ExWHUemployee shares early West Ham United team news ahead of Premier League clash v Leicester City
David Moyes is expected to name a strong West Ham starting lineup for their Premier League clash with Leicester on Sunday, according to ExWHUemployee.
The Hammers are already safe from relegation heading into the final game of the season against the Foxes, who must get a result to have any chance of avoiding the drop to the Championship.
With West Ham having a Europa Conference League final a little over a week after the game (7 June) there were question marks about whether Moyes may look to rest players, but according to Ex on his Patreon (28 May) he believes there is enough time between fixtures to go strong.
“It is thought that Moyes will play a strong team today because the gap between the Leeds game and the final would be 2 and a half weeks and a week and half from this game so he will want the players to maintain match sharpness,” he wrote.
“The likes of Zouma, Aguerd and Antonio (all players who would stand a chance of being rested) have all travelled with the squad yesterday so at a minimum are expected to be on the bench.
“Moyes is expected to use the sub bench today to make sure that many of the players who are expected to start in the final don’t have to play a full 90 minutes.”
Fair
It’s probably the right thing for West Ham and the players to go strong for this game to ensure they have a good bit of rhythm in their legs ahead of the final.
As pointed out, the last game they would have played before the final if rested today would have been Leeds over two weeks before and that isn’t ideal preparation.
The ideal scenario would be that Moyes goes strong, gets a few goals ahead early on and is able to bring off the likes of Declan Rice, Lucas Paqueta, Kurt Zouma and Michail Antonio early to avoid them getting injured needlessly.
Realistically the result today isn’t too important but Moyes and the players will want to win for pride, but also because it’s the best form of preparation for the final and will also help them all to build momentum.
We want to sign off a tough Premier League campaign with a victory to show we’re back for real, and then we can turn our attention to the final.