Saturday, August 17

Can West Ham's lightweight midfield dig in away?

One of the worrying aspects of the defeat against Manchester City was that the WHU midfield looked so lightweight. Anderson, Lanzini and Fornals are going to look very good when West Ham are dominating teams, but when we're under the cosh they are easily bypassed. Poor Declan Rice is looking overworked as the only defensive midfielder and it's still not clear if Jack Wilshere can reinvent himself as a deep-lying midfielder. 

Mark Noble makes a good point in his Evening Standard column that City, for all their skill, were also masters of the innocuous tactical foul to break up play last Saturday. We could do with Noble in midfield, though he's not fit for today's game at Brighton. There might even be a case for bringing in Sanchez to restore some solidity early on or for playing Antonio to give the side some physicality. It's going to be a big test of Pellegrini's side against a side that is flying after a 3-0 away win.

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