West Ham’s final game of the Europa Conference League Group Stages occurs tonight as the Hammers take on Romanian side FCSB.
From David Moyes’ perspective, this is a dead-rubber affair due to his side already securing top spot in the group against Silkeborg last time out.
As such, there are a number of notable senior omissions from the side, with the Hammers boss set to give some of his highly-rated youngsters a run-out.
A win tonight could be record-setting for Moyes and would mean that West Ham would become the first team to win all six games of the group in the Europa Conference League’s, albeit, brief history.
Team News
Amidst a congested fixture period ahead of the World Cup, Moyes will need his first choice XI to be fresh for the next three fixtures and has opted to leave a number of his senior players back in England, for what is a dead-rubber tie on the face of things.
The notable omissions were not individually covered by Moyes in his pre-match press conference.
But, through football.london, it is believed that the likes of Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek, Kurt Zouma, Jarrod Bowen and Gianluca Scamacca are among those senior omissions, with the quintet not pictured in training on Thursday morning.
Predicted XI
In wake of Moyes’ admissions ahead of this dead-rubber against FCSB, here is our predicted line-up for tonight’s group stage finale.
4-2-3-1
Areola;
Ashby, Aguerd, Ogbonna, Johnson;
Coventry, Scarles;
Forson, Lanzini, Fornals;
Mubama
With nothing to really play for, we expect Moyes to action a squad overhaul in comparison to the side that narrowly lost against Manchester United last time out.
Alphonse Areola comes in for the injured Lukasz Fabianski, in what is a usual switch for cup competitions.
Harrison Ashby, Nayef Aguerd, Angelo Ogbonna and Ben Johnson all enter the fray, with Thilo Kehrer, Craig Dawson, Kurt Zouma and Aaron Cresswell all set to be rested for Sunday’s clash against Crystal Palace.
Skipper Declan Rice and his partner Tomas Soucek will join that aforementioned bunch, having not travelled to Romania. As such, Conor Coventry and highly-rated ‘new Declan Rice‘, Oliver Scarles, will take their place in a double-pivot partnership.
Jarrod Bowen and Gianluca Scamacca will also not feature, having not travelled with the squad. They will be replaced by Kennan Forson and Divin Mubama – an England under-18 striker who will be looking to pay back Moyes’ trust for starting him.
Finally, Manuel Lanzini and Pablo Fornals will boost up the average age, replacing Said Benrahma and Flynn Downes, going by the squad last time out.
