West Ham United women’s team Manager Rehanne Skinner has made six changes to her side’s starting line-up to face London City Lionesses at Hayes Lane in the Women’s League Cup this afternoon.
The five players to keep their spot in the starting XI after last weekend’s narrow defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion are Shelina Zardosky, who dons the captain’s armband in Katrina Gorry’s absence, Kirsty Smith, Seraina Piubel, Manuela Paví and Viviane Asseyi.
Meanwhile, as against Portsmouth in the first Group C fixture last month, Megan Walsh starts in between the sticks, replacing Kinga Szemik, and joining Smith and Zardosky in the defence are Li Mengwen and Shannon Cooke, who makes her first start for the Hammers since late October.
China international Mengwen helped Skinner's outfit to their first clean sheet of the 2024/25 season against Leicester City before she was ineligible to face her parent club, Brighton, last Saturday.
With skipper Gorry injured and Oona Siren watching from the bench, Skinner has opted for a midfield pairing of Marika Bergman Lundin and Dagný Brynjarsdóttir to sit in front of the back four. The former started against Portsmouth while Brynjarsdóttir is set to make her third start of the season in all competitions.
And Emma Harries, who scored a brace from the bench in the Irons’ last Women’s League Cup fixture, starts in the Claret & Blue front four, alongside Piubel, Asseyi and Paví. French international Asseyi also netted twice in the space of three minutes in the Hammers’ 6-1 rout against Portsmouth.
Skinner has eight reinforcements on her bench with an abundance of experience should she need to make changes to her side during the contest. Szemik, Amber Tysiak, Anouk Denton, Siren and Riko Ueki, who all started at the Amex Stadium last weekend, start on the sidelines alongside Camila Sáez, Halle Houssein and Soraya Walsh.
London City Lionesses: Moloney (GK), Neville, Mukandi, Brougham, Campbell, Mengyu, Asllani ©, Meyong, Jakobsson, Goodwin, Boye-Hlorkah
Subs: Orman (GK), Goldie, Scofield, Ivanović, Fitzgerald, Wilde, Brown, Imuarin, Littlejohn
West Ham United: M. Walsh (GK), Smith, Zadorsky ©, Cooke, Mengwen, Bergman Lundin, Brynjarsdóttir, Piubel, Harries, Asseyi, Paví
Subs: Szemik (GK), Denton, Sáez, Tysiak, Siren, Houssein, S. Walsh, Siren, Ueki
