The smallest and oldest squad with fixture congestion on the Horizon
West Ham’s decision to play out the remainder of the season with a 22-man squad is one hell of a risk. The Hammers currently boast both the smallest and the second-oldest squad in the Premier League, and fixture congestion is looming.
Having a small yet young squad might be acceptable if a club is only participating in one competition. However, West Ham have played more games than almost anyone in the Premier League due to European competition. David Moyes‘ team has been playing almost twice per week and sometimes close to three times.
The small squad places incredible pressure on the players to remain fit. Whilst the team is performing well, scratching below the surface reveals a lack of depth. This makes the decision to not recruit in the January transfer window incredibly strange. If Paqueta, Antonio, Bowen, and Kudus remain fit, it may be manageable for the moment.
History repeating for small squad
However, Moyes’ lack of rotation and substitutes may come back to haunt the club. Two years ago, when West Ham played Frankfurt in the Europa League semi-finals, the team was burnt out. It’s a situation that I can see repeating itself this season if West Ham are lucky enough to reach the latter stages of European competition once more.
The smallest and oldest squad in the Premier League. West Ham are placing European football at risk.
The biggest risk of all is the potential for European qualification this season. The Hammers were 6th last week and are dropping. The January transfer window afforded us the perfect opportunity to reinforce and qualify for continental football for an incredible fourth season in a row.
Under normal circumstances, four consecutive European campaigns would be seen as a nice extra. Unfortunately, it has now become a necessity because if we lose European football, we’ll likely lose players like Kudus, Alvarez, and Paqueta fairly quickly afterwards.
Let’s hope this riskiest of plans works for everyone’s sake.