Moyes has remained tight-lipped over his selection plans for the Hammers’ Europa Conference League quarter-final first leg against Gent.
We take on Gent at the Ghelamco Arena this evening in the first leg of the quarter-final, a game that comes less than 72 hours before Arsenal come to the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
With the Hammers still in a precarious position in the Premier League and still only three points clear of the drop, managing his squad has become even more of a challenge and will remain so in the final two months of this season, with four of West Ham’s next six league games coming against ‘big six’ sides.
Asked about his thoughts on team selection, Moyes has said he does not want to waste the opportunity of being in the quarter-final of a European competition, but knows that the schedule must be considered too.
He said “I’m not going to give too much away, but we’ve got a lot of important games coming up, as Gent do as well,”.
“The chance to get through to a semi-final, we have to take every opportunity we can and we’re not going to give that up easily.”
One player who is set to be available is midfielder Lucas Paqueta, who missed the 1-0 win over Fulham on Saturday with a foot injury sustained in the 5-1 thrashing by Newcastle United a week ago.
However, Moyes expects Paqueta to be available for selection, having trained this week
“Paquetá got a bad knock against Newcastle, but he trained on Friday and we felt he might be okay but his ankle was just a bit too puffy,” Moyes added.
“He’s trained again and we think he’ll be okay for tomorrow.”