Lyon Europa League tie gives West Ham idea where they’re at – Frank McAvennie
We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham United striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…
West Ham take on Lyon in the Europa League tonight and Frank McAvennie thinks it could be a very good test of where the current squad are at.
The Hammers advanced to the quarter-final stage by beating six-time competition winners Sevilla after extra-time thanks to an Andriy Yarmolenko strike.
Lyon, meanwhile, edged past Dinamo Zagreb to get to the last eight and represent a stern test of David Moyes’ side to a level they haven’t experienced before.
McAvennie is looking forward to tonight’s encounter but he still worries about the Irons squad being too small to compete on multiple fronts with the Premier League still a priority for his former side.
“This will give David a really good idea of where they’re at,” McAvennie said to West Ham Zone.
“I think we’re still pushing the big boys but they’re just one or two players away from the squad being big enough for all competitions.”
Jarrod Bowen and Ben Johnson are expected to be fit for the visit of the Ligue 1 side, who sit ninth in the table, but Vladimir Coufal’s fitness is still to be decided ahead of kick-off.
Lyon are without midfield maestro Maxence Caqueret but they do have joint-top scorer Karl Toko Ekambi back having recovered from COVID-19 that kept him out of their 3-2 win against Angers on Sunday.
Moyes will be very keen to see his Hammers take the game to Lyon and potentially blow them out of the water in the first leg to make the trip to France that much easier next week.
In other West Ham news, the boss has urged UEFA to reconsider a recent rule change that negatively affects his team.
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