West Ham United vs Manchester United: Tactical Preview
Manchester United will be travelling to London after their win over Norwich City last time out, to face West Ham United at Upton Park. This will be their 4th meeting this year’s campaign and Manchester United will be looking to get a win out of this one too, as this will give them a one point lead ahead of their city rivals Manchester City and will jump on to the 4th spot.
West Ham, on the other hand, recently faced a complete humiliation in front of their home crowd as the side was beaten heavily by Swansea City by 4 goals to 1. This will be a must win game for the Hammers as well, and if they manage to do so, they will climb up to the 6th spot and will just be a point behind Manchester United.
Besides all this drama, it will be West Ham United’s last game at the Upton park, and the team will be trying everything they can to make it a memorial game. Slaven Bilic’s side will also be out for revenge after the Reds’ Emirates FA Cup quarter-final replay win last month.
West Ham United vs Manchester United Team News-
For the Visitors, they are expected to be without Anthony Martial on Tuesday after the attacker pulled up with a hamstring injury before his side’s win over Norwich City at the weekend.
The Dutch manager benched Daley Blind and Marcus Rashford in their last game and are most likely to get a fresh start.
Matteo Darmian was injured in the last game and the club still has doubts over his fitness.
For West Ham United, the side just have one absentee for the Upton Park swan-song, with goalkeeper Adrian still out.
Predicted Lineup-
West Ham United-
Randolph
Antonio, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell
Kouyate, Noble, Sakho, Lanzini
Payet
Caroll
Manchester United-
De Gea
Valencia; Smalling; Blind; Fosu-Mensah
Mata; Herrera; Carrick; Rooney; Lingard
Rashford
Stats-
- Manchester United have lost none of their last 14 Barclays Premier League games against West Ham United (W11 D3 L0).
- Wayne Rooney has scored 11 goals in 15 Premier League appearances against West Ham for Manchester United.
- The Red Devils have had a player sent off in two of the last three Premier League games against the Hammers.
- Manchester United have kept more clean sheets than any other Premier League team this season (18).
- This will be West Ham’s 384th and final Premier League game at the Boleyn Ground, and a win will take the Hammers to 601 points won on home soil in the competition (W167 D97 L119).
- Dimitri Payet has been involved in nine goals in his last 11 Premier League appearances (scoring three, assisting six).
Tactics-
Slaven Bilic’s side most depends on their wingmen, who deliver some early crosses into the box and usually Andy Caroll is the man to collect those passes. He showed his scoring skills in the game against Arsenal and the Gunners were badly punished as they took the Englishman for granted.
Dimitri Payet has been a stand out performer for the side and he is never afraid to take a shot from distance, and therefore, Blind and Smalling will have to stay alert to neutralzie the damage done by the elusive Frenchman. West Ham United’s goals majorly come from set pieces and that is one of the major defensive concerns for Manchester United. Players like Kouyate, Ogbonna, Ried, and Caroll can punish the side in set pieces, so United have to be careful in these situations.
Manchester United, on the other hand, will as usually play their possession play, but the side will have to look for a positive result if they tend to finish in the top four. The major threat for London’s side is Marcus Rashford. He is just 18, but is capable of making some great sprinting runs and he is also a good finisher. The number 10 role will be a big question mark for the Dutch manager as Lingard was not upto the mark in the same position last game and with Martial out injured, Mata will have to play on the wings.
Prediction-
As I said earlier, it will be the Hammers’ last game at the Upton Park and they will be doing anything to get a fair result in the game, but we cannot ignore the form of Manchester United and as United are climbing closer to the 4th spot, the Devils will have extra motivation to win this crucial game.
1-2 Manchester United