Nuno Espirito Santo has to reconfigure his starting eleven ahead of Manchester City’s visit on Saturday. The oddly-timed 8pm kick off marks the start of the Hammers’ nine-game run in and an opportunity – albeit tough – to overtake rivals Tottenham Hotspur who have their own mountain to climb against Champions Liverpool.
The injury to Crysencio Summerville means change is forced upon the Portuguese manager and he is pretty certain to start with Adama Traore who began the FA Cup fixture on Monday night.
Traore has been working himself upto full fitness and put in a decent shift but still looks short of endurance and was often a reluctant defender, failing to track back in the way wingers Jarrod Bowen or Summerville himself have done this season.
Nuno has tough call to make – is Lamadrid Premier League ready?
So more than likely Nuno will have Keiber Lamadrid on the bench – as the only other left sided forward in the squad – if he chooses not to push Diouf further up the pitch.
A Premier League debut in the last few minutes could well beckon for the Venezuelan who looked nothing more than ‘ok’ in his full West Ham debut in the 4th round FA Cup tie.
Nuno has another big call to make: Mohamadou Kanté looked superb in the FA Cup match. The French youngster was understandably proud after impressing on debut against Manchester’s other side in December:
“I’m proud of my first game in the Premier League, especially at Old Trafford, so I’m very happy and I’d like to thank my coach and my team-mates. I’ll try to continue to make passes, to score, to perform. It’s important every week, match after match. I’m very happy.”” (whufc.com)
Was his response to his first outing: Having coped well at Old Trafford, Nuno may well decide to pick him ahead of countryman Soungoutou Magassa who looked far less composed in his substitute appearance (ironically replacing Kanté) in the cup match.
Either way, Nuno’s continued reliance upon young talent is winning him plaudits amongst fans and certainly doing morale at the Academy no harm at all. The ‘pathway’ to first team football – blocked under Potter and Lopetegui – is very much alive and kicking these days. And West Ham are all the better for it.
No one is expecting us to get any points against City so a good chance to roll the dice Traore had a good 45 minutes in the cup and has the pace to hurt City on the counter. If he plays Kante would be good to see what he can do against one of the best teams around.
8.00pm kick off?
Might be a little too late for Lamadrid. Bedtime and all that. Hopefully he is allowed to stay out late and can enjoy playing a big part in defeating Manchester City.
We may as well go all out from the start of this one. Only after we’re three behind should we resign and save something for Aston Villa. Same should apply for that game too.
Perhaps it’s time to give the kid (Lamadrid) a run out.
If I’m not mistaken, we only have him on loan- might as well use him.
Magassa also had a great game at Old Trafford and scored our goal. I also remember Kante being slated for his performance in the fourth round, it just shows that if you want to promote youth, you have to accept up and down performances. By all means praise them for a good showing, but don’t be too hard on them when they have a dip in form. You learn more from mistakes than you do successes
on the basis we’re likely to be defending for long periods, I would play Scarles in front of Diouf.
he has the legs to get up and down and can also drop in for Diouf when he goes on a charging run..
just think he’s naturally a better fit than most other…