MATCH PREVIEW: West Ham United vs Huddersfield Town

Finally, we’re able to play at home. West Ham United vs Huddersfield Town. Will this help get some much needed results? That’s what we aim to discuss here as Brace The Hammer previews the upcoming Premier League clash.

Head-to-Head: Previous fixtures.

According to 11v11.com, West Ham United have played Huddersfield Town 39 times since the initial meeting on December 20, 1919. Huddersfield have won 22 games, drawing 7 and losing 10 games since.

In Huddersfield’s last three games in the Premier League, they won impressively against Frank De Boer’s Crystal Palace, beating them 3-0 as well as a 1-0 win at home against Newcastle United, then a 0-0 draw against Southampton at home as well.

For West Ham, as we know, the news isn’t so glamorous as we were beaten 4-0 by Manchester United, 3-2 against Southampton and 3-0 against Newcastle United, leaving us rock bottom of the table after 3 games.

Judging from these statistics, Huddersfield would be considered to be the favourites to win from this game, however we could see West Ham turn things around and pick up three points from this fixture.

Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images

West Ham boss Slaven Bilic will have Huddersfield, West Bromwich Albion, Bolton Wanderers (in the Carabao Cup) and Tottenham Hotspur at home to get results on the board, or he faces dismissal from the West Ham board.

Players to keep an eye out for:

Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images

Chicharito:

The Mexican international has already tasted success this season as he helped Mexico secure their spot in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia after Mexico beat Panama 1-0. He’ll be hoping he gets the service needed to grab the goals needed for West Ham to stop the rot of bad results and find form.

Since joining, he picked up two goals against Southampton in the club’s emotional 3-2 defeat last month.

Photo by Nigel Roddis/Getty Images

Steve Mounie:

The 29-year old striker has hit the ground running so far this campaign as he’s picked up 2 goals and 2 assists from 3 appearances so far this season, scoring twice against Crystal Palace in the Premier League opener last month.

He’s the type of player who will cause chaos for the Hammers’ defence throughout this match as he’s likely to drop in behind the defenders and pick up the goals in front of the keeper. He’s also very pacey and will have excellent service wherever he is as the Huddersfield communication throughout the team is clear and crisp.

Potential Formations:

Huddersfield;

Photo by Tony Marshall/Getty Images

Judging from the previous three Premier League games, it appears David Wagner is quite the fan of the 4-2-3-1 formation, and for good reason as well. Having the two defensive midfielders sitting back from the attacking force is a good move, especially on a counterattack where those two CDM players can push forward to create the five across the middle of the park in a 4-5-1 if need be.

It makes sense for him to keep to the 4-2-3-1 against West Ham come Monday night.

West Ham United;

As we know, Slaven Bilic is also the fan of the 4-2-3-1 formation, however the previous three results have proven this is not the formation we should be using, given the team we have at the moment.

Should Slaven Bilic change to a 4-3-3, 3-4-3 or a 4-4-2, there is the chance we could have some success with this. Ideally, we need two strikers up top, one being Chicharito with the other being either Andy Carroll or Diafra Sakho (should he be bothered to play).

However, it’s unlikely he’ll change from the 4-2-3-1, so don’t expect him to pull something new out of the hat for this game.

Overall thoughts regarding this fixture:

Photo by Mark Robinson/Getty Images

With all the political non-sense going on at the Club, it’s safe to say everyone’s been wrapped up in the “he said, he said” fiasco between West Ham and Sporting Portugal at the moment, and rightfully so. It proves once again how the owners are not exactly seeing eye to eye with the board, and the board are not seeing eye to eye with Slaven Bilic.

While these distractions will have an impact on the performance on the pitch, it remains to be seen as to how much of an impact. The players will no doubt be playing with these distractions running through their minds and will obviously be concerned with that, but there is also the chance of an absolute miracle.

Now, whether you’re a believer in such things or not, we don’t know. But I am somewhat confident things could slowly improve for the club over the next month. Slaven has until the end of September to produce results, or he’ll be sacked. The players know work has to be done and the fans need to produce the atmosphere needed to get those players firing.

Only time will tell as to how this game goes, but for now, I’m saying we’ll be beaten 2-1 at full-time.

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