West Ham United have been dealt yet another blow, in addition to the news that Lucas Paqueta has suffered an ankle injury.
Lucas Paqueta has rediscovered some of his best form for West Ham recently, so when news of his ankle injury emerged on Tuesday, it sent shockwaves around the London Stadium.
And now, perfectly in keeping with the Hammers’ disastrous season so far, yet another one of our players has succumbed to an injury.
I guess the old saying is true – when it rains, it pours.
Graham Potter is already without Michail Antonio, Niclas Fullkrug and Crysencio Summerville and has had to make do without Jarrod Bowen, Jean-Clair Todibo and Edson Alvarez during large spells of his Hammers tenure.
West Ham have had some incredibly difficult fixtures since Potter’s arrival.
And they’re set to get even harder, with games against Arsenal, Newcastle and a resurgent Everton to come in our next four fixtures.
Unfortunately for West Ham, we will have to negotiate those matches without some key players.
Another West Ham star ruled out injured along with Lucas Paqueta
Potter must be thinking that he’s cursed right now.
It certainly has been a baptism of fire for him since he was handed the reigns at the London Stadium last month.
Just after getting the likes of Bowen and Todibo back to full fitness, he’s lost another couple of players to injury.
The biggest problem is that the Hammers have one of the smallest and oldest squads in the Premier League, so it’s extremely hard to deal with numerous absentees at the same time.
Paqueta’s ankle problem is obviously a massive blow, but now Potter will have to make do without another key player.
According to Sean Whetstone, West Ham right-back Vladimir Coufal has sustained a hamstring injury, and probably won’t return to action until our clash with Newcastle on March 10th.
The reason why that’s such a blow for us is that I think Coufal is a lot better than Konstantinos Mavropanos.
Potter has used the Czech Republic international as a right-sided centre-back when playing with a back three.
So Coufal being ruled out for another three weeks means that we will have to endure Mavropanos playing regularly over the next few games.
The 32-year-old former Slavia Prague man may not be top tier, but he always gives his all for the Hammers.
West Ham need players like Vladimir Coufal right now, and Lucas Paqueta of course.
Unfortunately we will have to make do without them for quite some time.
Hopefully everyone else manages to raise their levels as Graham Potter goes in search of some positive results over the next few weeks.
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