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West Ham had a very interesting off-season once again. The Hammers parted ways with Sam Allardyce after giving him an ultimatum to finish in the top 10 last season and hired Slaven Bilic as a replacement. Some would say West Ham weren’t exactly fair to Allardyce since his last two seasons at the club were decimated by injuries to a number of his top players, but the manager hasn’t exactly been a fan favorite either. The club’s fans have been asking for beautiful football for years and Allardyce has had his teams play direct, long-ball football for a number of seasons now.
You’d imagine the team would welcome Bilic, an ex-West Ham player, with open arms, but he seems to have polarized the Hammers fan base completely. Everyone either loves him or hates him, but that will change by mid-season depending on his success at the club. Bilic is a bit unproven at the top level, so expect him to have some hiccups at first, especially in trying to decide who to play from his fairly deep and mediocre squad.
Check out Rob’s By the Numbers Week 1 post
Goalkeepers
The goalkeeper position at West Ham is good. Adrian is an above-average Premier League goal-stopper who came in fourth in saves last season with 126. He also featured the seventh best save percentage amongst goalkeepers with at least 500 minutes, ahead of stoppers like Hugo Lloris and Wojciech Szczesny. At backup, the club has Darren Randolph, a 28-year-old Republic of Ireland international goalkeeper who came on a free transfer from Championship club Birmingham City. Randolph is a mid-tier backup and is solid enough for West Ham to avoid having to shop for a goalkeeper should Adrian go down.
Defenders
West Ham look to be strong in defense once again. They were able to keep Winston Reid and sign him to a long-term contract at the end of last season and the center-back should be in the middle of everything they do defensively. He is a high-quality player who can be a very good center back in the Premier League if he can stay healthy. They also have James Tomkins, who had a very impressive season last year outside of getting arrested and he should be expected to start at the beginning of the season. The club has signed another center-back this summer in Angelo Ogbonna, who played 25 matches for Juventus last season and has the quality to overtake Tomkins as the starter down the line. Bilic is bound to experiment at the position and that could lead to a bit of uncertainty, but once the starters are set, there will be value in the defense at West Ham.
Carl Jenkinson is back on another loan and is expected to start at right-back, but it’s worth noting he’ll miss week one due to his inability to face his parent club Arsenal. On the other side of the pitch, Aaron Cresswell made huge strides last season and finished with two goals and four assists after making continuous runs down the sideline last season. James Collins, Joey O’Brien, and Reece Burke provide good cover across the strong backline, and even Cheikhou Kouyate can play center-back if needed. As far as fantasy value goes, Jenkinson and Cresswell should be your top choices.
Midfield
The midfield is likely the team’s weakest point. Cheikhou Kouyate is a solid defensive midfielder who plays the Makelele role for the Hammers, but he isn’t as good as someone like Nemanja Matic and makes the occasional mistake. Mark Noble continues to have his highs and lows and needs to establish himself as a more consistent option this season. The club also signed Pedro Obiang, who is a 23-year-old Spanish midfielder that played in the Serie A last season. Obiang is a defensive specialist who can play next to Kouyate, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see him replace Noble after a few weeks if Noble fails to produce quality results. There is also the option of playing all three of Kouyate, Obiang, and Noble in front of them, but that sounds like it could create big problems in attack and I’m not sure West Ham fans are ready for another defensive lineup.
The good news here is that newcomer Dimitri Payet is one of the most exciting players to come into the Premier League this season. Payet led all European leagues in chances created last season and that sort of creativity is fully needed at West Ham. Creativity being their biggest problem last year, the Hammers also lost Stewart Downing, and now seem fully on board the Payet hype-train. As a fantasy manager, I’m also fully on board the Payet train and I think he’s a fantastic option in the early middle rounds. He scored seven goals and registered 17 assists last season while featuring a 79.4 pass success percentage.
Forwards
The forward position can be a very strong one for West Ham, health permitting. Diafra Sakho had a great start to last season but slowed down after dealing with some injuries and seeing a decline in his service from midfield. Alongside him is Enner Valencia, who adapted well to the Premier League and was dangerous when healthy. The problem here is that Valencia is already injured and could miss up to 12 weeks. There is also the always-injured Andy Carroll, who hasn’t been able to stay on the pitch since joining West Ham and is still recovering from an injury from last season. Carroll is unlikely to get healthy anytime soon and West Ham shouldn’t rely on him. Last but not least is Mauro Zarate, who joined the club last summer but failed to impress. He was later loaned out to QPR, but only played 73 minutes for them. Zarate has looked much better this pre-season and has earned praise from Bilic, so I expect him to feature on the wing after the departure of Stewart Downing.
As far as a starting lineup goes, this one is very hard to predict. For the first few weeks, I would expect heavy rotation as Bilic finds his preferred XI and I won’t be surprised to see Angelo Ogbonna and Pedro Obiang crack the rotation soon. As for fantasy purposes, the best candidates for consistent production are Adrian, Jenkinson, Cresswell, Payet, and Sakho.
Best Starting XI
Do you think the Hammers will finish in the top 10 this season?
