Amid all the fuss over elbowgate it's been almost forgotten just what an attacking side Slaven Bilic fielded at Burnley. Slaven had just Kouyate as a holding midfielder, alongside the very attack-minded Manuel Lanzini and two wingers in Antonio and Arnautovic, plus two strikers in Carroll and Hernandez. As my pal Matt tweeted, could this be West Ham's best side?
Slaven made some big decisions, such as dropping Mark Noble to the bench. Nobes is a big presence at the club. Having watched Iron Men, where he shakes the hand of every member of staff when arriving at training, he's a good influence at the club and grew up playing football at Hermit Road, where West Ham once played. But he's getting older and perhaps can no longer be an automatic selection. Bilic also dropped Obiang, another solid holding midfielder.
Yet the frustrating thing is that through indiscipline we never get to see the side Bilic wants to field. A combination of reckless elbows from Arnautovic and Carroll, plus a bout of flu for Arnie before the Swansea match and Lanzini's early injury, means we've yet to see what looks like an exciting line-up for a full 90 minutes.
3 comments:
If Sakho takes AC's place on Friday (with Under-23 hat-trick hero Toni Martinez on the bench, that would be attacking and exciting.
Hi Pete,
yes frustration all over the shop, maybe Carroll self dropped might make Slav's decisions easier going forward. I would have thought Slav was big on discipline Dicksie could get involved ? I really hope we start clicking together on the pitch soon, although to be fair there are moments of magic occasionally usually when Lanzini is involved. Still not sure where Sakho's head space in at, but here hoping!! COYI
A motivated Sakho might make it easier to play a passing game and not just lump it to Andy. Let's hope we stumble on the right line-up... and now he's fit Arnautovic has to produce.
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