West Ham face Aston Villa at the London Stadium on Monday night.
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The Hammers will be desperate to make it three wins in a row and could climb as high as fifth with a win over the Villans.
Dean Smith’s side will be no pushover, however. They have mixed it with the very best this season, having already beaten the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal.
Aston Villa currently sit one place and one point ahead of West Ham in the table.
The Villans have has so much success by playing John McGinn, Ross Barkley and Douglas Luiz as part of a midfield three.
Barkley is set to miss the game against West Ham through injury, but Dean Smith will surely stick with the same system.
The Hammers got caught out against Tottenham earlier this season in the first-half when we were overrun in central midfield.
David Moyes must realise this and try and match up with Villa. The Scot should start Michail Antonio and Sebastien Haller up front together whilst dropping Pablo Fornals back into central midfield alongside Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek.
This would also free up Rice to contain the brilliant Jack Grealish. The Villa ace has a penchant for cutting in from the left hand side and West Ham need to nullify him if we are to have any chance of beating the Villans.
And of course, Haller and Antonio as a pair would undoubtedly cause Aston Villa’s defence all sorts of problems.
Pros and cons
There are two problems with this formation and team selection, however.
Firstly, Jarrod Bowen would miss out. The 23-year-old has been a brilliant addition for the Hammers since moving to the London Stadium in January.
He has real quality and does not stop working for the team. If we’re being honest, however, he hasn’t been at his best recently. So perhaps one game on the bench wouldn’t be the worse thing for him. It is a squad game after all.
Secondly, starting Antonio and Haller up front together would mean Said Benrahma would once again be forced to warm the bench. David Moyes is notorious for easing his new signings in slowly, however. And perhaps the following week’s clash with Manchester United would be the ideal time to unleash the Algerian.
Monday’s clash against Aston Villa is a hugely important one for West Ham. Are we serious contenders for the top six? Or we will just be mid-table also rans?
The game against Villa will be a good indication of where we stand. And playing a 3-5-2 might just give West Ham the best opportunity to take all three points from the contest.
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