Slaven Bilic expects Manu Lanzini to return to the Hammers side for the match against Aston Villa on Boxing Day.Speaking at his presser this morning ahead of the Swansea TV game on Sunday (Sky 4pm) he said: “I think Lanzini should be OK for the Villa game and Dimi is recovering really well.
“He is training and should be training with us maybe in ten days to two weeks. Also Winston Reid is going to start to run, as is Victor Moses. We know he is back and fit, so it looks really good.”
However, we will be without six players this weekend and the boss said: “We have to be as compact and as good at the back and as patient as them to stop them, and then we have the quality to beat them.
“Against Stoke, we had the most shots off and on target, so we have to show more quality in the final third and I’m sure we are going to show that in this game.”
He added: “We have the choice of Valencia or Jelavic up front. They are quality players, they are good players and they are different players. Maybe the two of them will play together. We still have a couple of good strikers on our roster, even without Sakho and Carroll.”
“If we keep that kind of team spirit when these players start to come back, it’s all very positive, but we have to go through this period of two or three games without them.”
My team for Swansea would be, Adrian, Oxford, Tomkins, Ogbanna, Cresswell, Song, Obiang, Kouyate (WR), Zarate, Valencia (WL) and Antonio (Up front). That team have a chance of beating Swansea. I would be ok with Tomkins at RB and Collins at CB but can’t wait to see Oxford at RB !! I would play two strong holding players and 3 in front of them Kouyate, Zarate and Valencia with Antonio using his pace up front, equally happy with Antonio on wing and Valencia or Zarate up front. I worry when I see manager speaking about Jelavic, Slaven trust me he is not a starter..
And Slaven I don’t get your wages and I know this lol lol my friend…
No rush to bring Lanzini back better to have him back 100%,
Defence can be left alone midfield could be tinkered with but the front 3 will cause Swansea trouble,it’s now down to confidence and when Enner comes on,
We need 6 points from these 2 games before we start our cup run