With the new season drawing near, the thought has crossed my mind of just how ready we are.
I know pre-season is a very hard to judge moment, such as the fact we won every game under Avram Grant and then went onto watch one of the most painful league seasons that I can remember witnessing since I’ve been a West Ham fan.
This season appears to have been rather the opposite. We have had a few games in which we’ve struggled – the stand out game being the 3-1 loss to Ipswich, but then last night we drew 1-1 with Braga and we kept trying for the full 90 minutes, even when we were a goal down.
That sign of not giving up, despite it only being pre-season, has to be one of the promising signs of our team. The age old saying of pre-season was always that it is about getting that match fitness back, the result not being important. I have to say, overall, that this is the main thing, but having a win can do well for your confidence. Overall, thought, it’s all about making the work you put in count come the start of the season.
Transfer wise I feel we have been very successful. Getting George McCartney on a permanent basis is good as he has already settled in with the players.
Jussi and Henderson are two good goalkeepers and I feel they will be good replacements for Green. Maiga coming in to help make this 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation flow much better, as he is used to playing in this sort of formation, will be a big asset. He could help provide a very tough front line with either Taylor, Vaz Te, Cole or Maynard.
We’ve also brought in Diame and Diarra who are both good holding midfielders and I’d say they will easily feature more that Diop last year and are possibly better than him. These two being good in the holding role will definitely give more freedom to the likes of Noble, Collison and Nolan who I would think may play just in front of Diame or Diarra.
I also feel this will be perfect for Nolan who chipped in last season with a lot of valuable goals and I feel this will only benefit him more as we won’t be exposed when he does charge into the box to help the strikers.
I would not be surprised if we’re still keeping an eye out for a couple of players, with rumours of us potentially signing Jarvis from Wolves, who would be like our own Matty Taylor but for the right hand side of the pitch. I feel we would be very well equipped for the new season and it would give us the options of 4-3-3 with say Vaz Te, Cole and Maiga or a 4-5-1 with Taylor, Cole and Jarvis, for example.
There’s a big ‘if’ regarding the Jarvis rumour, but I see a right midfielder as providing us with the perfect foil to mix our teams against those who we think could pressure us, or where we feel a decent delivery will put their teams into a panic.
The only other position I could see us strengthening is right back. It’s hard to say just how good Demel is, as I felt he was never fully fit last season, and Joey O’Brien seems to be a little hit and miss at times, but maybe Sam has faith in these two.
Unfortunately this is all just speculation on my behalf but, by 3pm next Saturday, we will all be watching in anticipation of what to expect. It’s great just to be back in Premiership, but if we can hold our own and then slowly build to push forward each season, then we can only look to the future and hope. Let’s show the big guns what they’ve been missing.
Come On You Irons!
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You can read more from Banno over at his own West Ham Blog here.
