West Ham vs Leicester City | 27.2.25 | League | Predictions & Match Thread

[stubbo-admin]

Match Centre:

Odds:
West Ham: 4/6
Draw: 16/5
Leicester City: 9/2


Pre-Match Press Conference:
Official Press Conference


Tactical Preview: 
Babbling Irons


Watch-along:
Hammers Chat


Streams:

SportHD 

(With all live streams be mindful they can carry viruses etc.  Don't click on any ads and use a VPN).
  

[RootsRadical]

Goal Soooocek

[ironsofcanada]

3-1 for me

[goose]

I’m going to wait at least 5min before slagging off the line up. I’m a firm believer in giving managers a chance.

[Andriy65]

Westham vs Palace live on here

https://betisports.com

[pdcwhu]

Thank fuck Tomas is back

[kylay]

Another reason for encouragement is we now have enough of a bench to change the game instead of throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. Once we have Summerville, Paqueta, and Fullkrug back, we might look a decent outfit.

[El Scorchio]

May well work cos Leicester are toilet 
but playing at home against a team in the relegation zone without a recognised striker by choice isn’t what I was expecting after getting rid of Moyes 

I do agree, but I guess let's wait to judge the performance. A lot of our issues are driven by our central midfield options, and until that's addressed, we have to compromise in other areas of the park to ensure we don't become totally open to being picked off.

Also with no Paqueta, we lack a playmaker of any sort (Soler hasn't shown himself to influence a game) so again, a midfield centre of the park issue.

Yup. There was a fair amount of cunting the team selection off on Saturday before kick off and… well. 

call it controversial but I don’t give a flying fuck who he picks in what position as long as we win and play some decent football. 

[stubbo-admin]

May well work cos Leicester are toilet 
but playing at home against a team in the relegation zone without a recognised striker by choice isn’t what I was expecting after getting rid of Moyes 

I do agree, but I guess let's wait to judge the performance. A lot of our issues are driven by our central midfield options, and until that's addressed, we have to compromise in other areas of the park to ensure we don't become totally open to being picked off.

Also with no Paqueta, we lack a playmaker of any sort (Soler hasn't shown himself to influence a game) so again, a midfield centre of the park issue.

[Maverick180180]

May well work cos Leicester are toilet 
but playing at home against a team in the relegation zone without a recognised striker by choice isn’t what I was expecting after getting rid of Moyes 

[El Scorchio]

I’m all right with that. Stick with a winning formula. I said earlier on I had a sneaking suspicion Soucek would start. 

[stubbo-admin]

Unchanged lineup

[Far Cough UKunt]

Ipswich, at least in terms of scoreline. Can't remember if we actually played as the scoreline suggests.

yeah forgot about that one 

Christ knows when the last time we won in the league by 4 or more though 

It feels like a loooooong fucking time! 

We smashed Derby 5-0 or something but not sure if that was in the league or a cup match?

[El Scorchio]

Ipswich, at least in terms of scoreline. Can't remember if we actually played as the scoreline suggests.

yeah forgot about that one 

Christ knows when the last time we won in the league by 4 or more though 

It feels like a loooooong fucking time! 

[Tomsdad]

Let's hope Arsenal wasn't a one off. 

2-0 win
 

[Gary Strodders shank]

Looking forward to this one now 

3.2 .
Soucek 
Bowen 
JWP 

[RootsRadical]

..... added to that 33pts will probably guarantee survival this season.

[RootsRadical]

We've not had back to back wins all season so got confidence and progress sake we really could do with a win tonight.
Anything other than a win will sour the Arsenal win imho.
Plus we owe these cunts a good pasting.

3-1

​​​​IRONS

[violator]

Hopefully Todibo is fit, cos an ageing Steptoe Vardy will still skin the fuck out of the Greek
2-0 to the Hammers

[Maverick180180]

Ipswich, at least in terms of scoreline. Can't remember if we actually played as the scoreline suggests.

yeah forgot about that one 

Christ knows when the last time we won in the league by 4 or more though 

[kylay]

We’ve been so poor at home that I’m not confident.

Very much agree and we're still a work in progress. A defeat at home to this lot won't do much for morale. Ideally, I'd like to see Ferguson get 60 minutes, but won't be cunting off Potter if he takes a more conservative approach. As many have said, we play well on the counter when teams attack but struggle to break down teams that don't. Given our lack of pace, that's going to require discipline and execution.

[El Scorchio]

Ipswich, at least in terms of scoreline. Can't remember if we actually played as the scoreline suggests.

[Maverick180180]

Although more than anything I’d rather Soucek gets dropped and we bring in Ferguson 
I think if we go with the same team as against Arsenal it could go either way
this is without doubt the sort of game we’ve got to have a proper go at, we haven’t given anyone a hiding since I can’t even remember 

[El Scorchio]

That's it- with the flexibility to switch. Presumably that's why when there's been a space to fill at the third CB spot he's largely chosen a full back (Cresswell) in order to get some of that flexibility

[Maverick180180]

Personally I don't want to see a Back 4.  Potter has always (pretty much) favoured a back 3 with aggressive wing backs, and no reason that shouldn't continue.

We look more secure with a Back 3 and have the personel to make it work...and in reality, the 'In Posession' shape in a back 3 is no different to a back 4....3-2-2-3.  The debate is whether your wing backs in a Back 3 are able to offer suitable attacking contribution to not just be seen as 'defenders getting forwards'. 

The debate for me is more about midfield composition...as one of the nerds channels was saying....we lack an effective two-man pivot, as no combination of two really gives us a complete unit (in the way that Alvarez + JWP + Soucek does). 

To play Ferguson, either one of them has to drop, or you have to ask Scarles and AWB to drop in as a centre back to get the 3-2-2-3 shape in posession when the other side is pushing forwards.

I'd have a go without Soucek, but I can see the argument for keeping things the same.




 

 

fair point you make 

but I do feel that every time we’ve played with 4 at the back this season, the problem hasn’t been the formation but rather the players selected to do it 
I think the Villa cup game is an example of us playing with 4 at the back with the strongest line up available and was working really well until the injuries kicked in, in that game 
but we haven’t tried that since 
instead it’s only been tried with players playing out of position or dross like Rodriguez brought back into the side

We played three at the back in that cup game with Scarles and Sullerville as the wing backs with Kilman Mav and AWB as the three, unless I’m mistaken

depends how you wanna look at it 
Bowen does his fair share of defensive work but doesn’t mean he’s playing as a wing back 
the point being against Villa we didn’t have 5 actual defenders on the pitch 
I think playing 3 centre backs and having 2 full backs acting as wing backs at home against a team that’s gonna sit back against you is a waste of a player 
playing with a back four doesn’t mean the full backs can’t get forward 
Coufal used to do it all the time when he had the legs
I just think it’s been used with incorrect players all season long in the league 

[stubbo]

Personally I don't want to see a Back 4.  Potter has always (pretty much) favoured a back 3 with aggressive wing backs, and no reason that shouldn't continue.

We look more secure with a Back 3 and have the personel to make it work...and in reality, the 'In Posession' shape in a back 3 is no different to a back 4....3-2-2-3.  The debate is whether your wing backs in a Back 3 are able to offer suitable attacking contribution to not just be seen as 'defenders getting forwards'. 

The debate for me is more about midfield composition...as one of the nerds channels was saying....we lack an effective two-man pivot, as no combination of two really gives us a complete unit (in the way that Alvarez + JWP + Soucek does). 

To play Ferguson, either one of them has to drop, or you have to ask Scarles and AWB to drop in as a centre back to get the 3-2-2-3 shape in posession when the other side is pushing forwards.

I'd have a go without Soucek, but I can see the argument for keeping things the same.



 

 

fair point you make 

but I do feel that every time we’ve played with 4 at the back this season, the problem hasn’t been the formation but rather the players selected to do it 
I think the Villa cup game is an example of us playing with 4 at the back with the strongest line up available and was working really well until the injuries kicked in, in that game 
but we haven’t tried that since 
instead it’s only been tried with players playing out of position or dross like Rodriguez brought back into the side

Just an opinion of course, but I'd say that game was a really good example of how Potter likes to play 3 at the back (and that it was 3 at the back).

Summerville basically operated as wing back, AWB as Right centre back, Scarles as Left wing back.  Out of possession you could see AWB tucked in as a third centre back with Summerville tasked with covering the flank.

In posession, Summerville was high, and AWB had licence to push wide and support high (as Todibo did at the weekend too).

That's pretty much how it went at Brighton too, with a traditional winger (Solly March) playing as wing back.