West Ham face League Two outfit Macclesfield Town in the fourth round of the EFL Cup tonight.
After facing the familar foes of Chelsea on Sunday, this encounter is more of a foray into the unknown for the Hammers.
For those fans who don’t know an awful lot about Mark Yates’ newly-promoted side, we’ve got you covered.
We spoke to Jordan Davies, who runs Twitter account @SilkmenArmy, for the low-down…
Who is Macclesfield’s danger man?
The Macclesfield danger man, if such a player exists right now, would be Malachi Napa. In the absence of the injured Elliott Durrell he’s the only man we have who can take on a player, he’s comfortable on the ball and regularly finds pockets of space.
If he added consistent end product – and he’s just 19, so learning all the time – he could go far in the game.
Where can Macclesfield hurt West Ham?
Goodness me, we’ve been struggling to hurt League Two teams! Casting my mind back to the last time we were in the League Cup in 2011, we beat Hull away 2-0; by parking nine men behind the ball and hoisting long balls over the top for our then quickest striker, Emile Sinclair, to run on to, making use of the large pitch we were working with.
Perhaps a similar system with Scott Wilson in the Sinclair role would be our best chance of shaking West Ham.
Oh, and penalties. We’re very good at penalties. Nine out of nine shootouts won, three this season.
Which West Ham players are you worried about facing?
It would be quicker to say which West Ham players don’t worry me. Assuming Pellegrini plays a similar XI to the previous round, how could I ignore Javier Hernandez?
The man has played at World Cups and won Premier Leagues so I’d expect he’s not too intimidated by our defence; which have shipped 25 goals in 12 games in all competitions this season.
Robert Snodgrass has a wand of a left foot and set pieces have been a problem area for us this season, so there’s another concern.
And I’m sure Michail Antonio will fancy his chances of outpacing our defenders, so you’ve got options on how you put us to the sword.
Macclesfield are bottom of League Two, without a win so far this season. Where’s it going wrong?
There is so much going wrong right now. After guiding us back into the Football League against all the odds, Sir John Askey (club legend as a player and now a manager), left believing he’d taken us as far as he could.
His greatest strength was taking the ridiculously low budget the owners gave him and still finding gems to make a competitive and hungry squad.
Mark Yates hasn’t been able to make the serious lack of money go far and we have effectively a Conference Premier side in the Football League, which is why we have no wins.
The spine of a good team is there, but I also think Yates hasn’t noticed who our best players are. Centre back Keith Lowe is as dependable as they come but has hardly had a kick this campaign.
We also change formation and personnel too frequently to gain any rhythm. Hopefully one league win will see us turn the corner.
Can this game help your league form or is it an unwanted distraction?
If we ship six or seven tonight it won’t help our league form, but really we’re in a no-lose situation in this game.
The two clubs are worlds apart so the lack of pressure and expectation may mean we can play for the hell of it and see where that takes us.
It’s probably a welcome distraction from the turmoil of losing league games every weekend.
Is a trip to a Premier League club and a big stadium exciting, or just something you want to get out of the way and get back on track in the league?
It’s incredibly exciting coming to a huge Premier League stadium. We’ve just come out of six years in non-league football; where we were rubbing shoulders with part-time teams in ramshackle old grounds often on slopes, so just being in this competition is a huge win.
I’m sure the fans who make the trip south will enjoy seeing how the other half live, even if just for one night.
Do you think West Ham have turned a corner with their two recent results?
Yes, it seems you’ve turned a corner. There seemed to be a real lack of energy in the Wolves game but you’ve come back from the international break with the bit between your teeth and have taken four points from two of last year’s top eight.
The introduction of Andriy Yarmolenko and good form of the ever-dangerous Marko Arnautovic seem to be the main catalysts for your upturn in fortunes. As long as they’re on it you’ll do fine.
Score prediction?
As far as a prediction goes, I would normally bend over backwards to try and justify a Macc win but it’s proving tough here.
Obviously if it went to penalties, we’d be a dead cert, as mentioned but the planets would have to align for us to lose by less than three, probably. A goal would be nice, so I’ll go with West Ham 3-1 Macclesfield.
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