United play West Ham in a midweek Premier League fixture tomorrow, and ahead of the game we caught up with Sam Hewitt who runs the Hammers blog We Love You West Ham. He gave us his thoughts ahead of the game and answered a few of our questions.
The last time these two sides met, Rooney scored a hat-trick and then infamously shouted the words “What, fucking what?” into the Sky Sports cameras earning himself a two match ban. The games with West Ham usually prove to be entertaining, lets hope for the same again and come away with a much needed three points.
Jordan@ Old Trafford Faithful: With United’s defensive problems of late, Andy Carroll could have a real impact on the game, do you think West Ham could come away from Old Trafford with all three points?
Sam Hewitt(We Love You West Ham): We have had key players injured recently and Big Sam continued to play the same tactics…which lead to him being extremely isolated upfront. Last night we looked a lot better when be switched to a 4/4/2 formation. If Big Sam goes with the same tactics that we played with in the final 10 minutes against Spurs, then I can see us giving your defense a bit of trouble.
I can’t imagine us coming away with all three points, but you never know when West Ham and Man Utd play eachother, it always seems to be a special match.
Jordan: After being promoted from the Championship in May, did you expect to be sitting 8th in the table in November?
Sam: I was not expecting it at all. If someone were to say to me that we was going to get 4 points from Man City at home and Newcastle away, I would have laughed at them. This is exactly why football is the best sport in the world!
Jordan: What do you make of the Hitler chanting away at Spurs?
Sam: I said my piece on my website about yesterday. You can read them here.
I did some deep research into what went on, as well as one of our authors being at the match and while some of it is true, the media has also blown a bit of out of proportion, for example the hissing sounds in regards to gas chambers. What really happened was West Ham fans was mocking the Spurs fans for being so quiet even though they was 2-0 up by saying ‘Shhhhhhhh.’
One thing I do want to make note of, is the fact that the media seemed to ignore the fact that the Spurs fans were singing about Bobby Moore dying. The media are certainly making the situation worse and I am not looking forward to when Spurs play us at the Boleyn Ground in February.
Jordan: West Ham spent fairly big in the summer, but you have to say that Sam Allardyce spent extremely well, who has been your signing of the season?
Sam: Big Sam has done extremely well in the transfer window. Mohamed Diame has been immense for us since joining, Andy Carroll started off well, but the longer he went onto without scoring the worse he got. Now he has finally broken his duck by scoring yesterday, maybe that will give him the confidence boost he needed.
I think all of our signings have been great. I don’t think Jarvis will ever warrant his price tag, but he has done fine and will only get better. Overall, my signing of the season, so far has been Diame. It could change as it is still early days.
Jordan: What would have to happen this season for you to consider it a successful one?
Sam: I said before the season started that I would be happy if we were to finish 17th. Our main priority is to stay in the premier league and let those parachute payments kick in the help fund some more key players. Anything above that is a huge bonus for me.
Jordan: Who do you see as your most influential player this season, and why?
Sam: That is a hard one too pick really. Mark Noble and Kevin Nolan have both had a huge impact on our season so far, as well as our defender Winston Reid. If I had to pick one, it would be Nolan because at the end of the day, goals win football matches, and he is our top goalscorer.
Jordan: What do you make of United’s transfer business this year?
Sam: I was surprised that you were willing to pay so much for Van Persie, but the impact he has had on the club has taken that away now…although it will not be long term. Shinji Kagawa looks the bees knees, another player that would have been on my shortlist on the question below. But saying this, I think the most important people at your club are the ones who have been there for what seems to be forever – Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.
Jordan: If you could take one player from United, who would you choose and why?
Sam: Well now, that is an extremely hard question to answer. I think I am going to go with Antonio Valencia. West Ham have seriously missed a winger that likes to run at defenders. Valencia would provide the creativity on the wing that will bring Andy Carroll into the game more.
Jordan: Who do you think will win the league this year?
Sam: West Brom! In all seriousness, and I know you are not going to like my answer, but I think it will be Man City. I have got a softspot for them for some reason, it is most likely because of how well our fans get along (a lot of Man City fans like West Ham) and because they have Carlos Tevez. I think it is wrong that clubs are pretty much buying the title nowadays, but that is the direction football is heading.
Jordan: Ouch, ha! Finally, a score prediction for Wednesday night?
Sam: I can’t see us winning, but I am going to go for an optimistic 1-1 draw. You will score first through Rooney, because he always scores against us. We will grab an equaliser close to the end of the game. One thing I wouldn’t like to see is us score first then you come back and smash us, just like you did with QPR.
Jordan: I’ll go for 3-1 United, cheers Sam!
You can check out We Love You West Ham here, or follow their Twitter feed here.
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