ExWHUemployee has revealed the West Ham United squad to travel in the Europa Conference League this week – and Gianluca Scamacca is not included.
Up to this point in their European exploits this season, things have been going pretty well for the Hammers. Indeed, they have won every single game in their group, ensuring qualification into the next round as winners.
The sixth and final match of the group stages will take place on Thursday, with West Ham travelling to Romania to play FCSB away from home.
It seems as though manager David Moyes has taken this as an opportunity to rest a number of senior men and give some youngsters the chance to impress.
While speaking on The West Ham Way podcast, Ex named the full team, saying: “I have actually been told the squad that are going to be travelling to Romania.
“So I’ll just read you out the squad that are actually going to be going into the game. I don’t know the starting XI yet, and I wouldn’t say it even if I did.
“But the squad that going are: [Alphonse] Areola, [Darren] Randolph and [Krisztian] Hegyi, the Hungarian ‘keeper; and then you’ve got Nayef Aguerd, Harrison Ashby, Kaelan Casey, Regan Clayton, Vladimir Coufal, Conor Coventry, Flynn Downes, Michael Forbes, Pablo Fornals, Keenan Forson, Ben Johnson, Manuel Lanzini, Divin Mubama, Angelo Ogbonna, Freddie Potts, Oliver Scarles, Kamarai Swyer and Lewis Orford.
“So as I said earlier, it is a real mixture of experience and youngsters. And I believe that that is the way to do it going forward.”
TIF Thoughts on West Ham and the squad…
It is notable that Scamacca will not travel. He has two goals in the competition thus far, but has just started to establish himself as the main man in the Premier League, so this admission is understandable.
Fellow striker Michail Antonio also doesn’t make the trip. This is a little more surprising as he has been left out of the starting XI for the Irons in recent weeks due to Scamacca’s inclusion, so this may have been a good chance for him to pick up minutes.
Evidently, though, Moyes doesn’t want to risk his key forwards picking up any unnecessary injuries – which would also explain the absence of star players like Jarrod Bowen and Declan Rice.