The fixture squeeze is on with the Hammers receiving Charlton Athletic to the London Stadium tomorrow night for the opening game of the Carabao Cup.
And we are bound to see a much-changed line-up as the club again attempts to make a much-required impact on a major Cup competition.
The Addicks got away to a decent start away from home on Saturday when, after relegation to League One, they beat Crewe Alexandra with goals from Alfie Doughty and debutante Conor Washington.
Irons boss David Moyes will surely hand a chance to Josh Cullen in midfield – presumably at the expense of Mark Noble – to impress against his former loan club.
Elsewhere, Darren Randolph will presumably take over in goal from Lukaz Fabianski and Ben Johnson at right-back from Ryan Fredericks although a clue on that will come should the youngster be included for this afternoon’s under- 23 game against Chelsea.
Fabian Balbuena will be drafted into centre defence – probably for Issa Diop – and Arthur Masuaku looks set for his first outing of the campaign.
Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek will no doubt be rested although Conor Coventry, Yarmolenko, Anderson, Lanzini (perhaps both which would be interesting) and Haller could be in the starting line up.
Here’s a possible team: Randolph; Johnson, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Masuaku; Coventry, Cullen, Yarmolenko, Anderson, Lanzini, Haller.
Just play the brightest from our 21’s and 18’s ..14’s at this moment in time it is a meaning less competition and unfortunately it is down to. £££ ..if everything in this world was hunky dory but it ain’t at this moment so please bin this competition. ..
I think that your proposed team is pretty spot on Hugh. Whammer you have a point – and it would be good if Ogbonna didn’t have to play as we cant afford him to pick up an injury – but Anderson, Lanzini and Haller should all play to try and get into some kind of form
We should still be beating the likes of Charlton Athletic . The weak and unreliable Link is Haller . If we have nobody to pass forward or across to then the midfield is as always trying to play holding football . We missed a striker to aim at against Newcastle and lost the game trying to hold up play . Why did we let Carroll go ? , it still baffles me to this day .
It baffles me that all of a sudden after leaving West Ham ,Carrol has been fit and playing games.I b mean, He was practically injured his whole time with us
Sorry if Moyes continues to play 4 at the back with two full backs, he has learned nothing from last weekend. Surely he is not thinking of playing Fredericks and Cresswell again at the weekend, even he cant be so stupid. He needs to change formation tomorrow night and play a 3-5-2 system and assess how that works. He needs to change the system that best suits the players at our disposal and secondly to freshen up the squad. If Moyes does not see this we are in bugger trouble than I even thought.
FFS don’t play Antonio. It was this competition last season when Antonio pulled-up against Newport County – then we went into freefall until he came back, (coincidentally him and Fabianski).
Off point but Cresswell getting a lot of stick lately. Aaron Cresswell is a terrific player when given some confidence and playing to a practical plan. The last thing we need is yet another ‘upgrade’ joining the team and taking us through a spell of acclimatisation and possible relegation. Aaron is way, way, head and shoulders better than Jack W and many others that have come and gone. Unfortunately Jack and a couple of others are still with us. What a bench we had against Newcastle, by the way. Replacing Cresswell will not cure our ailments but a large dose of Kevin and Stuart will go a long way. These boys might not be ‘Barcelonites’ but they do know how to make the most of what we have.
COYI
The U21 team had several players missing of their recent starters.
Ashby, Coventry , Baptiste and Odekeku .
Silva and Holland haven’t been playing or in the squad, both not getting a look in the 1st team squad either.
Think there will be a few surprises and maybe even Baptiste on the bench to prove that Moyes loves our youngsters.
I have a feeling it will be a mash up of random players put together with no plan