31/12/2009

Team against Arsenal

With all the injuries Prince H talked about in his last post and the fact that we'll have a hard time coping with any more you wonder what team we will field in the Arsenal games.
Upson will hardly be played as he is bankrolling the january recruits and is "worth more to us alive".
Behrami is on the comeback trail and either need a few games to get in shape or need to take it slowly - hard call.
Diamanti
is so precious to us at the moment that I'd rest him. The problem is to find any replacement old enough to drive a car. I would try Spector in defensive midfield and (in total disagreement with my last post) N'Gala in defence somewhere. Unfortunately I think Zola feels obliged to play Diamanti.
Sears is recalled from Palace where he failed to score in his 18 appearances for them. He'd be my choice ahead of Nouble against a weaker side where he could hope to play some balls he could use his pace on. On his + sides is also the fact that he has has been playing competitive football this season. But we'll need to have some kind of target player looking person up there to keep their back four from making base camp on our side so I'll go with Nouble.
Green is hardly enjoying his stay with us at the moment and I'm sure that he would jump at a chance to join a top 7 team. Maybe he should be rested to give him a chance to get his spirit back, but as Kurucz is out this won't happen.

So instead of Behrami, Gabbidon, Ilunga, Noble, Parker, Dyer, Hines, Cole and Franco (suspended) who would all "normally" be in line for a start, we could end up playing

......................... Green
Faubert - Da Costa -Tomkins - Spector
......................... Kovac
Collison - Jimenez - Diamanti -Stanislas
........................ Nouble/Sears

Our chance lies in..... let's not fool our selves, we don't have one.
(But then that's what I said before the Chelsea game as well).

9 comments:

englandsnumber6 said...

Have you been on the new year sauce already, this is nowhee near the team we will play. Arsenal loose players the the african cup so this is a time to be positive .

Anonymous said...

englandsnumber6 - Eboue has already left for the ACN but Song will still be available for this match

Anonymous said...

"looose".....brilliant

Prince H said...

Alex Dyers men all over. And I want to see Nouble to start!

Joppe - said...

Englandsnumber6: How can it be nowhere near the team we'll play? We don't have to many options do we? And I am nowhere near as positive as I hope that our Mr is (even though I doubt it) and the chance I was almost about to mention is that l'Arse will show up hoping it will be almost too easy. But then I realized that as soon as we score they will wake up and we don't have the best record of keeping a clean sheet have we?

englandsnumber6 said...

i just love how positive hammers fans are, thats if half the people on here actually go to any matches, by some of the comments i doubt it, so OK we will get beat by at least 4 goals against the gooners, then Wolves will beat us because they would have played their youth team in the FA cup and save themselves for us. Upson/Parker Noble Berahmi/Green and Cole will all be sold in Jan. No we will beat Arsenal, then Beat Wolves and not sell anyone,actually green can fuck off cos he is overated and is playing the worst i have ever seen him.

Joppe - said...

I confess to being a grump. 40 years of support takes a toll...

Unknown said...

Beat Wolves and we're all happy grumps included.

Not so long as you Joppe, only about 37 years !So I know we've been here before and I'll guess we will again - 'always hiding comes to mind'. Maybe thats what keeps us going - hope. Just wish we had a Bonzo in the team - still keep the faith.

A a good NEW Year to all the Hammers.

safhammer said...

Hey guys, it will be fine. West Ham flourish in these conditions. We shall come through. Dont know about the cup game, but league wise we are shaping up to be mid table. The fixtures coming up are that bad. The injuries will have healed, and we will be hoping for a European spot! I hope..! Have a great New Year to all!
Oh yes, Green's got to go. If there is still a decent price tag on him we should sell him. Reminds me of Mervyn Day at his worst.