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The 3 West Ham related things we learned over the international break

ByJeremiah Carson|
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER 03: Robert Snodgrass is seen during a Scotland training session ahead of their International friendly match against Belgium at Orium Performance Centre on September 3, 2018 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER 03: Robert Snodgrass is seen during a Scotland training session ahead of their International friendly match against Belgium at Orium Performance Centre on September 3, 2018 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Football is back this weekend as West Ham will travel to Everton in a much-needed bounce-back game on Saturday. Before the match commences, let’s look back on what was learned over the break.

The likes of Declan Rice, Balbuena, Masuaku, Andriy Yarmolenko, Robert Snodgrass, and others were off playing for their country over the past 2 weeks. Although the storylines weren’t all positive, there was a lot still to be learned from these West Ham lads.

The Legend of the Scottish Messi

At the age of 32, Robert Snodgrass was still a pretty constant figure for the Scottish international squad. Over this international break, he made his final cap for Scotland in a match that ended 4-0 to Russia. In that match, he picked up a thigh injury that saw him miss the win over San Marino.

After that match against San Marino, he penned an open letter to Scotland, his clubs, and to the world about his retirement from international football. Since first playing for the senior squad in 2011, he has had made 28 caps and scored 7 international goals.

Most commonly known as the Scottish Messi or McMessi for short, came from his on the pitch attitude to push as hard as possible and play hard no matter what. He’s also curled in some beauties over his time accurately giving him that name.

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Declan is still getting flack

Like the dinosaurs of days past, so too is the center defensive midfielder position in European Football.  Once again, England struggle in a match and Declan Rice gets blamed. As famously worded by co-site expert Adam Smith on a GSH podcast, “yeah let’s blame the CDM form England getting shut out.”

Things aren’t going great for Declan at the moment, after getting beat at home by Crystal Palace and then the shellacking from Czechia but rest assured, he is always ready to bounce back and once again douse out the haters.

On a lesser note, yet still somewhat important, he was left off the shortlist for the Bleacher Report Golden Boy Award. I guess the best news out of all this, West Ham fans know what they have and hope that with all this negativity, he will be head down and ready to run through a wall this weekend.

Andriy “The Ukrainian Savior” Yarmolenko?

When the start of the season arrived for West Ham it almost felt that they had a new signing when it came to Andriy Yarmolenko. After a few slow starts and getting the opportunity to fill in when Michail Antonio went out, he has cemented his name on the team sheet once more.

Not only has he gotten back to football at West Ham, but he is also back and playing for his home county of Ukraine. Over this break, he played a pivotal role in a 2-1 win over Portugal all but sealing the Ukrainians fate for the 2020 Euros.

The headline in that match was CR7 getting his 700th goal but really we all know who stole the show late to win it. With a solid break for him, except that he will be returning to East London in form and ready to get the Hammers back to their winning ways.

Rice won’t be downed by this negativity and slugging off, he will rise to the occasion. Even though Snoddy is done internationally, don’t expect him to lay low in the dressing room. Yarmo looks to be on track to start-up where he left off. So, welcome back Football because everyone is ready to see what happens next!