Team news

Team News: David Moyes makes eight changes for Rapid Vienna UEFA Europa League tie

The team news for West Ham United’s UEFA Europa League Group H tie at Rapid Vienna has been confirmed.

David Moyes has been true to his word, making eight changes to the starting XI from Saturday's Premier League fixture at Wolverhampton Wanderers for Thursday evening’s game in Austria.

Just Craig Dawson, Tomáš Souček and Jarrod Bowen remain in the side from the weekend defeat at Molineux.

In come Alphonse Areola, Vladimír Coufal, Issa Diop, Arthur Masuaku, captain Mark Noble, Manuel Lanzini, Nikola Vlašić and Andriy Yarmolenko.

As the manager confirmed in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday evening, Łukasz Fabiański and Michail Antonio are being rested and have remained in London, while Ben Johnson, Aaron Cresswell, Kurt Zouma, Pablo Fornals, Declan Rice and Saïd Benrahma are named on the substitutes' bench.

They are joined there by Darren Randolph, Ryan Fredericks, Alex Kral and Academy of Football prospects Aji Alese, Dan Chesters and Sonny Perkins.

Left-sided centre-back Alese and midfielder Chesters have both featured previously for the first team in the EFL Cup, but this is 17-year-old striker Perkins’ first involvement at senior level after an outstanding run of form for the U18s and U23s this season.

 

West Ham United: Areola, Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Masuaku, Noble ©️, Soucek, Lanzini, Vlasic, Yarmolenko, Bowen
Subs: Randolph (GK), Cresswell, Zouma, Fornals, Fredericks, Benrahma, Johnson, Kral, Rice, Alese, Chesters, Perkins

Rapid Vienna: Gartler, Hofmann ©️, Aiwu, Moorman, Petrovic, Ljubicic, Arase, Knasmullner, Fountas, Kitagawa
Subs: Hedl (GK), Orgler (GK), Ballo, Schick, Grahovac, Strunz, Auer, Grull, Kara, Ullmann, Dijakovic, Sulzbacher