Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus start as David Moyes makes five West Ham changes for the Europa League clash with Freiburg.
West Ham are gearing up to take on Bundesliga side Freiburg in their second Europa League group game on Thursday evening.
The 5.45pm kick-off will undoubtedly be West Ham’s toughest match of the group stage.
Particularly with no West Ham fans in the Europa-Park ground as a result of the UEFA ban.
West Ham have made the trip to Germany with three players unavailable due to injury according to manager David Moyes.
Striker Michail Antonio will miss the game with an adductor strain while full-back duo Aaron Cresswell and Ben Johnson are also out.
Predicted: Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus start as David Moyes makes five West Ham changes for Freiburg
We think that will have made Moyes’ mind up on who he starts in certain positions ahead of the tough task that is Freiburg – who beat Olympiacos 3-2 away in their opening Europa League clash.
We predict Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus will start as Moyes makes five West Ham changes for Freiburg.
Lukasz Fabianski almost single-handedly set up a Carabao Cup fourth round clash with his old club Arsenal with his performance against Lincoln last week.
And as West Ham’s cup goalkeeper he will replace Alphonse Areola in change number one.
Only one change to midfield and forward line after Antonio injury?
West Ham dropped a big hint that Thilo Kehrer will start – as he did in the first group game – by putting the German up for the pre-match press conference.
He will come in for Vladimir Coufal at right-back in change number two.
We believe changes three and four will see Kurt Zouma and Nayef Aguerd replaced by Konstantinos Mavropanos and Angelo Ogbonna in central defence for West Ham.
Make no mistake West Ham need to go strong if they want to get a positive result in Germany. Moyes has admitted that himself.
Bowen up front and Kudus on the right in strong looking West Ham line-up
Other clubs in the Champions League and Europa League play close to full strength sides against opposition from the top leagues.
So we think Moyes will only make one change to the midfield and front line.
That will see Kudus come in to start in place of Antonio in West Ham change number five from the team which started against Sheffield United.
Moyes will likely push Bowen up front having stated several times he sees his top scorer operating as a striker more often this season.
So Kudus will take Bowen’s place on the right.
Predicted West Ham starting XI to face Freiburg:
Fabianski, Kehrer, Mavropanos, Ogbonna, Emerson, Soucek, Alvarez, Ward-Prowse, Paqueta, Kudus, Bowen.
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