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Moyes explains six changes

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David Moyes insists that he had to give West Ham’s best players the optimal chance to be fit for the Europa League semi-final against Eintracht Frankfurt.

The Irons are playing the German side in the last four and the first leg, at the London Stadium, comes on Thursday.

It is perhaps the biggest game in a generation for the Hammers and, as a result, six changes were made for the game against Chelsea on Sunday.

The Hammers rested Mikey Antonio completely, while Declan Rice started the game on the bench.

Of course, the game ended in a 1-0 defeat, as Christian Pulisic scored an 89th minute winner, after Craig Dawson had been sent off for fouling Romelu Lukaku when the last man.

And Moyes insists that the club will be more than ready for the last-four of the European competition, with every player feeling rested and raring to go.

He told the club’s website: “We’ll get ready for Thursday. 

“It’s a great night for the club and one we’re all really looking forward to.

“The way things have gone, today was the first day in the season we’ve really changed the team around in a Premier League game to try and prepare players and allow time for them to be ready for a Cup game.

“It’s one of the biggest games in the Club’s history in a long, long time, so I want to give everybody the best chance to be as fit and as ready as we can be, which is difficult when you’ve got important Premier League games in the middle of it.”

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A journalist with 10 years' experience of working on National newspapers, now chief reporter covering the club that I've loved since I was a boy. Upton Park remains the greatest football stadium ever built.

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  • johnham1 says:

    Sorry not good enough Moyes. A terrible decision. Chelsea were there for the taking and if we had gone strong we wud have won that game. Another big error that has potentially cost us European football next season. I hope I never see Masuaka playing fling a west fan shirt again.

    • mooro66uk says:

      Unless you’re psychic, you cannot say what would have happened. We could have played a stronger team and picked up injuries before Thursdays game. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. We can all be super critical after the event. As for your comment on Masuaku, the same applies to Benrahma.

  • BoleynIrons says:

    Agree with Masuaku comment, a waste of space.Fornals would of offered more there with Vlasic coming in.

  • BoleynIrons says:

    I think the subs were wrong too.
    Vlasic would be playing for a place,Kral should of had some minutes

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