West Ham United Season Preview: attacking football?

With the 2018-19 Premier League season coming soon, The Football Lab spoke to West Ham United fan Brad Pinard (@Brad_Pinard).

Although West Ham United finished nine points clear of relegation last season, we saw evidence of fan discontent with the new stadium and the ownership regime. What needs to be done to restore unity?

The owners have attempted to breach the divide by actually spending some money and allowing football people to make the decisions this summer. It is a start. Nobody can do anything about the stadium unfortunately. It isn’t fit for football and it’s not a fun place to go and watch West Ham but we simply have to get on with it.

You’ve appointed Manuel Pellegrini as manager. After some less than exciting football in recent seasons, are fans enthused by the prospect of having a manager who shares their desire for attractive football?

It certainly looks a fantastic appointment. Pellegrini has a sensational record – from winning the Premier League to earning a record points tally with Real Madrid. If he is allowed to get on with the job I would expect him to change the fortunes quite quickly considering he has Bilic and Moyes to follow.

You’ve added Jack Wilshere, Felipe Anderson and Andriy Yarmolenko to a squad that already includes Manuel Lanzini. You must be excited by the potential for creativity in that side?

All excellent signings and the midfield has gone from looking quite slow and safe to being exciting, talented and pacey. It will be really interesting to see how Pellegrini gets all of his new signings into one side, and who will leave the club before the window, but it is a very promising summer so far.

Equally though, Pellegrini’s City side often left themselves wide open in transition. With an almost entirely new keeper and back-four, are you concerned about how you’ll look defensively?

The way I look at it is that we had one of the worst defences in the league last season so it can only get better? The pace of Fredericks will be vital – considering we had a team which included Evra and Zabaleta as full backs – and a change to four at the back is very much needed.

New signing Lukasz Fabianksi has been excellent for Swansea over the last two seasons. How do you think Adrian San Miguel will feel though about the club signing a goalkeeper in each of the last two summers?

Adrian is a fans’ favourite, but is capable of making regular mistakes, as was Joe Hart. Fabianski looks a good signing on paper but again, he conceded just as many goals as West Ham last season so that needs to change.

Arthur Masuaku looks set to keep his place at left-back while right-back Ryan Fredericks arrives from Fulham. Do you expect to have plenty of pace and power out wide?

This will be key to the season. West Ham haven’t had exciting full backs for a while and both Fredericks and Masuaku come under that category. They will need to remember to defend too though, as our centre-backs are often isolated.

Declan Rice has played in the holding midfield role in pre-season; the other option would be Mark Noble, now in the 15th season of his career. With Pedro Obiang and Cheikhou Kouyate reportedly leaving, do you need more options in that area?

I think Obiang will stay, so having Rice, Noble, Wilshere and Obiang to fill that void as well as youngster Josh Cullen I think we are set. Selling Kouyate is very much needed though.

One of the things David Moyes got right last season was converting Marko Arnautovic into a central forward. Has that role allowed him to put less energy into chasing back full-backs and more into the pure, attacking side of his game?

Moyes worked wonders with Arnautovic because he looked disinterested under Bilic. He was our best player in the second half of last season and again has looked handy in pre-season. His hold up play is very underrated and I wasn’t surprised to hear of Jose Mourinho’s interest – he could be perfect in that side to aid Lukaku. Although let’s hope not.

Jordan Hugill could go back to the Championship while Javier Hernandez’s attitude looks a tad suspect. Do you need another striker, or can Toni Martinez step up?

Hugill hasn’t been given a chance, so we don’t know if he is worth keeping or not. It sounds as if Pellegrini likes Hernandez and a new manager could give him a new lease of life – but he needs to offer more than just being a poacher. Saying that, we should create a lot more chances this season with our midfield options so he could be perfect. Toni Martinez will head out on loan I imagine. I would like to see another striker come in but I think our budget is dry.

Hammers aside, what are your thoughts ahead of the Premier League season as a whole? How do you rate your competitors?

Smaller Premier League clubs are continuing to spend big so the gap may well close again with the big clubs. Liverpool have strengthened really well, but I think they have a bad result in them every month. Manchester City the team to beat and I think Arsenal will improve with Spurs and United struggling. I think Fulham could be the surprise package.

Where will you finish?

11th

The Football Lab’s Verdict

On paper, West Ham United have a top half worthy squad after the exciting additions of Felipe Anderson, Jack Wilshere and Andriy Yarmolenko, who will support the in-form Marko Arnautovic; Manuel Pellegrini has pedigree, too. In practice though, it could take time for a whole new defensive unit to gel and while David Sullivan remains, political unrest will never be far from the surface. 14th