West Ham will be looking to secure back-to-back wins in the Premier League for the first time this season when they host Leicester City on Thursday night.
The Hammers will be full of confidence after beating Arsenal 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium last weekend, but will be all too aware that home form this season has been a problem.
Since beating Fulham at home in Graham Potter‘s first league game in charge, West Ham have fallen to 2-0 and 1-0 defeats in Stratford to Crystal Palace and Brentford respectively.
It has highlighted a potential issue where Potter is still trying to work out how best to approach his tactics on home soil. Away from home, despite only winning once on the road since his arrival, performances have been a lot more convincing.
But the visit of 19th-placed Foxes, who have won just one of their last six matches in the league, presents the perfect opportunity to get back on track at home.
Leicester have conceded 15 goals in their last six games with only Southampton (18) and Ipswich (19) conceding more over the same period, so Potter will likely be viewing this game as the right time to give Evan Ferguson his first start in claret and blue.
Meanwhile, three of West Ham’s most impressive performers against the Gunners last weekend – Jean-Clair Todibo, James Ward-Prowse and Ollie Scarles – could all keep their places in the starting XI.
I’m predicting a switch to a 4-2-3-1 formation for this game, as opposed to the 5-3-2 approach last weekend, which worked perfectly given we were expecting to have less of the ball against Arsenal.
Against Leicester, we should expect to have more possession, so more emphasis will be on our attacking players like Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus, and midfield distribution from the likes of Ward-Prowse and Tomas Soucek.
So this is how I think Graham Potter might approach Thursday’s game against Leicester City…
What do you think?
