Carling Cup Quarter Final - Preview: West Ham vs Manchester United
West Ham are a team full of problems. They languish in last place in the Barclays Premier League, they've failed to field a consistent line up of their best players this season thanks to injuries and suspensions, and their best goalscoring inspiration this
season has been Scott Parker, a defensive midfielder by trade.
Facing Manchester United in the Carling Cup isn't supposed to make things easier for them, for in Manchester United they face the current holders of the Carling Cup and the current leaders in the Barclays Premier League thanks to that audacious 7-1 defeat
of Blackburn Rovers at home.
But, Sir Alex Ferguson is expected to ring the changes for this game, resting key players like Dimitar Berbatov, Wayne Rooney, Nemaja Vidic, Edwin Van Der Sar, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. And if he does rest most of these players, it will certainly play
into West Ham's hands, and a young and inexperienced line up like that could just give the West Ham players and manager belief that maybe they can pull off a major scalp in a season where they have otherwise looked to underachieve.
That could see players like Federicho Macheda, Javier Hernndez, Chris Smalling, Gabriel Obertan, Bebe, Darron Gibson and Jonny Evans come into the fray. Wes Brown is set to captain the team as Rio Ferdinand also looks to take a night off.
New signing, Danish international keeper Andes Lindegaard also looks set to sit this one out after only completing his transfer this week. So the place between the sticks is up for grabs and its a straight out fight between Ben Amos and Tomasz Kuszczak,
both players looking to stake a claim and catch Sir Alex's eye as the competiton for place in that particular position heats up. Michael Owen, Owen Hargreaves and Antonio Valencia still remain unavailable due to injury.
West Ham are without on the pitch leader Mark Noble as he has been confirmed to be out for at least the rest of the year with a hip problem. They are also without Kieron Dyer as he misses out with a hamstring injury. Manuel Da Costa, Thomas Hitzlsperger
and Jack Collison all remain longterm absentees. Danny Gabbidon, Frederic Piquionne and Valon Behrami are all doubts after picking up knocks at the weekend in that 3-1 victory over Wigan at Upton Park.
West Ham United need to turn around the recent theme they've developed against Manchester United, they've lost each of the last six meetings between the two. The last time these two teams met was back in September where United won 3-0 at Old Trafford in
the Barclays Premier League. It should again be a tough match with all the inexperience in the United side and the injury problems mounting at Upton Park. History certainly says that United are easy favourites for this one, but God knows how bad West Ham,
their manager and their fans need this to salvage some pride in a season where West Ham have as yet failed to take-off.
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