Julen Lopetegui has decisions to make when it comes to picking his team for Saturday’s Premier League fixture at Nottingham Forest.
However, the West Ham United Head Coach insisted in his pre-match press conference that whoever he picks to start at the City Ground, the whole squad needs to be ready to contribute.
Last time out, Lopetegui’s substitutes played an integral role in the Hammers’ 2-1 home win over Manchester United, with winger Crysencio Summerville scoring, striker Danny Ings assisting and winning a penalty, and midfielder Tomáš Souček contributing to help the team achieve a valuable victory.
With Germany centre-forward Niclas Füllkrug still sidelined with an Achilles tendon injury, and Ghana attacker Mohammed Kudus serving the second game of his suspension, Lopetegui could make changes to his starting XI, given what happened after his replacements were introduced against the Red Devils.
However, as he regularly points out, every game is different and a trip to Nottingham Forest represents a different challenge to a home game with Manchester United. Forest have won each of their previous two Premier League matches against Crystal Palace and Leicester City, were victorious at Liverpool, drew at Brighton & Hove Albion and Chelsea, and have lost just once in nine Premier League games this season.
With those statistics in mind, Lopetegui was keeping his cards close to his chest when he was asked about any prospective changes to his team in his pre-match press conference at Rush Green training ground on Thursday afternoon.
“Unfortunately, Füllkrug is not ready to play,” he confirmed. “He's working on his recovery, but we don't have to be clear one date to push his recovery. He's trying to do it and our medical staff is too so let's see what's going to happen, but he's definitely out.
“Each match is different. In the last match, we decided this because we were thinking that was better for us, but each match is different, so let's see what we are going to do in the next match. The more important thing is not about our choices, but about the performances of the players that we choose to put on the pitch, but not only in the starting line-up. I always say that the players that are on the bench, there are a lot of times they are key. It’s about all of them so we have to be ready, all of us.”
When pushed on whether Summerville has done enough to warrant his first Premier League start for the Club since his summer switch from Leeds United, Lopetegui was again giving nothing away.
“I don’t want to talk about individual players or the line-up for the next match, so let's see,” he said. “We have players to choose for different situations, so we are going to try to put the team out that we think that is going to help us more to be able to compete with Nottingham Forest, because they demand a lot from the opposition to compete with them.
“There is no one fixed line-up. We can change depending on the match. The one important thing is that you have players to choose from and different options, and that all of them have to be involved to help the team. So, I repeat, sometimes I understand that all of you put the focus on the line-up, but I prefer to put the focus on the squad and the answers of the player in the line-up and on the bench. All of them have to be involved in all our challenge.”
We will confirm the team news for Saturday's game 75 minutes ahead of kick-off at 1.45pm GMT in our live blog and across our social media channels.
