West Ham United play host to Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League quarter-final second-leg tomorrow night, and David Moyes has numerous problems on his hands.
If West Ham is to overcome a two-goal deficit against Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League at the London Stadium, David Moyes will have a monumental task ahead of him.
The match is tomorrow night, and the Scot is facing a number of injury issues. Moyes has so few choices, in fact, that Maxwel Cornet might potentially start the match against Leverkusen!
Since the beginning of the season, the Hammers have had a dismal record, winning just four of our last 20 games across all competitions.
Journalist Jacob Steinberg of West Ham described our performance against Leverkusen in the first-leg last week as “embarrassing,” and it was among our poorest of the entire season.
It goes without saying that if we want to have any chance of advancing to the competition’s semi-finals, we need to perform far better tomorrow night.
The West Ham boss has to take the game to the visitors, and if we get the London Stadium rocking then who knows what could happen?
However, Moyes may well be working with one hand tied behind his back…
West Ham boss Moyes could now be without 7 players for Leverkusen
We have a really significant game tomorrow in East London, which is without a doubt our greatest match of the season thus far.
Leverkusen are a fantastic team, and it’s not hyperbole to suggest that they’re among the top teams on the continent at the moment.
As if playing the Bundesliga winners wasn’t a difficult enough challenge in and of itself, Moyes currently has a critically depleted roster at his disposal.
Up until the last month or so, we have essentially avoided injuries the entire season. Whether you agree with Moyes or not, this is the worst possible time for it to happen, and you have to feel bad for him.
Thus, the following seven players may not be in action tomorrow night:
Emerson Palmieri and Lucas Paqueta will undoubtedly miss out due to suspension, but five players are major injury worries.
For the Leverkusen match, Jarrod Bowen, Constantinos Mavropanos, Alphonse Areola, Kalvin Phillips, and George Earthy are all seen as questionable.
For a game of this magnitude, missing seven first-team players will undoubtedly be a huge blow to us.
When West Ham plays Bayer Leverkusen, the odds are stacked against them, and David Moyes has to be cursing his fate.
Hopefully, some of the guys listed above will be well enough to play against the German team.