Moving on up: To the East Side, West Ham 16-17

[Cellar-Door]

Time for a thread where I mostly talk to myself.

New season, new stadium.

Losses:
James Tomkins sold to Palace
Alex Song sent back to Barca (who bought him out)
Emmanuel Emmenike sent back to Fenerbache
Joey O'Brien- free agent
Stephen Hendrie- Loaned to Blackburn

Additions:
Gokhan Tore on loan w/ buy option
Sofiane Feghouli from Valencia on a free
Havard Nordtveit from Borussia Monchengladbach on a free
Arthur Masuaku from Olympiakos
Andre Ayew from Swansea
Ashley Fletcher from Man U on a free
Jonathan Calleri from Deportiva Maldonado (but really some weird shit and Sao Paolo) pending work permit

Also exercised option to make Lanzini move permanent.

Only major injury so far is Cresswell who likely misses half the season.

Probably still looking for a striker and possibly a defender.

Biggest concern to me so far is that Bilic likes playing Antonio at RB where he is not great so far.

 

[Zososoxfan]

Cellar, with the addition of Ayew, what do you think will be the Hammers' best lineup? I'm a big fan of Payet, Lanzini, and Ayew, but can those 3 coexist in a single MF? What happens to minutes for Noble, Kouyate, and Antonio?

Also, Calleri had a goal in Argentina's Olympic game yesterday, but really didn't have a great game. Bumbled the ball in on the goal and missed an absolute bunny minutes earlier.

 

[Cellar-Door]

Cellar, with the addition of Ayew, what do you think will be the Hammers' best lineup? I'm a big fan of Payet, Lanzini, and Ayew, but can those 3 coexist in a single MF? What happens to minutes for Noble, Kouyate, and Antonio?

Also, Calleri had a goal in Argentina's Olympic game yesterday, but really didn't have a great game. Bumbled the ball in on the goal and missed an absolute bunny minutes earlier.

Well Antonio seems likely to play RB, so before injuries and ignoring that they're be a lot of rotation with Europa and AFCON It's probably:

--------------------Randolph (or Adrian)--------------
Antonio----Collins(or Reid)------Ogbonna-------Masuaku(later Cresswell)
----------------Kouyate-----------Noble----------------Payet
----------Feghouli---------Carroll---------------Ayew

That's similar to what we played some last year, it often really plays like a 3 man back line with Kouyate dropping in to let Antonio (or Cresswell, but with him out it will mostly be Antonio) go forward more aggressively.

Other options are when Carroll is injured sliding Ayew into the middle and Putting Lanzini or Tore in as they are probably the two primary backups for Feghouli/Payet/and Ayew. Nordtveit is the 3rd CB as well as the primary backup for Kouyate and Noble (Obiang being the other),

On the whole it's an incredibly deep squad in terms of wingers and MF with solid CB. The biggest weakness is FB and ST, but some of the wingers (Ayew, Tore) can play in the middle as needed and we haven't sold Sakho or Valencia yet who can play the middle or elsewhere in a front 3.. I'll guess it's a 4-3-3 most of the time though and some variation on what I have is first choice with Tore, Lanzini and Nordtveit the most likely to break in of those I left out,]


EDIT

In terms of how I personally would like them to line up I might go with this:
--------------Randolph----------
Antonio---Collins----Ogbonna----Masuaku
-------Kouyate------Noble----
Feghouli----Payet-----Ayew
------------Carroll---------

I personally like Payet inside more with the option to swap to the wings, though in practice the two formations aren't really that different all things considered

 

[FlexFlexerson]

Pretty stoked for the new season. Cresswell injury aside, I think we're gonna be looking pretty sharp.

 

[Cellar-Door]

Well one game in and this season is looking like a disaster.

Cresswell and Ayew out until January.
Feghouli, Lanzini, Nordtveit, Sakho and Payet all have picked up lesser injuries of indeterminate length.

Oh and reportedly Antonio (like the fans) isn't happy at all with being asked to play RB.

 

[Cellar-Door]

And.... Kouyate injured in training.
SEVEN MIDFIELDERS INJURED SEVEN!

 

[Cellar-Door]

Injury update.
After 1 week the following are injured:
Ayew Carroll Cresswell Feghouli Kouyate Lanzini Nordtveit Payet Sakho

 

[Cellar-Door]

With the window closing, that was a VERY busy window for West Ham
IN
Permanent:
Andre Ayew (LW/ST)
Manuel Lanzini (AM)
Arthur Masuaku (LB)
Edimilson Fernandes (MF)
Ashley Fletcher (ST)
Havard Nordtveit (MF)
Sofiane Feghouli (AM/W)
Alvaro Arbeloa (RB/LB)
Loan (with buy option)
Simone Zaza (ST)
Gokhan Toure (AM)
Loan (no buy option?)
Jonathan Callieri)

OUT
James Tomkins
Elliot Lee
Joey O'Brien
Diego Poyet

SENT ON LOAN
Josh Cullen
Doneil Henry
Stephen Hendrie
Enner Valencia
Reece Burke

Fully Healthy the Depth Chart looks like this (players only listed in primary position):

GK
Adrian
Randolph

LB
Cresswell
Masuaku


CB
Ogbonna
Reid
Collins
Oxford

RB
Byram
Arbeloa

DM/CM
Kouyate
Noble
Nordtveit
Obiang

AM/W
Payet
Lanzini
Ayew
Feghouli
Edimilson
Antonio
Tore

ST/CF
Zaza
Carroll
Sakho
Callieri
Fletcher

 

[Cellar-Door]

Christmas check-in.
After a disastrous start, a nice run has West Ham up to 11th. A draw at Anfield, home wins against Hull and Burnley than a win at Swansea.
Upcoming fixtures aren't too bad. Away to Leicester on New Year's eve, the home for United and Palace.

As for the trasfer window:
Most important thing will be to keep Payet.
likely sending all 3 loans back (Zaza, Callieri, Tore).
They'll probably try to bring in another striker, but personally I think the most important target would be a defender, preferably one who can play RB (Nordveit a DM by trade played well there today, but overall it's been the clearest weakness in the side).

 

[FlexFlexerson]

Christmas check-in.
After a disastrous start, a nice run has West Ham up to 11th. A draw at Anfield, home wins against Hull and Burnley than a win at Swansea.
Upcoming fixtures aren't too bad. Away to Leicester on New Year's eve, the home for United and Palace.

I think that's what they, in the business, call a "winning streak." It's been a shocking amount of fun after the horrible start. I'm moderately confident they can remain in the middle of the pack through the next few matches.

Agreed on the need for a defender.

 

[Cellar-Door]

Well.... some things have happened.

Payet almost certainly gone eventually, and Ogbonna injured.
Normally I'd be terrified based on that, but......
The team is playing really well with Feghouli/Lanzini/Antonio behind Andy Carroll (and Ayew eventually will be back).
Jose Fonte looks like an excellent replacement for Ogbonna, and we'll be decently deep if Ogbonna can return.

One HUGE thing I had totally forgot about.... Sam Byram is finally healthy, bringing the number of natural right backs on the roster to 1.

Future moves:
Rumor is that a move for Brentford Striker Scott Hogan is going to be done this week.
Offer made for Hull's Snodgrass, but nothing immediate.

I'd like to see at least 1 more defender come in, and another striker would be nice, but if not Calleri probably stays and Toni Martinez gets a shot.