West Ham United take on Fulham in the late afternoon kick-off today.
Moyes won’t sign random free agent now after taking a stand against West Ham way
Fifth placed West Ham can reclaim fourth spot from Liverpool with a win at Craven Cottage.
That’s after the Hammers bounced back to the Liverpool defeat in style by comfortably beating Aston Villa 3-1 in midweek.
West Ham had looked tired and lacking incision against Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Lingard makes instant impact to rejuvenate West Ham
But they were rejuvenated by a change of personnel against Villa as Jesse Lingard starred on his West Ham bow.
Moyes’s side looked extremely dangerous at Villa Park and that was reflected by the 20 attempts they had at goal.
Another key component in the win was Ryan Fredericks.
The right-back was a surprise inclusion from the start as he replaced Jarrod Bowen.
And he teamed up with Vladimir Coufal to great effect to keep Jack Grealish quiet while also providing a huge threat with his pace going the other way.
Fredericks gives Moyes a selection dilemma over Bowen
Now the dilemma for Moyes heading into the Fulham clash will be whether Fredericks retains his place.
Bowen has looked jaded of late. So much will depend on whether the extra break has given the former Hull man some time to recover.
Moyes may also decide to use the double right-back tactic again given Fulham’s danger man Ademola Lookman plays down that side.
But the Scot appeared to suggest he may make one change for the game.
Speaking to the press ahead of the match, Moyes said he will need different players against different teams and challenges.
“I’ll look to see about my team selection,” Moyes told the press (whufc.com).
“I wouldn’t call it rotating, but we made a couple of changes. We’ve tried to make sure all our players are ready to play so we might look a little bit differently.
Moyes to make one key change after dropping big hint in pre-match press conference?
“Every game gives us its own level of difficulty, like Aston Villa in midweek, so we’ll look at this game and see what we do for this one.”
That could well be taken as a hint that Bowen will come back into the side from the start against Fulham.
If he does it will be hugely exciting to see such an attacking line-up with Said Benrahma, Lingard, Bowen and of course Tomas Soucek supporting Michail Antonio.
A tantalising prospect for West Ham fans. And a somewhat daunting one for Scott Parker and his struggling but much improved Fulham.
Other than that Moyes is likely to name an unchanged team barring any last minute training ground injuries or Covid withdawals.
Predicted West Ham starting XI to face Fulham:
Fabianski, Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Soucek, Rice, Benrahma, Bowen, Lingard, Antonio.
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