Despite all the absences to several key players, West Ham United manager David Moyes fielded a strong team last night in the FA Cup replay loss at Bristol City. Most likely he can still field a strong team on Sunday, at Sheffield United, but his options could be limited. Moyes will likely be even more short-handed on Sunday than he was on Tuesday.
“Disappointed. Lots of things didn’t go for us tonight but overall disappointed,” Moyes said, after West Ham was eliminated from the third round of the FA Cup for the first time in seven years.
West Ham United at Sheffield United FYIs
Kickoff: 2pm Sunday, Jan 21, Brammall Lane Stadium
West Ham United Preview Content: Team News Starting XI Prediction
Transatlantic Passage: How the Premier League Redefined Soccer in America: LINK
Form Guide, Standing: Sheffield United LLDLW 20th, 9 pts West Ham DWWWL 6th 34 pts
Result Probabilities: Sheffield United win 28%, Draw 28% West Ham United win 44%
Moyes is finding himself with more and more issues to deal with, as the injury list grows, two players are away at AFCON and another player is suspended. So let’s see what the best of what’s still around might be come Sunday.
With all the injuries and voids in the midfield and the attack, but plenty of healthy defenders, we’re going to go with this 3-4-2-1 formation, which will see some players are who are usually in the back line, shifted forward to the middle of the park.
West Ham Starting XI Prediction at Sheffield United
Lukasz Fabianski; Vladimir Coufal, Kurt Zouma, Aaron Cresswell; Ben Johnson, Emerson Palmieri, James Ward-Prowse, Tomas Soucek; Maxwell Cornet, Jarrod Bowen; Danny Ings
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now, while writing for the International Baseball Writers Association of America. You can follow the website on Twitter.