Michail Antonio a doubt for West Ham when they take on Man United
David Moyes has today revealed that Michail Antonio is a doubt for West Ham in their FA Cup match with Manchester United on Tuesday.
The Hammers travel to Old Trafford coming off the back of a goalless draw with relegation battling Fulham. United also dropped points late on as they drew 3-3 with Everton.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Moyes stated that his side will be making a couple of changes, one possibly being Antonio.
He said: “He’s still fatigued so it’ll be a close call whether he makes it or not.
“I’ll see how he is today. We’ll need to assess him tomorrow to see if he’s able to play or not.
“I think we’ve picked strong teams in against Stockport and Doncaster. We’re certainly not picking a weakened team.
“We may have one or two changes through injury and suspension, whatever it may be, but we plan to of there with a really strong team and see if we can get through to the next round of the FA Cup.”
Inevitable
It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it?
No disrespect intended to Antonio, he’s a phenomenal athlete and a player of such importance to us. But it was never fair to shift the entire attacking burden onto his shoulders.
Our failure to replace the flop Sebastian Haller in January could cause real issues for us down the line. Moyes would be correct to rest Antonio against United. Yarmolenko, as frustrating as he can be, played very well against Doncaster and warrants a cup start.
Antonio has been in fantastic form since the turn of the year. He scored match-winners against West Brom and Burnley, before assisting at Crystal Palace and twice for Jesse Lingard against Aston Villa.
Moyes chose to sit on his budget to invest properly in the summer, which again we don’t disagree with. He’s made fantastic acquisitions since returning for a second reign.
It probably wouldn’t have hurt to bring in someone on loan, though. Yarmolenko definitely has great ability but doesn’t pose half as much attacking threat as Antonio.
Tuesday will be an interesting one. Nonetheless, come on you irons!
In other West Ham news, is Tomas Soucek’s red card about to be overturned?