The club says that Fabian Balbuena needed a complete rest in its website match coverage dispelling rumours of an injury.
The 29-year-old was missing from the matchday squad completely as David Moyes made five changes from the team that drew with Brighton a few days earlier.
Vladimir Coufal was also rested but was included in the squad and was an unused substitute against Southampton.
Craig Dawson making his debut for West Ham did a fine job deputising for Balbeunba with a number of people awarding him the West Ham man of the match.
Ryan Fredericks in for Coufal also had one of his better games and seemed eager to prove to the manager he could be relied on to defend and both defenders will be glad they were part of a West Ham defence that kept a clean sheet.
We are likely to see the return of Balbuena and Coufal on New Years Day for Everton but it’s good to see we have depth in our defensive squad.
I wonder if Oggy who was my man of the match will be rested against Everton and Diop playing, alongside Balbuena with Ben Johnson as left back ? Suspect it could be backs against the walls after Everton have had pretty much a weeks rest, will be very surprising if they don’t try and blitz us to capitalise on tired legs. Surely it’s also time Yarmolenko played centre forward, he is much more mobile and better at holding the ball up than Haller, give him Benrahma a shot in the number 9 / 10 slots.
I agree West Ham Fan. What bothers me is that we have a Player or two fit only for the Championship and yet they are in the squad so they get played. Should we put the Tea fella in the squad and see. if he gets played ? Better to have tired quality than a never has been.
Dawson and Fredericks had good matches and proved their worth. Could rest Ogbonna and use Dawson or Diop. I would also play Yarmo as the striker, but accept that while Haller remains largely ineffective he has learned that if you draw a foul, fall down. EPL is morphing into Serie A, slowly removing the physical aspect of the game through the misuse of VAR. Need to change with the times, Haller’s day may yet come.