West Ham United: David Moyes must find solution as ‘significant problem’ with Mohammed Kudus flagged
David Moyes must fast find a solution as West Ham prepare to wave goodbye to Mohammed Kudus for the Africa Cup of Nations.
The Ghana international will link up with his country following West Ham’s meeting with Brighton and Hove Albion on 2 January.
Kudus could miss as many as seven first-team matches, including both EFL Cup semi-final ties should United advance past Liverpool this week.
As mentioned by Malik Ouzia in an article for The Standard [18 December], it is a “significant problem” that David Moyes must now rectify.
Using Jarrod Bowen on the right, where he is more than accustomed to playing, and Lucas Paqueta on the left seems an obvious choice.
For that to happen, though, Moyes needs to select a centre-forward. Even if Michail Antonio is back from injury, that does not seem a wise choice.
Danny Ings is not fancied by the Scotsman, meanwhile, and Divin Mubama is untested. On the face of it, the latter seems the best option.
Moyes has only a couple of weeks to decide which way he will go, because it will shape his line-ups for the best part of a month.
Kudus’ nine goals will not be easily replaced, but the Irons do at least still have some very talented attacking players in their ranks.
If Moyes does not get it right, the Irons’ season could easily crumble in front of them while Kudus is 5,000 miles away.
This was a problem United always knew they were going to encounter when signing Kudus, and one they simply must deal with.
In other West Ham news, a commentator made a “whinge” jibe at United’s expense after the win over Wolves.