West Ham United will host Bournemouth in their Premier League clash at the London Stadium tomorrow evening, and David Moyes could make some significant changes.
The Hammers return to action in their pursuit to claim a European qualification spot in the Premier League table and will be looking for consistency over the second half of the season.
West Ham are currently sixth in the top-flight table and are just eight points shy of a top-four place which would be the dream finish for the supporters, the squad and Moyes.
They are currently unbeaten in their last five league games, whilst Bournemouth have suffered two consecutive defeats most recently, so there is a real opportunity for West Ham to capitalise on the Cherries’ poor form.
In terms of injuries, Lucas Paqueta and Michail Antonio are ruled out of the clash, while Said Benrahma and Vladimir Coufal will serve their suspensions.
Moyes has received a huge boost as Mohammed Kudus has returned from the Ivory Coast after representing Ghana at AFCON, and Edson Alvarez is fit.
The Scotsman revealed in his pre-match press conference:
“Mo’s back from the AFCON which is good,”
“Edson Alvarez is doing much better so hopefully he’ll be available.”
January signing Kalvin Phillips could be set to make his debut in claret & blue tomorrow night, as the Manchester City midfielder looks to boost his game-time in East London.
However, Moyes has hinted that the England international won’t be ready to start:
“I don’t know exactly if he is [ready to start] or not because he’s not played an awful lot at all but he’s been training and keeping himself going,” he said.
“I couldn’t give you the exact answer if he’s ready to play or not.”
How could West Ham line up against Bournemouth?
We predict that David Moyes will make three changes to the team that drew with Sheffield United, deploying a 4-3-3 formation.
We expect to see Ben Johnson replace Coufal in the left-back role alongside an otherwise unchanged defensive set-up of Alphonse Areola, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Kurt Zouma and Emerson.
We predict that Edson Alvarez will return to the starting eleven alongside James Ward-Prowse and Tomas Soucek, whilst Pablo Fornals and Maxwel Cornet will drop to the bench.
In the attacking threat, we expect Moyes to instantly reinstate Mohammed Kudus on the left-wing to cover for an injured Paqueta, whilst Danny Ings will remain in the centre-forward role and star player Jarrod Bowen will cut in from the right flank.
With that being said, nothing short of three points will be satisfactory for the Hammers at home and with Kudus and Alvarez back in action it should put the side in good stead to put on a quality and convincing performances.
