Kick off at the London Stadium is just over an hour away and Nuno Espírito Santo has named his starting eleven for the first home fixture in the Irons’ Championship campaign. Coming after the disappointment last week with two points surrendered at Turf Moor, a sell out capacity 62000+ crowd will expect their home team to be on the front foot against London rivals Charlton Athletic who themselves narrowly avoided being sucked into the relegation mix last term.
There’ll be a high expectation of a dominant West Ham home performance this afternoon. After so much criticism of his ‘park the bus;’ tactics in the second half against Burnley and with new signings offering Nuno a new level off attacking option, the Portuguese manager has something to prove as the Irons set out to dominate this division as their captain demanded in the programme notes.
West Ham’s starting eleven this afternoon included debuts for Engels and Piroe who go straight into the starting eleven:
West Ham United:
Hermansen | Walker Peters, Mavropanos, Kilman, Scarles | Kanté, Engels | Bowen, Piroe, Castellanos, Solomon
Apart from Diouf, not even on the bench – fuelling those ‘sale’ rumours – and Soucek, still injured, this probably represents the Hammers strongest possible eleven.
We’ll have Gonzo’s player ratings and my ‘first impressions’ straight after the final whistle so check back at 17.00 to compare your own opinions with ours and make your own thoughts known in the ‘Claret and Hugh readers comments’ section.
Come.On.You.irons!
I noticed and also found interesting that Diouf isn’t even on the bench, especially after Ollie’s wobble last weekend. Hope the lad is ready!
line up is short sighted , should have a striker on the bench to bring on , A midfield 3 Orford at 6 and Kante , Engels. Is better balanced . Nuno is poor tactically especially in later part of the game need option to attack in last 20min.
Well the starting eleven is beginning to look a strong one for a championship side. Not so sure about the depth though and I have never been sure about Scarles as a first choice.
Agreed, suspect that Scarles at the end of this season will be far better quality than now… especially if Diouf gets sold!
Agree with that lineup BUT KILMAN REALLY Alvarez should be in at c back while hes still at the club This is I fear is where NUNO let’s himself down Has grudges agaist certain players THATS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FROM ANY MANAGER OF SORTS
I would put Orford in for Kante, he’s more defence minded
We don’t have to sell our best players ? we seem to be doing a good job on not keeping that promise ?