The recent and in my opinion maddening selection mantra of ‘the same eleven starts again’ which we’ve seen several times this season will be out of the window on Sunday. Thanks to Mohammed Kudus’ red card, the head coach will be forced into change, however his replacement for the winger will depend upon his approach to the tie. Aggressive and attacking or a more cautious, safe-pair-of-hands option? West Ham go in search of a much needed home win but that doesn’t mean Lopetegui will choose the more attacking option.
In the past, remember that he has left Crysencio Summerville sat on the bench when he subbed off Kudus at half time, to be replaced by Carlos Soler, as in the Brentford game.
In his pre-match press conference, Lopetegui hinted that he’d already decided who would replace Kudus but wasn’t telling:
“The most important focus for me regarding Mohammed Kudus’s absence is the player who is going to play in his place, and to put the focus on sometimes one problem is one opportunity, and we have to try to catch this moment as an opportunity for the team and for other players,I am sure that the player is going to play in his place is going to be ready to do well and to help us to win the match.”
Unless he’s going really radical with untested Luis Guilherme, there is only a choice of Summerville or Soler for the wide left position. To start Soler on the left would be ‘turning to the dark side’ – akin to Moyes’ banishing Pablo Fornals to the left wing: A defensive, negative move and a waste of Fornals’ talents which would produce the same end result for Carlos Soler.
It’d also be a massive confidence slap for Summerville who has looked likely to score pretty much every cameo he’s had this season. Surely it must be Crysencio time?
Lopetegui again: ”
“We have a player ready to play for him [Kudus]. I am not going to say today what the lineup will be, but I am sure that the player who is going to play in his place is going to do well. I repeat that sometimes one problem is one opportunity and we have to try to catch this moment and this opportunity.”
I’m a great believer in doing what your opponent wants least. The Soler option would be slow, predictable, less threatening: Summerville gives West Ham a left-sided goal threat to equal Jarrod Bowen on the right – surely a no-brainer.
