David Moyes makes 8 West Ham changes for Anderlecht but ponders a big Gianluca Scamacca call in our predicted team.
West Ham tightened their grip on Europa Conference League Group B after making it a perfect three wins from three with a 1-0 victory over Anderlecht last week.
And the Hammers will effectively seal the group win and a place in the last 16 if they can beat the Belgians again this Thursday evening at the London Stadium.
Moyes has made a raft of changes for each European game so far.
Last week that saw Michail Antonio start up top with first choice striker Scamacca on the bench.
But the cavalry were needed to get the all-important goal in Belgium as Declan Rice, Lucas Paqueta and Scamacca came on and combined to get the job done – with a helping hand from Alphonse Areola.
Moyes confirmed ahead of the game that Antonio is a doubt having missed training due to illness.
We expect Antonio will be doing everything to be ready for the game but we must work on the assumption he won’t be.
We predict Moyes makes 8 West Ham changes for Anderlecht as he ponders a big Scamacca call.
Does Moyes risk starting Scamacca with big games in the Premier League at Southampton and Liverpool to come on Sunday and Wednesday?
Or does he play it safe and go with a false nine or Jarrod Bowen through the middle?
We think Moyes will decide not to risk Scamacca because if he were to get injured then it could leave him without both Antonio and the Italian for the Premier League games.
Predicted: David Moyes makes 8 West Ham changes for Anderlecht but ponders big Gianluca Scamacca call
Areola will obviously replace Lukasz Fabianski in change number one from the West Ham side which started the 3-1 win over Fulham at the weekend.
We think there will be another four changes at the back and a switch of formation to a back five.
Vladimir Coufal, Angelo Ogbonna, Ben Johnson and Emerson will come in for Thilo Kehrer, Kurt Zouma, Aaron Cresswell and Lucas Paqueta in terms of the teamsheet.
Change number six will see Flynn Downes come back in to replace Tomas Soucek after his man of the match displays against FCSB and in the reverse fixture against Anderlecht last week.
Manuel Lanzini comes in for Declan Rice while Said Benrahma replaces Antonio on the teamsheet with Bowen operating as a striker.
If Antonio is fit then we expect it will be Pablo Fornals who drops out for Benrahma with Antonio replacing Scamacca from the start like last week.
Predicted West Ham starting XI to face Anderlecht at the London Stadium (without Antonio), 8 changes:
Areola, Coufal, Johnson, Dawson, Ogbonna, Emerson, Downes, Lanzini, Fornals, Benrahma, Bowen.
Predicted West Ham starting XI to face Anderlecht at the London Stadium (with Antonio), 9 changes:
Areola, Coufal, Johnson, Dawson, Ogbonna, Emerson, Downes, Lanzini, Benrahma, Bowen, Antonio.
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