West Ham United face Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Saturday, and Julen Lopetegui may well have to juggle some things around with his starting XI.
Julen Lopetegui will be desperate for his West Ham side to start climbing the Premier League table, but a clash away at Tottenham doesn’t inspire much confidence, I have to be honest.
Annoyingly, Lopetegui suggested during his pre-match press conference that the clash with Spurs is no different to any other game.
As we all know, that is far from the case, and I’m just hoping that isn’t the message he is giving the Hammers players behind closed doors.
The West Ham players need to be more up for this game than they have for any other they’ve played this season.
Matches against Tottenham mean so much to the fans, and the team need to be aware of that.
The good news is that the Hammers head coach has an incredibly strong squad of players at his disposal.
Ahead of the game, it seems like Lopetegui may be forced into making a couple of changes, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
West Ham could have new-look attack for Tottenham clash
There was a big hint dropped in the training video posted to the club’s official website on Wednesday.
And it revolves around how Lopetegui may set up his team to take on Spurs in the huge London derby on Saturday.
During a six-and-a-half minute video posted from Rush Green, there were multiple absentees from the training session, namely Lucas Paqueta.
However, another absence caught my eye – that of Michail Antonio.
The 34-year-old has been away on international duty with Jamaica, and played 83 minutes combined during their games against Nicaragua and Honduras.
The clash with Honduras didn’t finish until 4am UK time on Tuesday morning. Antonio may well train today and tomorrow, but he will be shattered from the travel that he’s just completed over the past week.
I actually think that the former Nottingham Forest man’s absence from training on Wednesday is a big hint that he won’t be starting against Tottenham.
Instead, that job will be given to Jarrod Bowen in my opinion, and I expect the 27-year-old to be flanked by Mohammed Kudus on the right and either Lucas Paqueta or Crysencio Summerville on the left.
Considering the fact that Paqueta wasn’t seen in training as well, and his statement on X in response to the FA betting probe against him, we could have a completely new-look front-line for the Spurs clash.
There’s no way that Danny Ings will start, what with Tottenham’s high line, and the Hammers’ need for pace and power to exploit that.
With Niclas Fullkrug out, I can see a front-line of Bowen, Kudus and Summerville.
Tottenham will certainly not be relishing facing that West Ham attack, what with the pace and power they all possess.
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