With West Ham welcoming Bournemouth to the London Stadium for David Moyes’ debut game to ring in the New Year, here is our player vs. player marquee match-up!
Both West Ham and Bournemouth have considerable firepower in their teams but both teams are currently underperforming and flirting with relegation this season. For the Hammers, the move was finally made to sack Manuel Pellegrini and redeploy David Moyes as the relegation savior and beyond. Perhaps this can boost the fortunes of his team with the ‘new manager bump,’ something Bournemouth cannot account for in with Eddie Howe.
What does this mean for the Hammers? Well, the team selection will probably be a complete gamble to pick. Moyes has no idea who his best players are and, in three days, has no understanding of how to get the best out of each player in different positions.
For picking the marquee match-up, then, the goal becomes narrowing down who the locks to make the team are, and who they’ll be going up against for 90 minutes. For West Ham, this means circling Mark Noble as the focal point of an otherwise unknowable team selection. He was sat for Leicester, he is Mr. West Ham… we know he’s going to be there for Moyes.
In the midfield, Noble will likely face off against Dan Gosling and Philip Billing who anchors the Cherries ever-used 4-4-2 formation. Jefferson Lerma and Lewis Cook have also featured for Bournemouth, but based on the team that lost to Brighton, it may be Billing and Gosling who Noble lines up against.
The gameplan for Noble will be to act as the link between offense and defense and be the sparkplug for the offense, sat deeper than Felipe Anderson and/or Pablo Fornals will be. He’s done this before and has the ability to do it again under Moyes, especially considering Noble understands how important a win, or at the very least, a convincing effort is needed for the team and for the gaffer.
It’s time (well overdue, too) to come together for the Hammers. I full well expect a reaction from the XI who Moyes picks, because across the board the players haven’t been good enough. It starts and ends with Noble, if he can galvanize the team and lead on the pitch, the Irons have nothing to worry about.