West Ham United travel to South Wales on Saturday to take on Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City, but not every Irons supporter on the KUMB forum is confident of a favourable result.
The Hammers hit the road on the back of beating Newcastle United 2-0 at the London Stadium, while the Bluebirds have lost three on the bounce and last won on home turf on February 2.
Our hosts at the weekend have even been trailing at half time and full time in each of their last three Premier League matches, and have conceded at least two goals in those games.
Not to forget, we are unbeaten against Cardiff City in our last seven meetings with the Welsh outfit – a run stretching back to 2011 when the Bluebirds snatched the points at Upton Park.
But, for that run to continue, we will have to spark a turn around of our own, as we have sadly failed to win our last six road games, tasting defeat in five of those. Had it not been for Wilfried Zaha, that run would have stopped at four.
Our poor away form of late is not the only thing giving some fans on the KUMB forum cause for concern, as a few are worried that the Bluebirds’ physicality could be problematic for Manuel Pellegrini’s men…
“Too much optimism. Cue West Ham red card in first fifteen…” – Hammer1975 (March 6, 09:47)
“The West Ham way.” – S-H (March 6, 09:47)
“I get nervy about all this optimism. I prefer to, even have come to expect, to see the ” can’t see us winning this one, 3-1 loss here, I’m afraid” type posts in time honoured tradition.” – Puff Daddy (March 6, 09:54)
“I don’t see this as a game for Lanzini or Hernandez to start. Put Snoddy in midfield and Arnie up front. Match their physicality for 60 minutes and we’ll win.” – Kev59 (March 6, 13:13)
“I don’t think we will be able to match their physicality and nor should we try. Our strengths are in our superior technical players and I think Lanzini could be key in opening Cardiff up.” – Patito (March 6, 14:11)
“If the players and manager have learned anything after the Wimbledon game then we will go there and win comfortably. I’ll stick my neck out and go 1-3 away win.” – Cockneyboy311 (March 6, 14:32)
“Lanzini has to play for me. If he plays like he did against Newcastle, Cardiff won’t be able to touch him. He can get his rest when we are a couple of goals up (not that he looks like he needs it).
“I’d like Arnie back in for this one too. Hernandez has been decent but Arnie just offers us so much more and is more capable of dealing with the physical side of Cardiff.” – JLP123 (March 6, 14:48)
“Our record away from home against Colin’s teams isn’t the best. He will have them fired up and we will need to match that.” – FAH_1973 (March 6, 14:56)
“They are physical and full of running – We had enough about us to almost beat them by three clear goals, had it not been for a very late goal we’d have achieved just that.
“Watford trounced them 1-5, Everton beat them 0-3, Wolves beat them 2-0 at the weekend – before that they’d beaten Southampton and Bournemouth – I wouldn’t write them off but there again if the ‘ 5 star ‘ Anderson turns up I’d back us to beat anyone.” – The Old Man of Storr (March 6, 15:00)