Man Utd vs West Ham | PL | 4.12.25 | Predictions and Match Thread

[stubbo-admin]

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Match Centre: 

Live data by Scoreaxis

 Odds: 
WHU: 6/1
Draw: 4/1
Man Utd: 4/9

 Pre-Match Press Conference: 
Official Site

 Match Preview: 
Analytics United

 Watch-along:
Hammers Chat

Streams:

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Well after the disappointment of the Liverpool surrender-fest, next up it's the challenge of Man Utd away.

Amorim seems to have found a way to get them winning points, but their old challenges prevail, with unadventurous wing backs, a pedesitrian and hti and miss central midfield, and no consistent chance-creation plan.

Nuno has a reasonable record against Man Utd (I think I read somewhere) and despite the Bookies having made them huge favourites for this, this feels more likely to yield points than Liverpool.  

For us, Paqueta is out. Summerville is out.  Rest of the squad is available.  Will Nuno give Luis G another go in the Sumemrville berth with Paqeta out and few attacking options available, or will he match up Man Utd with a back 3, and keep the improving Magassa in the side?  Can Wilson manage another game in such quick succession?

Predicted Line Up:

Areola

Wan Bissaka  Mavropanos   Todibo   Diouf

Magassa Potts

Bowen     Fernandes    Guilherme

Wilson

Subs: Hermansen, Kilman, Igor, KWP, Irving, Rodriguez, Soucek, Fullkrug, Earthy.

Predicted Scoreline:   I reckon we get something from this, although maybe a win proves beyond us?

1-1 (Bowen, Mbuemo).


COYI!

[Russ of the BML]

Agree with most of the comments. Not much more to add.

I would, however, like to say how pleased I am for Magassa. We got this kid who came from Monaco with a big reputation. For a young player, his stats were excellent in France. But he was a risk as Ligue 1 is a completely different place to play football than the PL. He got a bit of stick at first. But it really now looks like the gamble paid off and like Potts and Fernandes he has played himself into the first eleven. 

That midfield three is young and exciting. Could be good things to come. 

 

To add, ALL of those three (god forbid) if we had to sell them we'd make money or at least get our money back provided Sullivan doesn't do a Kudus and desperately whore them out to the first club who sniffs and loses his bottle and caves in. This is the other massive value of investing in young players rather than has beens or never were's in their late 20s. Hopefully this wakes Sullivan up to the ideas that everyone else figured out years ago. Hypothetically we could make good money on all three of them, maybe with the exception of Fernandes but even that should be a lesson about getting in on the ground floor rather than halfway up the rise. We could have had him for a quarter of the price 12 months earlier with better scouting and some faith put in it, rather than chucking money down the toilet buying shit like Kilman, Fullkrug, Rodriquez or JWP- and no offence to him, even spending relatively modest money on players who it should be clear just aren't going to cut it at the top level like Irving. 

Totally agree. But Sullivan has a history of bad spending and poor recruitment - Hence why we are in the mess we are in. God forbid Sullivan was ever to implement a 5 or even a 3 year plan - All he does is buy poor and then buy to get out the shit. 

I hope he has learnt. Will be interesting to see what happens in Jan. It beggars belief that I saying this AGAIN but a striker in Jan is now top priority. As others have said, defence and midfield look solid with good options. Up front we are threadbare. 

It looks like we have enough strength to put a run of results together and harvest enough points to keep us in touch. Then if we get someone who can score 8 - 12 goals in Jan it should be enough to stay up (I hope). 

[El Scorchio]

Why does this thread have a Man Utd icon attached to it? That's pathetic and a disgrace.

Same reason all the match threads have the opposition club crest on them, I should think.

[El Scorchio]

Agree with most of the comments. Not much more to add.

I would, however, like to say how pleased I am for Magassa. We got this kid who came from Monaco with a big reputation. For a young player, his stats were excellent in France. But he was a risk as Ligue 1 is a completely different place to play football than the PL. He got a bit of stick at first. But it really now looks like the gamble paid off and like Potts and Fernandes he has played himself into the first eleven. 

That midfield three is young and exciting. Could be good things to come. 

 

 

To add, ALL of those three (god forbid) if we had to sell them we'd make money or at least get our money back provided Sullivan doesn't do a Kudus and desperately whore them out to the first club who sniffs and loses his bottle and caves in. This is the other massive value of investing in young players rather than has beens or never were's in their late 20s. Hopefully this wakes Sullivan up to the ideas that everyone else figured out years ago. Hypothetically we could make good money on all three of them, maybe with the exception of Fernandes but even that should be a lesson about getting in on the ground floor rather than halfway up the rise. We could have had him for a quarter of the price 12 months earlier with better scouting and some faith put in it, rather than chucking money down the toilet buying shit like Kilman, Fullkrug, Rodriquez or JWP- and no offence to him, even spending relatively modest money on players who it should be clear just aren't going to cut it at the top level like Irving. 

[Come On You Irons]

Why does this thread have a Man Utd icon attached to it? That's pathetic and a disgrace.

[El Scorchio]

A point was not enough according to that chump on C & B

The same chump who thinks we are signing Neymar, what a fucking clown.

 

 

In the context of this game in isolation being away at Man U, he's wrong. It was a decent point (albeit 10 men Everton won there but it really seems what sort of day you catch Man U on as to what happens)

However, in the big picture he's right. With Leeds winning we really did need three points last night. After pulling ourselves up we are in a little bit of a precarious position now. There are only five of us fighting down at the bottom and we've lost points on two of them. I suspect Forest will pull away now their ship is steadied as there's just a lot more quality in their squad than us or Leeds, so we need to be right with Leeds. Picking up points is good but we might not be picking up enough points to overhaul other teams. They have Liverpool at home tomorrow, and frankly given them on a high and Liverpool still clearly a poor side, you wouldn't bet against them getting at least a point. If they and Forest both win and we don't beat Brighton, all of a sudden we are five and six points back from each of them and needing 2-3 wins just to get back into the mix, WITH everyone else dropping points at the same time. That's pretty grim. This is unfortunately a very competitive season with everyone taking points off each other but everyone winning their fair share, along with two of the promoted teams investing seriously and not being shit. Only 6 points from 15th to 5th but we are five points off that. Get amongst it and we will probably be OK but there aren't many really weak sides and we are not taking gettable points. The Bournemouth result looks bad now given their form.

January is massive for us. As I mentioned last night, Sullivan needs to change the habit of a lifetime and not fuck about or interfere with business. Get 3-4 players in immediately in those key positions, according to strictly what Nuno wants. No cheapo alternatives, haggling, lowballing or cutting corners. No compromising with 'one of his' for one of Nuno's. He needs to be 100% behind the manager and back him to the hilt, or we're down. Simple as.

[Eerie Decent]

west ham wins 2-0 , one goal each half  tech    xalaflix   body    illuminati   mrtutos    facebim 

 

I think your internet connection might be fucked..

[mariano]

west ham wins 2-0 , one goal each half  tech    xalaflix   body    illuminati   mrtutos    facebim 
 

[Russ of the BML]

Agree with most of the comments. Not much more to add.

I would, however, like to say how pleased I am for Magassa. We got this kid who came from Monaco with a big reputation. For a young player, his stats were excellent in France. But he was a risk as Ligue 1 is a completely different place to play football than the PL. He got a bit of stick at first. But it really now looks like the gamble paid off and like Potts and Fernandes he has played himself into the first eleven. 

That midfield three is young and exciting. Could be good things to come. 

[El Scorchio]

A good and deserved point in the end. Thought Man Utd were poor so would of been gutted to gift them 3 points. 

Thought AWB was outstanding, should of been sent for a early bath. But his defensive work was sublime and also did well going forward. Soucek in front of him would have been tough but he was superb. 

Magassa was also superb. Really enjoying his performances last few games. Glad he got his goal, has cemented himself into the side for me now. 

For me the midfield and defence look ok. Todibo has also had a massive glow up and our best defender right now.  Diouf has tailed off a bit, needs to be better defesively but on the whole our defence and midfield look good enough to win matches. Up top is where it is a shit show. In the final third we have a severe lack of quality. Wilson tries but is far too slow,  Bowen has been off form.  We desperately miss Summerville who provides a threat from the other side and helps stretch defences for us. A winger to compete or provide cover on the left is a big need for us in Jan. 

The only criticism of the manager for me is having 4 centre mids on the bench and not Ghuillurme and a striker.  Why do we need 4 centre mids? Rodriguez again on the bench why?  Same could be argued for Irving... 

 

 

You've sort of answered your own question about the bench. There's no-one else to put on there, really. You cannot just fill it with completely inexperienced youth players. We're so short at CB and up top that there's just no-one in those positions to place there. We are already playing a CM in the attack which tells you a lot. 

Allegedly Guilherme, Igor and Fullkrug were all omitted for a reason either performance or discipline wise. Nuno seems to have a little form for doing this to players. It has helped a few of them (Todibo for example) buck their ideas up. 

[twoleftfeet]

A point was not enough according to that chump on C & B

The same chump who thinks we are signing Neymar, what a fucking clown.

[Eerie Decent]

Just having a look at the goal again. Wilson was really smart. As soon as he saw the situation and the ball falling to Magassa he just got as far out of the way of where he thought he was going to put it to clear space and take himself out of contention for interfering with play. Good instinct.

So much of his work is top notch, so intelligent, just such a shame we've got him at the age he is now and his legs are not there to be a running threat. A top, top striker.

[Tomshardware]

Enjoyed the post match discussion with Keane and Bilic.   

[Mad Ferret]

Magassa was also superb. Really enjoying his performances last few games. Glad he got his goal, has cemented himself into the side for me now. 
 

You've changed your tune.

[Rossal]

A good and deserved point in the end. Thought Man Utd were poor so would of been gutted to gift them 3 points. 

Thought AWB was outstanding, should of been sent for a early bath. But his defensive work was sublime and also did well going forward. Soucek in front of him would have been tough but he was superb. 

Magassa was also superb. Really enjoying his performances last few games. Glad he got his goal, has cemented himself into the side for me now. 

For me the midfield and defence look ok. Todibo has also had a massive glow up and our best defender right now.  Diouf has tailed off a bit, needs to be better defesively but on the whole our defence and midfield look good enough to win matches. Up top is where it is a shit show. In the final third we have a severe lack of quality. Wilson tries but is far too slow,  Bowen has been off form.  We desperately miss Summerville who provides a threat from the other side and helps stretch defences for us. A winger to compete or provide cover on the left is a big need for us in Jan. 

The only criticism of the manager for me is having 4 centre mids on the bench and not Ghuillurme and a striker.  Why do we need 4 centre mids? Rodriguez again on the bench why?  Same could be argued for Irving... 

[El Scorchio]

Just having a look at the goal again. Wilson was really smart. As soon as he saw the situation and the ball falling to Magassa he just got as far out of the way of where he thought he was going to put it to clear space and take himself out of contention for interfering with play. Good instinct.

[Eerie Decent]

As well as he played, I really wish AWB showed that same spirit and fight in every game, not just away to the club that sold him. Also, he is as bad in the brainfarts department as Mavro, he should without doubt have been sent off for that fucking ridiculous challenge, given the circumstances it was so stupid, if he's off then we 100% lose the game, and albeit a lucky deflection, his positioning for their goal was horrendous, but that's standard with him.

The 2 centre halfs were excellent, Magassa the clear standout player, and I liked the floating position Bowen had, it allowed him to affect the game more, as he has been pretty poor in his natural position for a while now. Given the absolute dearth of options available to the manager, I thought it was a good call. Soucek being on the right is certainly not what you'd want ordinarily, but I kind of got it, given we play a lot of long balls, Bowen was trying to get in and around him when we launched it. Crude, but a plan at least.

It's not ideal, but it's where we're at due to the shocking state of the squad. The manager gets a pass from me for now, the positives from him is we are no longer the worst defensive team in Europe, corners against us are no longer like penalties, the players are clearly fighting for him, and he's not scared to get young players involved. Give him some weapons in January, most importantly at least 2 pacey forward players, and we've got a chance of staying up. The biggest problem we've got is the teams we're fighting with, Forest & Leeds, look good all of a sudden. Not confident at all, but we have a chance now.

[Mad Dog]

It would have been overturned so quickly by VAR as it was a clear as day dive. As I said earlier, this is where VAR should be instructing the ref to book players for diving/cheating. It wasn't a case of minimal contact, it was ZERO contact with daylight between the players. It's clear evidence and not even open to interpretation.

Absolutely spot on mate...cheating cսnt should have been booked..
It's the modern game unfortunately...and it's dogshit behaviour 

Whatever happened to yellow cards for blatant diving?
Refs appear to have given up on doing this.

You know fully well club badge needs to be taken into consideration 

[Sir Alf]

Sullivan quick to bin off Macaulay after paying a million for him to Chelsea but was he at least partly responsible for identifying Magassa, Diouf and Fernandes?  Steidten got Todibo and Kante in IIRC? Thats at least two to balance against the disaster that is Fullkrug. 

I suppose it just shows that getting recruitment right on every player is hard but Sullivan’s excuse for firing Macaulay and Steidten was that he could do a better job?  We have to hope Jorge Mendes gets us a few bargains in Jan

 

[zebthecat]

Never a pen but I was shocked Mbeuno didn't get it.

It would have been overturned so quickly by VAR as it was a clear as day dive. As I said earlier, this is where VAR should be instructing the ref to book players for diving/cheating. It wasn't a case of minimal contact, it was ZERO contact with daylight between the players. It's clear evidence and not even open to interpretation.

Absolutely spot on mate...cheating cսnt should have been booked..
It's the modern game unfortunately...and it's dogshit behaviour 

Whatever happened to yellow cards for blatant diving?
Refs appear to have given up on doing this.

[John Drake]

It was a much more encouraging performance all round. Can’t agree with Nuno that it was a similar level of commitment to the Liverpool game. It was several levels higher. Can they carry that forward to Sunday now? 

AWB had an incredible game. It would be nice if he could show the same “I want to show them what their missing” spirit in every game he plays. 

Still think we’re missing someone who can reliably carry the ball out of defence rather than giving away possession cheaply with hopeful long balls forward. It would relieve a lot of pressure.

When are they going to start penalising the blatant diving in the penalty area. Happened at least twice last night. 

[Tomshardware]

Never a pen but I was shocked Mbeuno didn't get it.

I thought the ref had a very good game, normally we wouldn't have got half the free kicks we did and AWB would have got a second yellow.   Ref used a bit of common sense.

[Mex Martillo]

I would like to see more of Bowen on the right. At a minimum I think we should be swapping him about and playing him close to 50% of the game on the right. I would also prefer to see him staying up front and team looking to pass into space for him to run onto.

I agree we are defending better, but we are way too much time defending. It has a feeling of inevitability that at some point we let a goal in while trying to survive so much attacking pressure.

I thought Wam-Bissaka was excellent. Some of his tackles in the box were world class.

[BoleynGone]

All Bowen's best attacks came from the right wing, Soucek seemed to play out there instead of central mid with Fernandes there mpre often.
 

[Monsieur merde de cheval]

Is Bowen really playing as a 10? (According to BBC’s formation)

I've verified that it's bollocks

[Monsieur merde de cheval]

Tony  O'Tool is on one ...happy days.