West Ham picked up a half decent result against Brighton on Sunday, even with a couple of strange team selections. 

Many Hammers fans were shocked with the fact Nuno decided to drop both Freddie Potts and Soungoutou Magassa to the bench, after the former’s consistently good performances and the latter’s man of the match display at Old Trafford.

The only reason for Nuno not to play them was to rest them because the game at Brighton was just three days after the United clash, but to rest two of our youngest starters after playing so well was confusing. What was more confusing was the decision to bring in Guido Rodriguez, he wasn’t awful, but it was for sure a downgrade on Magassa or Potts in that role.

Paqueta coming back in for the game was more understandable, but again, both Potts and Magassa deserved to started over the Brazilian. He did play as a false 9/CF which to be fair no one else in the squad can play. Wilson couldn’t start because he played pretty much the whole match vs United.

Crysencio Summerville came in after he returned from injury, there wasn’t any complaints about the Dutchman starting. While he didn’t have the best game, squandering a couple of chances, he has to start against Aston Villa.

Another player that did play against Brighton and shouldn’t play this weekend is Maximilian Kilman. I don’t think we should go with three defenders, instead we should pack the midfield with defensive quality and drive

My ideal team to face Aston Villa on Sunday:

Areola – AWB – Mavropanos – Todibo – Diouf – Magassa – Potts – Fernandes – Summerville – Wilson – Bowen

I think this is our best team at the moment, there is obviously an argument for Lucas Paquetá to come in for Soungoutou Magassa. But with Lucas’ poor from and Aston Villa’s quality I think we should go for the more defensive ability of the Frenchman.

But as far as the rest of the team goes. I don’t think there’s much debate. The debate will start vs Man City next weekend with Wan-Bissaka and Diouf go away for the African Cup of Nations.