West Ham United boss Manuel Pellegrini is set to hand debuts to five of his new recruits as they open their Premier League season against Liverpool at Anfield this afternoon (Sunday), according to a club insider.
ExWHUemployee, who is a reliable source for exclusive insider information on the club, reported on his personal Twitter account on Sunday morning that five summer signings are set to be part of the starting team.
It is also claimed that the Hammers are waiting on a last-minute fitness test on one other player before deciding on the final XI.
Early team news for those of you, like me, travelling up there. I won’t be sharing anymore than this though: There are 5 debuts in the starting 11 and we have a late fitness test on one player before the 11 is confirmed. ?
— ExWHUEmployee (@ExWHUEmployee) August 12, 2018
OPINION
As predicted in This is Futbol’s expected XI for West Ham v Liverpool, Pellegrini is set to hand competitive debuts to five of his summer recruits against Liverpool. The likely players in question are goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, right-back Ryan Fredericks, centre-back Issa Diop, midfielder Jack Wilshere, and club record signing Felipe Anderson. One possible alternative to that is Fabian Balbuena playing instead of Diop at centre-back with the Paraguay international looking good in pre-season, but Pellegrini could go with Diop due to his extra bit of pace. Anyhow, this is set to be an exciting match for West Ham fans as they finally get to watch the new-look Hammers in action. It is however set to be a tough test against last season’s Champions League finalists Liverpool, who have also spent heavily this summer on several new recruits, and a draw would be a brilliant result for West Ham at Anfield.