West Ham have made four changes from the team that beat Derby County 3-0 on Saturday to face Bolton Wanderers this evening.
In a game where both sides were expected to rotate, Nuno Espirito hasn’t made too many changes. He was forced to make one change, with Taty Castellanos nursing a hamstring injury. Solomon, Veltman and Piroe also drop out.
The starting XI: Hermansen; Walker-Peters, Mavropanos, Kilman, Scarles; Bowen, Engels, Kante, Mukasa, Austbo; Pablo.
With Taty not fit enough to start, Nuno has been forced to switch to more of a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 formation, with Mukasa as a ten and Pablo up top on his own. We did this against Southampton and won 4-1, so let’s hope it’s a similar final score tonight. However, we had Piroe up front.
With Pablo up front on his own, I am worried we might struggle in front of goal. However, with the players around him, we should have enough; maybe the Brazilian will finally score his first goal in claret and blue.
In midfield, Nuno had a big call to make. Does he keep the midfield of Mukasa and Engels that has been excellent in the last couple of matches, or does he risk it and rotate for this one? The Portuguese manager has decided to keep those two but add Kanté to it. It will be interesting to see who plays as the more advanced midfielder – Kante ot Mukasa.
After getting a goal and an assist off the bench on Saturday, Edvin Austbo earns a start over Manor Solomon. The Bolton manager has said they will attack and go for the win today, so maybe his pace on that left wing could be huge for us tonight.
I don’t think anyone was expecting Pablo to start up front on his own for this one. Piroe is on the bench, so it must be a tactical decision. So it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
We should still have more than enough to beat this out-of-form and rotated Bolton Wanderers side.
Come on you Irons!
