Pre-Match View From West Ham

“Up against a team that ain’t won a game this season?
Step up West Ham.”

“West Ham will always be West Ham. Some things will never change.
Nailed on routine Sheffield United win.”

“This has a Sheffield United win written all over it”

“Went to this fixture last year and though we weren’t bad (Rice’s VAR handball apart) they got the better of us second half. We may have improved since then, and they have been losing by ‘the odd goal’ most of this season, but think it’ll definitely be a tough one”

“Rightly or wrongly they’ll have this down as a targeted home 3 points….and they need them. Hopefully that means they’ll come at us which should suit us more?”

“Not sure why but I’m feeling confident about this one. Maybe it’s because I think they’ll be so desperate to win that they’ll come at us and that suits us. It’s crucial, however, that we don’t fall behind early. That would suit them down to the ground and I could see us struggling to get back in it.”

“They have scored 4 goals in 8 league games.
They have this ridiculous international break to somehow regroup and make a decent fist of staying in this division, so they will be targeting another smash and grab victory over us.
Whereas they have conceded 14 goals in that many games, we have scored the same tally.
This points to me to a score draw as the likeliest outcome.”

“A tougher game than it looks given their current predicament.”

“i have some concerns about this one. While Sheffield Utd are, indeed, bottom they’ve only had one big loss (against Chelsea 4-1) and have been competitive (losing by a single goal) against Liverpool, Man City and a much improved Aston Villa.”

“I think this one is going to more difficult than some think. We’ve done well so far this season playing a certain style against certain teams but we got bogged down against Fulham.”

“Almost every individual statistic and piece of information from the form line points to us getting at least a draw, and very possibly a win.
From their perspective, they will try to make it physical. The only things where they are marginally better than ours is aerial ability, tackling and winning penalties.
They have been vulnerable in open play and at set pieces, and they have the lowest possession percentage in the league (Fulham , by contrast, usually have the majority of the ball).
I’ve seen a couple of their recent games and thought they were a bit better than the table says, and I like a couple of their players. Berge has been really good in games I have seen. The ‘keeper appears to be a bit ropey.
If we score early-ish and they have to come onto us, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if we win by a pretty clear margin.
Last season, I actually felt we played better in the game we lost at theirs than the one we drew at ours where they looked much the better team.”

“Bloody ‘ell, what a game..
They still haven’t won a game yet this season & this will be their first chance to, after the international break. Just lucky that their fans can’t be their 12th man..
With Antonio back I could see us winning.
Without..”

“They way they line up should play into the hands of our two wingbacks as the likes of Bowen, Benrahma (if starting) and Antonio (if starting) will all find themselves matched up one v one and leave plenty of space for the wingbacks to overlap and get involved. The issue there is that you condense the pitch and need something special from someone to unlock a defence. That is where we will look to Benrahma and Bowen.
Tough side to break down at home so won’t be easy. All hangs on Antonio for me.
If he is fully fit and firing, I can see us going there and getting a win. Without him, I really think a draw will be all we get. Antonio is now THAT important to us, insane.”

“Tough game . If Antonio is not 100% then we should not play him”

“This will be a much tougher match than most expect. Sheffield United are the only team to have played tougher opponents than us. They’ve not conceded that many, especially considering who they have played. Their problem is scoring. The key is not to concede early , the longer we keep a clean sheet the more likely we are to win. If we take a lead, their heads could drop.
What we do have going for us is that Wilder has recently blamed the players, so all may not be right at what was last year a very tight group. They also have a few injuries, especially in defence. What is going against us is that they have very few players away on international duty, compared to our 10, and McBurnie and Brewster are desperate to open their accounts.”

“Its strange, I think im more worried about Wilder than I am his side. Or at least I would be if we didnt have someone as equally strong minded and determined in our own dugout. Football games are won or lost on the pitch. However, I am more assured going into a fixture like this with Moyes in charge than I would be if Grant or Pellegrini were at the helm. “

“Also big fan of Wilder. He spoke very well and was quite sympathic towards us after the shambles of a decision at there place last season.
Having said that, I did back them to get relegated at the start of the season. There squad is full of bang average hardworking championship players who have got second season syndrome written all over them.”

“Sheffield United are still very much a side of Championship players. No proven PL players prior to last season. They massively over-excelled last season through hard work, finding the perfect tactics, playing without fear, and obviously, having a fantastic team spirit.
I think it was inevitable they’d struggle massively this year, especially with David McGoldrick up front (guaranteed to score now I said that!). However, I’m expecting this to be a really, really tough game, and with no win under their belts yet, that work-rate and determination will be at the fore when they face us. We’ll really need to match them to get anything methinks.”

“I think calling people like David McGoldrick and Sam Baldock’s brother ‘Championship players’ is overselling them a bit.”

“Berge is one of the most average players I’ve ever seen.
I couldn’t care less if he plays or not.”

“Henderson is a huge loss for them, one that could cause them to drop. Play like we have been, and we’ll thump them.”

“No crowds is a real leveller. I think we have the better players so I think we have a very decent chance. Sheff Utd are experiencing second season syndrome and will likely return from whence they came.”

“They remind me of the team that Stoke City got promoted with last time they were in the Prem. Half their players looked like plumbers called Dave. “

“This is a big game for them. To be on 1 point after 9 games is a bad spot to be in from a historical perspective.
Only one other team (in the premier league era) has been on 1 point after 9 games played and that was Man city in 95/96 (who were relegated, but did manage to get to 38 points in the end).
A draw would put them on 2 points (obviously) and in the following company:
Newcastle 2018/19 – stayed up in 13th place
Sunderland 2016/17 – stayed up in 17th place
Southampton 98/99 – stayed up in 17th place.
I think what that tells us is that points after 9 games is actually not that helpful a metric. So I wouldn’t read too much into the above”

“I want to see this lot get relegated, I think I want to beat them almost as much as I would like to see us beat Chelsea (Ok maybe not quite but they are up there).”

“Can we please bring Tevez on loan for this one?”