Julen Lopetegui revealed that Łukasz Fabiański and Niclas Füllkrug could both be involved in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup third-round tie at Liverpool.
Continuing a trend which has been commonplace in football in recent seasons, Fabiański will take his place between the sticks in the cup competitions this season, while Alphonse Areola retains his place as the Club’s Premier League stopper.
The veteran former Poland international made his 201st appearance for the Club in the second-round victory over AFC Bournemouth at London Stadium in late August, keeping a welcome clean sheet in a 1-0 win.
The 39-year-old also kept goal in wins over Lincoln City and Arsenal in last season’s competition and will hope to extend his perfect Carabao Cup record for West Ham when he starts at Anfield.
Meanwhile, Füllkrug has returned to full training after recovering from the calf injury he suffered while on international duty with Germany earlier in September.
The centre-forward made his first start for the Irons in the victory over Bournemouth in the previous round and will be gunning to score his first goal for the Club should he feature on Merseyside.
“We don't have any new injuries,” Head Coach Lopetegui confirmed, when asked by Sky Sports’ Gary Cotterill in his pre-match press conference. “I think that today [Tuesday] we are going to see that Füllkrug is better too, so maybe we are going to have all the squad ready. Yesterday [Monday] Füllkrug trained, and today he's going to train again and we will see his level.
“Łukasz is going to play, for sure. He is one player that makes us feel very safe with him, and he works very hard, always, and is always ready, so tomorrow he's going to play.”
Lopetegui made reference to the fact he will have ‘all the squad ready’, and that will give the Spaniard an opportunity to rotate his squad, should he decide to do so.
With a Premier League fixture at Brentford on Saturday to bear in mind, the Head Coach could make changes at Anfield, with the likes of centre-back Jean-Clair Todibo and midfielder Carlos Soler among those who could come into his thinking.
“It’s a good chance for all the squad to get minutes, but the more important thing is to face a very total team, the defending champions, at their home ground,” Lopetegui observed.
“We are going to try to be balanced, to balance the team, and to be able to put out a team that can compete tomorrow. Our focus is on Anfield.
“All of them, they are going to have the possibility to play but I repeat, we have to balance the team, because we have to try to take advantage of all of our squad, while always thinking that the team that we are going to put out is ready to compete at Anfield.
“It is a very tall task but, in the same way, one task and one challenge, that we go into with big expectation and ambition.”
Wednesday’s Carabao Cup third-round tie at Liverpool will be broadcast live in the UK by Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Ultra HDR, kicking off at 8pm.
