**There has been a lot of speculation about who’s fit and who isn’t ahead of West Ham’s clash vs Liverpool tomorrow.**
Konstantinos Mavropanos and Crysencio Summerville are both ‘doubts’ ahead of the clash, but I have a sneaky suspicion they aren’t.
Nuno was very coy when asked about the availability of the players in his press conference , especially about Summerville.
I have a feeling both players will be fit, and if they are the starting lineup should be glaringly obvious for the Portuguese gaffer.
Areola – AWB – Mavropanos – Todibo – Diouf – Potts – Fernandes – Paqueta – Summerville – Bowen – Wilson.
This is just two changes from the team that played Bournemouth last weekend, but it is definitely our best side.
Mavropanos has to replace Maximilian Kilman, the former Wolves captain hasn’t been quite as bad as he was at the start of the season, but he’s still a liability.
The Greece international was our best CB under both Lopetegui and Potter, and he was in great form before his injury, so if he’s fit he needs to go straight in.
Summerville returning doesn’t need explaining. We simply don’t have an adequate replacement in the reserves for the 24-year-old.
Luis Guilherme was poor in the first half against Bournemouth and his replacement was full-back Kyle Walker-Peters, who very clearly isn’t an attacking player.
But, what if they are missing…
While I don’t think they will be missing, if they are, and I think Summerville is probably more likely to miss out on this one than Mavropanos.
If the Dutchman is out, personally, I would start Luis Guilherme again. Yes, it’s a bit of a risk and he gave the ball away a lot against Bournemouth which could cost us more vs Liverpool.
But I just think he needs as many chances as he can get before January. If he continues to disappoint we should think about loaning him out for the rest of the season, but to do that without giving him a decent number of chances would be silly.
Not only that, we saw how much more we struggled to advance the ball in the second half, yes that was because we took Wilson off mainly. But taking off a positive winger for a full back on the wing didn’t help also.
If Mavropanos is out, Kilman has to play again, I don’t really want to see that again because of his chances of doing something calamitous. However, he’s the only other option, throwing in a young player like Ezra Mayers or Airidas Golambeckis just won’t happen and to be fair would be a huge risk.
If Mavropanos and Summerville are available I give us a huge chance of winning against the Champions on Sunday. If not, it could be a long afternoon at the London Stadium. But let’s hope it isn’t.