David Moyes strikes pure gold as Said Benrahma axed for Lucas Paqueta, Nayef Aguerd absent – West Ham United XI announced v Manchester United
West Ham United boss David Moyes has surely struck gold as Lucas Paqueta and James Ward-Prowse are recalled in a much-changed side against Manchester United for their Premier League clash.
The Hammers confirmed their starting XI on their official Twitter account for the game at the London Stadium on Saturday afternoon (23 December) with Moyes making several changes from the side that crashed out of the EFL Cup against Liverpool on Wednesday (20 December)
Ward-Prowse and Paqueta return to the squad for West Ham with Kurt Zouma and Emerson also returning while Mohammed Kudus, Vladimir Coufal, Edson Alvarez, Tomas Soucek, Jarrod Bowen and Konstantinos Mavropanos keeping his place.
West Ham United defender Nayef Aguerd is nowhere to be seen in the squad for Moyes after the Hammers boss confirmed that he was struggling with illness.
However, it still remains a strong lineup put out by Moyes and he has certainly struck gold axing the likes of Said Benrahma and Pablo Fornals who were both dreadful for the game against Liverpool in midweek.
Moyes will be livid at the way his side threw away the EFL Cup opportunity so easily with some lousy and inept defending against Liverpool but he certainly won’t tolerate it again on Saturday which means Manchester United are in for another tough ride in East London.
And that can only be helped by the returns of Ward-Prowse and Paqueta who can certainly add to the Hammers’ creativity and threat from set-pieces as well as open play.
West Ham United have only ever beaten the Red Devils on eight occasions in the Premier League with one of those coming last season, with that success ending a five-game winning run for Man United in Premier League encounters with the London club.
In fact, seven of West Ham’s Premier League wins over the Red Devils have come at home, with the exception being a 1-0 success at Old Trafford in the middle of the 2001-02 campaign.
Moyes rang several changes for the Liverpool game and couldn’t afford to make the same mistake in what will be a crucial battle as West Ham United have the chance to move above their opponents with a win.
In other West Ham news, a journalist has made a prediction over Kudus’ future after what he saw last weekend.