West Ham starting lineup vs Crystal Palace confirmed as Lopetegui makes bizarre selection

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Julen Lopetegui has named his West Ham starting lineup for our Premier League clash with Crystal Palace this afternoon.

The West Ham starting lineup selected by Julen Lopetegui is a really strange one if you ask me, and getting a result at Palace may well now prove to be tricky.

West Ham lost our Premier League opener against Aston Villa last weekend, and Palace suffered the same fate away at Brentford.

Lopetegui will be desperate for his side to pick up a result against the Eagles today, but the Hammers head coach will be equally as keen to see a proper performance from his players.

Personally, I want to see more patterns of play through the middle of the park today, and an increase in bravery from our defenders when playing out from the back.

In addition to that, I’m hoping for more of an organised and aggressive press from the front. Hopefully we take the game to Palace today, because I firmly believe they’re there for the taking.

West Ham starting lineup vs Crystal Palace confirmed

Lopetegui has made no changes from the defeat to Aston Villa this time last week, in a really bizarre move

I would have loved to see Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Jean-Clair Todibo and Niclas Fullkrug come into the team as a bare minimum.

Here’s how the Hammers line up at Selhurst Park today, as confirmed via the club’s official X account:

Alphonse Areola, Vladimir Coufal, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Max Kilman, Emerson Palmieri, Tomas Soucek, Guido Rodriguez, Lucas Paqueta, Mohammed Kudus, Jarrod Bowen, Michail Antonio

That lineup is incredibly disappointing to see.

Lopetegui has gone with a stale starting XI in my opinion, although it’s still down to the players to produce the goods.

Palace are in slight disarray right now, with Joachim Andersen having left to join Fulham and Jordan Ayew moving on to Leicester City.

In addition to that, key man Marc Guehi faces an incredibly uncertain future at Selhurst Park, whilst John Textor is planning to sell his stake in the Eagles in order to finance a move to buy Everton.

Things clearly aren’t all rosy at Crystal Palace right now, and the onus is on the West Ham players in the starting lineup to go out there and makes things look even more bleak for the South London outfit.

That said, the lineup was still very disappointing to see.