David Moyes makes Divin Mubama call as issues laid bare – confirmed West Ham United starting XI v Backa Topola
West Ham manager David Moyes has named his starting line-up for Thursday’s (30 November) Europa League showdown with Backa Topola.
The Irons took a depleted squad with them to Serbia as Jarrod Bowen, Michail Antonio, Mohammed Kudus and Vladimir Coufal remained home.
Moyes has often looked to rotate between domestic and European games, and that is no different for this showdown with Backa as seven changes have been made.
As confirmed by the club’s official Twitter account [30 November], Divin Mubama was brought into Moyes’ starting XI to lead the attack.
Mubama played a key part in West Ham’s comeback win at Burnley and has finally been selected by Moyes, with Danny Ings and Maxwell Cornet among the substitutes.
Even accounting for the injuries, the line-up fielded by Moyes was pretty strong, with the likes of Lucas Paqueta, Tomas Soucek and James Ward-Prowse starting.
Nayef Aguerd is the only other survivor from the late 2-1 Premier League win against Burnley last weekend.
However, it is when you get to the bench that you start to see the problems Moyes faces when injuries start to mount up – as they inevitably will around this time of year.
Among Moyes’ back-up options are Joseph Anang, Conor Coventry, Dan Chesters, Oliver Scarles and Lewis Orford. Coventry has been on supporters’ minds for a while, but the others are unproven.
Given West Ham have not yet qualified for the knockout stages, it is not ideal that so many youngsters are part of the squad.
Building for the future is never a bad thing, but let’s just hope these injury issues clear up ahead of the weekend as the big-hitters will be needed.
In other West Ham news, the Irons could now sanction an exit in January amid links with a new player.