 December in Hammer’s History.

This Week Hammers History It was sad to read yesterday of the death of Peter Brabrook who featured as a flying winger for the Hammers between October 1962 and January 1968. Peter made 215 appearances for West Ham scoring 43 times and was part of the victorious 1964 FA Cup winning side.

On 17 December 1966 Brabrook was in the West Ham side that visited Stamford Bridge to play his old team, Chelsea in a First Division fixture. The Hammers made an uncharacteristic strong start to the game and were 2-0 to the good after 30 minutes with Brabrook himself scoring the first and Martin Peters the second. Tommy Baldwin pulled one back for Chelsea just before the break prompting a change in the direction of the match and ten minutes into the second half the hosts were leading 3-2 (Tony Hately, Charlie Cooke). Undeterred, West Ham regrouped to score 3 goals in an 8 minute spell (John Sissons (2) and a Johnny Byrne penalty) and with 10 minutes to go continued to hold a 5-3 advantage. Bobby Tambling then scored from the penalty spot and then completed the scoring in the dying minutes with one that came off his shin to make the final score 5-5. These goals elevated Tambling to Chelsea’s all-time record goal-scorer; a position that he held until overtaken in by Lampard Junior in 2013.

Standen, Bovington, Charles J (Burnett), Peters, Brown, Moore, Brabrook, Boyce, Byrne, Hurst, Sissons

On the 15 December 1971 it was the second leg of the Football League Cup semi-final against Stoke City. Confidence was high with West Ham having won the first leg in the previous week by 2 goals to 1. This was a full-bloodied affair under the Upton Park floodlights but with Stoke the better side on the night it remained goalless until the 73^rd minute when a mix-up in the West Ham defence between Tommy Taylor and John McDowell allowed John Ritchie to convert a hopeful cross. No away goals rule in this competition at the time and the game went into 30 minutes of extra time. With the clock slowly ticking away Harry Redknapp was put through on goal only to be hauled down by a flying Gordon Bank’s rugby tackle. Not considered a sending off offence at the time it was then Banks against Geoff Hurst for the resulting penalty. Hurst had scored from the spot in the first leg and had a tremendous penalty record and so most in the 38,000 crowd considered it a formality and were already making plans for their trip back to Wembley. Hurst adopted his usual pile-driver approach to penalty kicks but somehow Banks managed to deflect the thundering shot over the bar. There was just enough time to take the resulting corner before the final whistle signaled that a replay was going to be required.

Ferguson, McDowell, Lampard, Bonds, Taylor, Moore, Redknapp, Best, Hurst, Brooking, Robson

More League Cup action (then known as the Worthington Cup) exactly 28 years later with a 5^th round home tie against Aston Villa. Ian Taylor put Villa ahead in the first half only for Lampard Junior to steer home a pass from Paolo Di Canio for a second half equaliser. Dion Dublin appeared to win the game for the visitors with an added time volley but there was still time for Paul Kitson to win a penalty which then Di Canio then converted. Extra time was goalless and so the game went to penalties which ended in West Ham’s favour when Gareth Southgate missed his sudden death kick. Of course the game is best remembered for the Mannygate affair where West Ham fielded an ineligible player when Emmanuel Omoyinmi came on as an extra time substitute for Paulo Wanchope. Omoyinmi had previously played both legs in an earlier round of the competition while on loan at Gillingham and was thus ineligible. The match against Villa was replayed which the Hammers eventually lost 1-3.

Hislop, R Ferdinand, Margas, Lomas, Ruddock, Cole (Kitson), Sinclair, Wanchope (Omoyinmi), Di Canio, Lampard, Keller

Notable Birthdays

12 December     Nobby Solano                    42
15 December     Aaron Cresswell 27
16 December     Reece Oxford                    18
17 December     Andre Ayew                       27
17 December     John Bond                           d. 2012
17 December     Joe Kirkup                           77

5 Observations from West Ham @ Liverpool

Happy with the point but are West Ham in good shape for the winnable games?

The Fixture List of Death

The point at Anfield was an unexpected, welcome and hard earned one that brought with it some relief. If the match commentator was correct West Ham are one of only two teams to avoid defeat at Liverpool so far this season. The run of games of death is now behind us and a two point return is maybe more than many expected; but for the last few minutes at White Hart Lane it could have been even healthier. With the exception of last weekend’s rout by Arsenal the performances against Tottenham, Manchester United and Liverpool have been generally acceptable and, in many ways, were similar (but with less successful outcomes) to games against the ‘top’ sides last year. At Anfield the team worked hard, provided some degree of collective organisation, and were able to frustrate Liverpool and limit the number of clear cut goal-scoring opportunities. The Achilles heel last term, however, was not winning the ‘winnable’ games and so the next three matches are going to be a serious test of that characteristic and will go a very long way in defining the remainder of the season.

Fitness, Passing and Movement

Although very happy with the point there are some common basic shortcomings with our play and it was highlighted in the differences between the two teams yesterday. A number of our players do not look to be at acceptable fitness levels and some visually look to be carrying too much weight (notably Ayew and Payet). Liverpool played most of the game on their toes, were constantly on the move and there were always several passing options available to the man on the ball. Passing was quick and slick and it was fortunate for West Ham that, on the day, the leagues freest scoring side lacked a cutting edge in front of goal. In contrast we are routinely flat footed with players waiting for the ball to arrive before deciding the next move; there are often few passing options available through lack of movement which, in my view, is more of an issue for conceding possession than poor pass execution itself. Exceptions yesterday (and for the majority of the season) were Obiang, Reid and Antonio who all had excellent games.

Changing Formations

Once again West Ham have been front runners in the injury table at The Physio Room. Whether this is simply bad luck or a consequence of deeper seated problems is a mystery. The situation is not helped by a lopsided squad which resulted in a recall for Havard Nordtveit to defensive duties on Sunday. I was surprised that he was at right back as, when I saw the team sheet, I expected he was going to be part of the dreaded back three formation that does not suit our players and leaves us wide open down the flanks. The other surprise was that Antonio was the main striker but once he had demonstrated that he is one player who knows where the goal is he was quickly switched around; first to right wing back (when Carroll replaced Ayew and Nordtveit did become one of three centre backs) and then subsequently to a more advanced right midfield position (when Fernandes replaced Lanzini). Possibly Slaven Bilic has a yearning for a retro 1970’s totaalvoetbal style of play but it just seems to confuse the hell out of our tactically limited players.

Dead Wood United

Over the years the West Ham squad has been littered with its fair share of dead wood. With the departure of Fat Sam much of what was left over from the sojourn in the Championship was steadily cleared away leaving ample room to assemble a new pile. Fortunately we have only borrowed some of this excess baggage and hopefully they will be on their way back to their parent clubs straight after the Xmas party. Unfortunately the club are stuck paying the wages of Havard Nordtveit and Sofiane Feghouli for the time being though. Feghouli was nowhere near the squad this week but Nordtveit made his 7^th Premier League appearance. Accepting that he has been played in a few different positions it is still difficult to put your finger on exactly what his qualities are that allowed him to establish a career in the Bundesliga and at international level. He may not be a right back but you would think he’d understand what one is supposed to do. Is it naive to assume that he would have prepared for it most of the week; but that didn’t stop his going walkabout and he fully deserved his rollicking by Reid? Another player I have become disillusioned with is Angelo Ogbonna. A steady defender at times but tends to switch off too often and appears to shirk the most basic defensive responsibilities. Once again slack play by Ogbonna was the precursor to the first Liverpool goal which could so easily have scuppered the whole game plan. It make me nostalgic for the Reid – Tomkins partnership.

Where Have All The Young-stars Gone?

In the build up to the game I read some interesting comments by Jurgen Klopp to the effect that he prefers to keep promising young players at the club rather than sending them out on loan. This enables them to train with the first team squad and assimilate better into the team’s style of play. West Ham have half a dozen or so youngsters out on loan, the majority of whom rarely get game time. The exception is Reece Burke who, injuries apart, has been a regular starter at both centre back and emergency full-back at struggling Wigan. Given our own travails at right back why is he not back with the squad and plugging that gap. Come to that, although he is injured now, why have we not seen anything of Reece Oxford this season despite the defensive frailties experienced? It was good to see a few youngsters on the bench at Anfield but I am concerned about how reluctant Bilic has become to blood youngsters. The Academy of Football is currently far behind the likes of Liverpool, Southampton and Tottenham in giving young talent an opportunity.

Liverpool 2 v 2 West Ham – Blowing my own trumpet!

Taking the positives from a hard earned point against Liverpool at Anfield.

Embed from Getty Images

Sometimes in life you have to blow your own trumpet. Well I haven’t actually got a trumpet but you know what I mean. Since the beginning of this season Geoff and I have been writing this weblog and haven’t pulled any punches when writing about our beloved West Ham. But despite our less than convincing start to the season, I have remained optimistic throughout and my optimism was fully justified after our draw at Anfield.

Anybody who has followed our blog will know that there are certain features that are constant. Firstly, we are involved in a prediction competition with Lawro. Secondly, I write a betting column each week. And thirdly, we write a preview of each game that West Ham play.

First things first. If you have read our prediction competition involving Lawro you will know that I am comfortably ahead in our forecasts for the season to date. This, despite the fact that Lawro is actually paid by the BBC to predict the Premier league results each week, probably because they believe he is a so-called expert. If you have followed his predictions you will know that sometimes he has been beaten by celebrities, some of whom confess they know little about the game. Amongst my predictions this week you will also note that I forecast a 2-2 draw at Anfield.

If you follow my betting column you will know that, after this week, I am comfortably in profit for the season to date, even despite some outrageous fun bets. If it hadn’t been for the last two minutes against Tottenham, which I didn’t foresee, then our season profit would have been huge. Nevertheless I was consistent, and believed that we would get at least a draw from our game at Anfield, and a 2-2 scoreline was a good result for the column.

Finally, if you read my preview for this week’s game you will note that I made comments like “What is there to worry about? We faced Liverpool four times last season. We won both league games, drew 0-0 there in the fourth round of the FA Cup, and beat them after extra time in the replay at Upton Park. That is 390 minutes of football, plus injury time, and we scored seven goals to their one. And we finished above them in the league. So why do the bookies make them 3/10 favourites, and offer odds of 9/1 on us winning the game?” I finished by saying “I’ll put my optimistic hat on and say we’ll get a 2-2 draw on Sunday.”

Now forecasting the results of football matches is a bit of a minefield. It’s even harder to predict what West Ham are going to do. You win some and you lose some. Sometimes you win, hence the reason for blowing my own trumpet after this game.

As far as the game goes, then I was extremely disappointed that we conceded a goal in the first five minutes once again. Anybody who read my book, Goodbye Upton Park, Hello Stratford, which is available in paperback or Kindle on Amazon, will note that constantly throughout that last famous season at Upton Park, I wrote about our inability to start a game, or indeed to start a second half of a game, on the front foot. And so it proved again, when we even exceeded our first half lapse at the beginning of the second half, by conceding a goal in just two minutes.

Randolph’s lapse was unfortunate and led to calls on social media for Adrian to return to our goal. It is not a belief I share, and I was pleased he had the opportunity for some redemption with a world class save to deny Henderson later in the game.

I note that I also wrote in the preview of this game that “Bournemouth showed us last Sunday that the Liverpool defence can be got at, and their keeper looked very vulnerable.” Payet once again showed his class by scoring from yet another free kick, although I reckon the Liverpool keeper would have been disappointed that his right arm wasn’t stronger, as he should perhaps have kept it out. And Antonio took his goal well, pouncing on a Liverpool defensive lapse, and just for once scoring with his feet and not his head. I liked his post-match interview where he jokingly said that he considered getting down to nod the ball into the goal.

I also noted that the statisticians came up with a new one that I hadn’t seen before “touches in the opposition penalty area”. It showed that Liverpool won this contest 53-5. But whilst it may be an interesting feature for some, the game proved that it really is a meaningless statistic unless you turn those touches into goals.

I’m sure that Mr. Nordveidt, like Messrs. Zaza and Tore amongst others, must have shown some footballing qualities that made us want to buy them in the first place, but to date I haven’t yet seen what they are. I reckon that, despite Mr. Bilic’s admirable qualities as a football manager, which undoubtedly far exceed my own judgement of footballers, I have a better idea as to what makes a decent right back. He persisted with Antonio in this position for far longer than I believe he should have, and his selection of Nordveidt in the full back role leaves me totally bewildered. His positioning is so far out, and Liverpool spotted this in their pre-match planning. It was no surprise to me that their two goals came from attacks down their left flank.

It was good to hear the West Ham away support throughout the game, and in particular their support for the manager, when he has come under so much pressure. Despite his inability to know a right back when he sees one, I hope that he continues to get the support to get us out of the trouble that we are undoubtedly still in. We have just pulled out of the bottom three, and I hope that it is the last time I see a league table this season where we are in it.

When all is considered it was a point well earned, and the players showed a lot of spirit to earn the draw. Let us hope that we now build on that in the relative easier (on paper) four games to come. I’ll keep my optimistic hat on and hope that I get more opportunities to blow my own trumpet in the weeks to come!

I Wouldn’t Bet On It 20

The odds of being struck by lightning twice in your lifetime are 1 in 9 million. It’s still worth a try…….

Fancy A Bet Last week we lost six points in the forlorn hope that we would get at least a draw against Arsenal. We now have 95 points. Despite Liverpool’s second half capitulation at Bournemouth last Sunday, they are still massively odds-on to beat an out of form, and lacking in confidence West Ham team. But then again, they were big odds-on favourites to beat us when we went to Anfield at the end of August 2015.

You will recall what happened then. In the two previous weeks we had lost at home to Leicester and Bournemouth, and prior to the game we hadn’t won at Anfield since September 1963. Gerry and the Pacemakers hadn’t even released You’ll Never Walk Alone when we won that 1963 game 2-1.

But last season, against the odds, we won 3-0 there, and then we beat them 2-0 at Upton Park in the first game of 2016. If I recall correctly they were the only team that we took six points off. We also knocked them out of the FA Cup after a replay. So you would think that we wouldn’t be such enormous underdogs in this Sunday’s game. But of course, anyone who has seen us this season will know why.

However, in a continuation of previous week’s optimism, my main bet this week will be to stake 10 points on West Ham to win or draw the game @5/2 (35). Then a small outlay on the following fun bets:

1 point on West Ham to repeat last season’s 3-0 win @250-1 (251)
1 point on a 2-2 draw @16/1 (17)
1 point on a West Ham win with Lanzini to score anytime @30/1 (31)
1 point on a West Ham win with Obiang to score anytime @90/1 (91)
1 point on West Ham to win the game @9/1 (10)

Our balance is now down to 80 points following this 15 point outlay.

If we win or draw the game we are in profit. In the extremely unlikely event of us winning the game 3-0, including goals from both Lanzini and Obiang, then our return would be 418 points!

What are the chances?

Matchday: Hammers @ Anfield

Try as I might I can only see an oncoming train wreck emerging from the Anfield tunnel.

Liverpool West Ham I am of the firm opinion that if Slaven Bilic cannot secure at least 8 points from the next 5 games he should start to pack his bags since sticking with him would represent a massive gamble. After yesterday’s results West Ham have slipped back into the bottom 3 and a heavy defeat today could see the situation deteriorate further. Of the next 5 games today’s fixture is undoubtedly the toughest on paper with a point likely to be the optimistic target. Unfortunately Liverpool’s weakness at the defensive end of the pitch is not something we are equipped to exploit with the firepower available. Are we able to score as many as we concede as I see little prospect of keeping a clean sheet today.

“I feel the support and have said that so many times and I felt that support in our conversation this week. I believe in myself and my staff and look at what we achieved last year and I believe there is time to turn it around.”

– Slaven Bilic

It is standard practice for many West Ham fans to despise anything Scouse related and certainly the media love-in with Liverpool, despite their having won the last of their league titles some 26 seasons ago, can be immensely irritating. However, I do believe that Jurgen Klopp, for all his idiosyncrasies, has done an impressive job since arriving at Anfield in October last year. He looks to be on the way to the holy grail of football management of getting a team to perform in a manner that is greater than the sum of its parts. His side is a team largely devoid of individual stars that plays to a well-defined system that is both effective and allows them to compensate for absent players much easier. It is an interesting contrast to our own disjointed and disorganised efforts so far this season.

Head to Head

West Ham’s abysmal record at Anfield is there for all to see. Last season’s first win in 50 odd years brought the total of away victories to an unimpressive 3 in a series where we have only scored 36 goals in 60 matches. In a historic sense we will over achieve if we manage to score today.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Sequence
Home	60	22	17	21	83	83	WWWLLW
Away	60	3	19	38	36	113	DWLLDL
	120	25	36	59	119	196

Team News

It appears that both Antonio and Cresswell have recovered from the injuries incurred in the EFL Cup game at Old Trafford and are available to start. As far as I know Kouyate remains injured and Collins is also out. I am hoping this means an enforced change to the 3 at the back experiment. It must be a toss-up who plays in goal (Adrian or Randolph) and who will be the main striker (Carroll or Fletcher). There must be a tendency to take a risk averse, danger limitation approach (at least as far as player fitness is concerned) to this match with home games coming up against Burnley and Hull in the next week. It will be nice if the players have re-discovered that intensity that they lost in training and can at least put in a shift this week.

“If there’s any reaction from the team, I don’t know, maybe we will be angry against West Ham.”

– Jurgen Klopp

My anticipated line-up for a side that will be primarily concerned with protecting the point is:

Randolph
Arbeloa Reid Ogbonna Cresswell
Noble Obiang
Antonio Lanzini Payet
Carroll

Liverpool are without Coutinho and Sturridge but unfortunately Mane is fit enough to return to the side that will be smarting from defeat at Bournemouth last week. If I felt optimistic I might think that throwing away a two goal lead last week could have dented their confidence but the greater likelihood is that they will be raring to put it all behind them.

Man in The Middle

It is self-important celebrity referee Mark Clattenburg of County Durham in the middle today. Clattenburg’s only West Ham fixture so far this season was the away defeat at West Bromwich. He has taken charge of 15 games in all competitions this season totaling 59 Yellow and 2 Red cards.