West Ham United development squad lead coach Dmitri Halajko believes his players will relish the prospect of facing some of the country’s top teams during their upcoming run of Premier League 2 fixtures.
The U23s will twice travel to the north this coming week, with away fixtures at runaway league leaders Manchester City and mid-table Liverpool scheduled for Monday and Saturday afternoons respectively.
Halajko’s side will make those journeys looking to build on a solid display in a 0-0 draw against Derby County last weekend, which marked something of a recovery from a difficult run of results.
“They’re great games against top teams,” Halajko told whufc.com.
“We’ll be playing against some of the top young players in the country, and that’s what we want to do because we believe we’ve got some good players too.
“They’ll be really big tests and our lads will look forward to those. They’ve got nothing to lose.
“Big players look forward to big games. I’ll be hoping that some of our lads look at those fixtures and rub their hands together and are really excited, seeing that it’s a chance to step up and shine and really progress and show what they can do.
“The big players love games like that – and that’s what we want our boys to do. We’ll go there and give it our all, and I’m sure we’ll do okay.”
Managed by Enzo Maresca – formerly assistant manager at West Ham to Manuel Pellegrini – Manchester City U23s currently sit top of the Premier League 2 Division 1 table, with an imperious record of late.
The Citizens are unbeaten in ten league games and have won their last five on the bounce, with 18-year-old striker Liam Delap – who scored on his first-team debut earlier in the campaign – leading the division’s scoring charts with 15 goals in just 12 games this season.
The Hammers, however, have been working hard themselves to nullify the opposition goal threat, with Halajko explaining how the work put in in training contributed to an all-important clean sheet against Derby last time around.
The lead coach will be hoping for a similar base around which to build a performance at City Football Academy on Monday lunchtime.
He explained: “Training has been a little bit disjointed, but most of the work we managed to do before the Derby game was out-of-possession, and I think that showed.
“Some of the stuff we saw on the training ground we put into action. We’d conceded ten goals in the two games before it but didn’t concede any against Derby – so some of that hard work paid off for sure.”
West Ham United U23s take on Manchester City U23s on Monday 8 March in a behind-closed-doors fixture. Kick-off is at 1pm; you can follow all the action with our live blog on whufc.com from 12.30pm.
Please note that Academy fixtures will be played behind closed doors until further notice. Only key personnel will be admitted on site and the match will be played without supporters present, in line with safety guidelines and social distancing measures in place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
