West Ham Till I Die
Comments
Opposition Q & A

Opposition Q&A With Brighton

This weekend West Ham travel to the seaside to play Brighton. West Ham are still undefeated in the league for quite a while, whereas Brighton are on long run without a victory. The last time we met back in October, Brighton beat us 0 – 3 at The London Stadium. Ahead of the game I spoke to Scott McCarthy from the Seagulls fan site “WeAreBrighton”:http//www.wearebrighton.com to discuss their season so far and the game.

Hi Scott the last time we spoke it was early in the season, just before you thrashed us at our place: a result that hammered another nail in the coffin of Slaven Bilic’s managerial tenure. Are you expecting such a straightforward victory this time?
Absolutley not! That was the real high point of our season, we hit eighth spot after that win and needless to say it has been steadily down hill since then. We’ve only won two times since, away at Swansea City and home to Watford and you have undoubtedly improved since appointing David Moyes so I would be absolutely shocked if this game resembles the last one in any way

Like all of us clubs near the bottom, you have had a mixture of results, what have been the highpoints and lowlights for you so far?
I’ll try not to carp on about that last game between us, but convincingly beating an established Premier League side in front of 60,000 really was the best night of the season. I actually quite liked the much-maligned London Stadium but that might have had something to do with the win, plenty of beer and the fact us Brighton fans are extremely hardened to athletics tracks following all those years at Withdean Stadium. As for lowlights, losing 2-0 away at West Brom a couple of weeks ago was particularly disappointing. They hadn’t won for 20 games in the league or something ridiculous and Alan Pardew hadn’t tasted victory at all as their manager, yet we went 1-0 down inside of three minutes and didn’t manage one shot on goal. You don’t mind losing, but the players looked like they couldn’t be bothered with the honourable exception of Glenn Murray. Unacceptable at any level!

You said that you were hoping to pick up about a point a game, and so far you have just about managed that. You must be hoping that you can turn around your recent run of form to keep on target.
Ideally, we need to be above a point a game before the end of April now as our run in includes Spurs, Manchester United and Liverpool, Burnley away which is one of the hardest assignments in the league and the derby game with Crystal Palace. If we are only a few points above the drop zone by the time those games roll around, we could be in trouble.

Yes, that is a very tricky run-in, I presume you are still happy with Chris Hughton’s management though?
His negativity is starting to grate a bit but there isn’t a better man for the job. At Southampton on Wednesday we were all over them in the first 15 minutes but as soon as we went 1-0 up it was retreat to our own half and try and see out the game. They were there for the taking if we attacked them and although any point gained in the top flight is a good one, it was so frustrating knowing it could’ve been more. Having said that, I wouldn’t swap him for anyone. His task is to keep us up even if it is just by one goal and even if he fails in that, there is nobody better qualified to bring us straight back up again.

You predicted that Slaven Bilic could have a difficult time with our owners’ pronouncements earlier on in the season, how do you rate his replacement David Moyes?
I actually like Moyes. Whoever followed Sir Alex Fergusson at Manchester United was always going to struggle, Moyes was then bold enough to move abroad which not enough British managers do and not even Krytpon the Superdog could have saved Sunderland, as they are showing again this season. He’s proving himself again and it’s a solid appointment in terms of having someone who will consistently get you into the top 10. You just have to hope the owners have reigned their ambitions in to be a little more realistic now!

It is very tight at the bottom, but assuming that you do not go down, are you sticking with your earlier prediction of Swansea, Huddersfield and Bournemouth?
Swansea appointing a bloke who couldn’t get Sheffield Wednesday out of the Championship seemed like the final nail in their coffin but given their wins against Liverpool and Arsenal, that just goes to prove nothing is what it seems in this bottom half of the table. I still think they will end up in the bottom three however along with Huddersfield who tailed off at the end of last season to finish in the play offs as their high-energy game caught up with the players and for that reason I think they will finish weakly. Bournemouth should be ok as they’ve got enough goals to stay up and there is normally one team sucked in who you never expected and given all the upheaval at Vicarage Road, I’ll throw Watford in for the bold call of the final relegation spot.

What position do you think West Ham will finish the season?
I’m quite interested in what I predicted for this last time to see how much it has changed! There is enough there to comfortably stay up so I’m going for 11th

You’ve recently bought your record signing Jurgen Locadia from PSV, how is he fitting in?
Your guess is as good as mine! He arrived with an injury that was meant to keep him out until your visit, but now he “might” be available for Stoke City away the following Saturday. Given our medical teams record with predicting the length of time a player will be out for – Sam Baldock was famously ruled out for a couple of days last season which actually turned out to be six weeks – he will probably make his debut away at Shrewsbury in the opening game of next season.

Which teams and players have impressed you most this season?
We were lucky in that we played Manchester City first game of the season before all their new signings had clicked and when Pep Guardiola was still experimenting with three at the back, so we haven’t encountered them in full flight yet. Liverpool tore us apart when they won 5-1 at the Amex with Philipe Countinho in particular impressing but it has to be Chelsea in their 4-0 win a fortnight ago. We actually gave one of our better performances of the season yet were still completely torn apart. I’ve never seen an individual performance as good as Eden Hazard’s on that day and Chelsea’s second goal, a whirl of one touch passing at 100mph straight up the middle of the pitch, was absolutely breathtaking.

Yes Eden Hazard in full flight is probably one of the most sights in the Premier League. Which players have underperformed this season for you, conversely who has stood out?
Anthony Knockaert hasn’t really done it at this level so far. Part of that looks like it could be down to attitude. He is something of the strutting peacock, when he is the main man, things are going well and he knows he is the best player on the park he can be unplayable. But against better full backs who he can no longer make look silly with such ease, he spends a lot of time waving his arms in the air and whinging. A conundrum that we could do with Hughton fixing as he is clearly still a real talent. As for players who have stood out, it has been great to see Murray scoring goals regularly as one of only two players who played for us in League One and the Championship – the other being Lewis Dunk who has also been outstanding. Goalkeeper Matty Ryan’s contribution hasn’t gone unnoticed either. He’s made some brilliant saves and in my opinion should be our Player of the Season which makes David Stockdale’s summer decision to move to a house next to Spaghetti Junction to count the pennies from a ‘Arry Redknapp special deal at Birmingham look like a godsend as its doubtful we’d have signed such a quality keeper otherwise.

Any tips for West Ham fans travelling to Brighton for the game?
If you are coming by train, only buy a train ticket as far as Haywards Heath as all travel onwards to Falmer is free from there with a matchday ticket. Getting in and out of the Amex can be a nightmare but the bars at the ground stay open afterwards so you can hang around for a pint and wait for the queues to go down.

Have any West Ham players caught your eye this season?
I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for flying left backs due to the fact that when I was a kid, my favourite Brighton player was Nathan Jones who was the first real full back we had who was as good going forward as he was defending. For that reason I’m a big fan of Aaron Cresswell. One of the things that has been noticeable about Moyes’ time in charge is he seems to have sorted out Marko Arnautovic and given that Shane Duffy has looked out of form for us over the last few weeks yet appears to be undroppable, he could be in for a fruitful afternoon as the sort of striker we tend to struggle against.

Unfortunately, along with just about half of the squad Arnie is out of contention for this game. How do you expect Brighton to setup against West Ham on Saturday/ Team/formation prediction?
It will be 4-4-1-1. The team pretty much picks itself every week with Ryan in goal, Ezequiel Schelotto right back, Dunk and Duffy centre, Gaetan Bong or Makus Suttner on the left. Dale Stephens and Davy Propper make up the central midfielder pairing with Pascal Gross behind Murray. The only positions in which we tend to have a modicum of change unless injury intervenes is out wide with Solly March, Knockaert and Jose Izquierdo vying for the two spots. My preference would be for the latter two to start on Saturday given March was poor on Wednesday night. As for a score prediction? We’re unbeaten at home against sides outside the top six and have drawn six of our 12 games at the Amex. If you are a betting person, lump on the draw. 1-1

Many thanks to Scott for his time. 1-1 does seem like our default result at the moment, however I was quite impressed with the solidity we showed against Palace during the week, so I think we will shut them out and sneak a goal. 0-1 to West Ham. COYI!

Embed from Getty Images

About us

West Ham Till I Die is a website and blog designed for supporters of West Ham United to discuss the club, its fortunes and prospects. It is operated and hosted by West Ham season ticket holder, LBC radio presenter and political commentator Iain Dale.

More info

Follow us

Contact us

Iain Dale, WHTID, PO Box 663, Tunbridge Wells, TN9 9RZ

Visit iaindale.com, Iain Dale’s personal website & blog.

Get in touch

Copyright © 2024 Iain Dale Limited.