Memo to Moysie as Lyon beckons

By Dave Langton

There’s no reason at all for David Moyes to change his team for the clash with Lyon!

The Hammers go into Thursday’s game against the French team on the back of a 2-1 win over Everton.

Now, that performance wasn’t exactly the best , as the Toffees are  poor, and might well go down.

But the French club just aren’t very good either.

They are stuck in midtable in Ligue 1 and the Hammers don’t need to switch it up at all.

The main questions seem to be over the right-back position and whether or not Said Benrahma will start.

Ryan Fredericks replaced Ben Johnson against Everton because of the latter’s injury and played excellently. His tackle on Richarlison when he went through on goal was sensational, and showed that he offers real pace and recovery ability.

With Vlad Coufal’s fitness uncertain, play Fredericks again.

Benrahma was also better than usual against Everton, playing a couple of lovely passes in the final third, and dropping his shoulder enough times to scare the backline.

Start him, as the Europa League game is likely to be slower than the Premier League, so he’ll have yet more time on the ball.

Alphonse Areola is very likely to come in for Lukasz Fabianski, as he’s the cup goalkeeper, and he’s been perfectly good throughout his time in goal in Europe.

Other than that; don’t change it, Moyesie!