West Ham United star, according to Eddie Howe James Ward-Prowse as the “obvious threat” for the Irons

James Ward-Prowse has been identified by Eddie Howe as West Ham United’s most obvious threat when the Irons take on Newcastle United on Sunday, October 8.

Having defeated Freiburg 2-1 in the Europa League on Thursday, October 5, David Moyes’ team enters the match against the Magpies on a three-game winning streak in all competitions, while Newcastle enters the London Stadium in high spirits after defeating PSG in the Champions League.

Even so, Newcastle manager Howe has already focused on the “obvious” threat that Ward-Prowse will present on Sunday despite keeping Kylian Mbappe quiet for the full 90 minutes at St. James’ Park. Ward-Prowse has five goal involvements in six Premier League games.

“They’re an obvious threat from set-plays with James Ward-Prowse’s delivery and everything he brings,” he said prior to the game, as quoted by Newcastle’s website (6 October), “so for us it’s a case of refocusing and not being too distracted or affected in any way by the performance on Wednesday.”

Set-pieces

With a somewhat large roster at their disposal, West Ham has always posed a threat from set-pieces. However, with Ward-Prowse now manning the dead ball for Moyes’ team, they actually appear likely to provide a scoring opportunity with each corner or free-kick.

Teams will set up against the Hammers with the purpose of minimizing how frequently the former Southampton player will get the chance to exercise his corner-taking skills, and Howe’s Newcastle team has demonstrated they are more than capable of containing some of the finest players in the world.

Fortunately for the Irons, Moyes’ team features a number of other standout players surrounding the 28-year-old to guarantee that the opposition cannot concentrate solely on stopping the midfielder. Players like Lucas Paqueta and Jarrod Bowen are particularly strong in various positions.

While Moyes has made set-pieces a big part of West Ham’s game this year, the Hammers are far from a one-dimensional long ball team, and the Irons manager deserves credit for enforcing a system that has made them such a reliable threat without really having a reliable striker to rely upon.

Mark Goldbridge criticized Bowen’s selection for the England team while calling Ward-Prowse’s exclusion a farce in unrelated West Ham news.