news-engine

West Ham face Charlton Athletic in gameweek two of the EFL Championship season on Saturday afternoon. The Irons return to the London Stadium for the first time since their relegation to the Championship was confirmed despite a 3-0 win over Leeds United on Saturday. As we come to the end of a slow transfer window for the Hammers, things have started to move, players are arriving, and the fans are eager to return to Stratford for what is hopefully a winning start back at home. Sunday’s Championship opener away at Burnley was a bit of a wake up call for us I think, Nuno can’t afford to set up the team like he did in the Premier League, we have to attack teams. Hopefully he starts doing that on Saturday. At home against Charlton we’re by far the favourites and we need to play like it. So, hopefully Nuno picks a team to show that. I think he’ll pick the personnel we all want to see, but if he plays with the right tactics and intensity remains to be seen. Predicted West Ham XI vs Charlton: Hermansen; Walker-Peters, Mavropanos, Kilman, Diouf; Bowen, Engels, Kante, Solomon; Taty, Piroe. Hermansen is the nailed on #1 goalkeeper, and KWP, Dinos and Kilman pick themselves. Left-back is a difficult one. Scarles played well up until he gave away the penalty for a reckless, unnecessary challenge on Marcus Edwards. He completely lost his head after that and was substituted. His replacement Malick Diouf, he looked like he didn’t want to be on the pitch. Brentford are interested in a move for Diouf, but it doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere since their recent bid so he’s likely to stay. Therefore I think Nuno is going to give him a start, and I’d agree with him. The wide midfielders also pick themselves, Bowen is the captain and he got an assist vs Burnley, and Manor Solomon looked electric on his debut at Turf Moor. The centre of midfield is where we might see a change. Arne Engels is eligible to play in this one, he’s our new £22 million signing, he’s had a full pre-season at Celtic so I would expect him to come straight into the team to partner Mohammed Kante. It feels harsh to drop Lewis Orford to the bench, he’s done nothing wrong in his two starts but Engels has to come in and we simply cannot drop Kante. With Pablo set to miss the game through injury after being substituted at half-time on Sunday. We have no other choice but to start a front two of Joel Piroe and Taty Castellanos. We all want this to be the front two going forward, with Taty playing just off him, so it will be exciting to see how they link up just days after the Suriname international was announced. Burnley last weekend was a really tough challenge, they will likely be one of the top three or four teams in the League this season. Charlton is a different story however, we should be able to play how we did against Burnley and win against the South Londoners. However, the fans don’t want to see that. Not just that, if we don’t go for it, if we don’t attack from the start, or if we goal a goal or two up and defend instead of trying to kill the game off, fans could get tired of Nuno quickly. Let’s hope Saturday in front of a sell out 62,500 fans is a good one. There is a lack of optimism around the club at the moment, we’re the favourites to win the League but it really doesn’t feel like it. A big performance at 3pm on Saturday will change that.