There’s never a good time to play Liverpool, especially this season, but things have been made a lot worse for West Ham ahead of this weekend’s clash.
The 1-0 victory at Southampton on Boxing Day was vital, but it came at a heavy price.
Guido Rodriguez and Tomas Soucek both picked up one-match suspensions after getting booked for the fifth time this season, while Lukasz Fabianski, Max Kilman and Carlos Soler were all forced off through injury.
It means our midfield has been decimated for one game, against the best team in the country, and we have some big injury doubts.
Reports suggest Fabianski will definitely be sidelined for this one after he came off with a head injury at St. Mary’s Stadium earlier in the week, so we can be confident that Areola will be in goal.
There are, though, no confirmed injury updates regarding Soler and Kilman. Both are listed as doubts for this one but we’re completely in the dark about the severity of their respective injuries.
We should probably expect at least one of them not to make it, but for the purposes of this I’m expecting both to miss out in a game that is essentially a free hit for the Hammers.
This means that five starting XI players are unavailable for this game.
But we will be boosted by the return of Lucas Paqueta after missing the win over Southampton through suspension.
That allows Julen Lopetegui to try something we’ve been so eager to see at West Ham over the last year, and that’s Mohammed Kudus being utilised in a more central role.
The Ghanaian has made no secret of his preference for playing as a number 10, but is always used as a left-winger by both Lopetegui and David Moyes last season.
He has struggled for form this season but perhaps unleashing him in the position that he prefers to play in might be the catalyst to him rediscovering the electric form we saw from him last season.
Injuries and suspensions provide Lopetegui with an opportunity to give Kudus the chance to prove he can be more effective centrally.
That would mean a midfield two of Edson Alvarez and Lucas Paqueta, and Crysencio Summerville coming back into the starting XI.
So the starting XI below is what I would choose if I were Lopetegui on Sunday. It could be argued that it’s not defensive enough against a side such as Liverpool, but this is what we wanted, isn’t it? We wanted a team to be more attack-minded and one that approaches games with a bit more positivity.
Going five at the back might be the more sensible thing to do, but the below approach speaks to what fans have been calling for for well over a year now.
What do you think?
