West Ham vs Wolves team news: £40m and £18m duo dropped as newbie makes first start

Add as preferred source on Google

Graham Potter has shuffled his West Ham United pack for Tuesday’s Carabao Cup second-round clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The man at the West Ham United helm is under major pressure after successive heavy defeats at the hands of Sunderland and Chelsea.

And while a spokesman for the club’s board have told Hammers News that Graham Potter is not in any immediate danger of the sack, exiting the EFL Cup at the first time of asking would only deepen the gloom surrounding the embattled East Londoners.

Potter introduced only Tomas Soucek for Guido Rodriguez during Friday’s 5-1 hammering by Chelsea. The side captain Jarrod Bowen will lead out at Molineux ahead of Tuesday’s 7.30pm kick-off, however, contains a few more alterations with Kyle Walker-Peters coming in for his first start.

After a ‘terrible’ Aaron Wan-Bissaka came in for major criticism last time out, Walker-Peters will hope to seize his chance in place of the 2024/25 Hammer of the Year.

Walker-Peters made cameo appearances in each of the club’s first two Premier League matches. This, however, is his first appearance in Potter’s XI since arriving as a free agent from Southampton.

Callum Wilson and Freddie Potts were expected to come in after both players made a positive impression off the bench in trying circumstances against Enzo Maresca’s side. Wilson is denied the chance to make his first start in claret and blue after his contract at Newcastle United expired.

Potts may have hoped to make a first start too, but he is again on the bench.

Jean-Clair Todibo, Nayef Aguerd and El Hadji Malick Diouf keep their place in defence, meanwhile, though Max Kilman and Mads Hermansen drop to the bench after their disastrous Friday night.

James Ward-Prowse, Tomas Soucek, Lucas Paqueta and captain Bowen also keep their places, as Alphonse Areola makes his first appearance of the season in goal.

Konstantinos Mavropanos replaces Kilman.

Sitting alongside Potts, Hermansen and Kilman on the bench, meanwhile, are Ollie Scarles, Callum Marshall, Andy Irving and young midfielder Lewis Orford.