West Ham United: Jarrod Bowen footage provides timely boost ahead of clash v Bayer Leverkusen
Jarrod Bowen could be set to hand West Ham a timely boost ahead of the game against Bayer Leverkusen.
Sky Sports posted a video on Twitter on Wednesday (17 April) of the England international back in training with the rest of the Hammers squad as they prepare to take on the newly-crowned Bundesliga champions on Thursday (18 April).
With Lucas Paqueta ruled out through suspension, the 27-year-old’s potential return would be welcome at the London Stadium after he’s missed the past two matches with a back injury.
Despite the positive update, David Moyes moved to temper any hopes around the winger in his pre-match press conference after suggesting that he may not be able to start the quarter-final second leg.
But there is no doubt that we need our talisman back for this crunch game after falling to a 2-0 defeat in the first leg in Germany.
While we defended well in that encounter for the best part of 80 minutes, Leverkusen dominated the play and had plenty of shots on our goal, forcing Lukasz Fabianski into a number of excellent saves.
Jarrod Bowen must start for West Ham against Bayer Leverkusen
That simply can’t happen again in East London as Moyes is going to have to throw caution to the wind in a bid to get us back into the tie.
For that to happen, we need Bowen to start. While there is understandably concerns around his fitness, this is the biggest game of the season.
With our form in the Premier League being fairly inconsistent over the past few weeks, it’s starting to look unlikely that we will be able to qualify for Europe again domestically.
That means we have to go for it against the Bundesliga side and ensure that there are no regrets come the final whistle on Thursday.
If we do that and it still isn’t enough, then there is absolutely no shame in losing to a side who have gone 43 matches unbeaten.
But it would give the squad – and the fans – a massive boost heading into the game if Bowen is named in the starting lineup.
If there is even a small chance of that being a possibility, then it’s worth the risk.
In other West Ham news, Alan Shearer has been slammed after what he said about David Moyes.
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