West Ham United are preparing to host SC Freiburg at the London Stadium for the second leg of the Europa League Round of 16. Trailing a goal, the hosts will have to play at their level best to overturn the situation and head into the next round.
The Hammers settled for a 2-2 draw against Burnley in the domestic league in their previous game. With form and results not going their way, Thursday’s clash will be a test for David Moyes’ men. The crowd support will definitely motivate them to put everything on the line.
4-2-3-1 West Ham United Predicted Lineup Vs SC Freiburg
Defence
Alphonse Areola should be starting in goal for West Ham United instead of Lukasz Fabianski as they wouldn’t want to take any risk. Vladimir Coufal is going to be retained as the right-back in the lineup.
The centre-back duo of Nayef Aguerd and Konstantinos Mavropanos underperformed in the previous game. However, only the latter is likely to face the heat as Aguerd is pretty sure to form a duo with Kurt Zouma.
Emerson Palmieri suffered a groin injury in the first leg and it’s still unclear whether he will be able to participate or not. Aaron Cresswell is supposed to start at the left-back position.
Midfield
Edson Alvarez is going to return to the scheme of things, forming the holding midfielders duo with Tomas Soucek. He will replace Kalvin Phillips, who had a disastrous night against Burnley.
No changes are expected in the attacking trio of James Ward-Prowse, Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta. However, they all should be more effective in creating goal-scoring opportunities.
Attack
Jarrod Bowen will once again be leading the attacking line for the Hammers. He didn’t look comfortable against Burnley until he moved to wider areas. It will be interesting to where will he operate against SC Freiburg.
Maxwel Cornet has yet to recover from a hamstring injury, meaning he will be unavailable for the contest.
