Monday, October 22

Yarmolenko out for the season

More bad news on the injury front. Andriy Yarmolenko has torn his achilles tendon and is now likely to be out for the rest of the season. Pellegrini hasn't had much luck, seeing both his statement £17m signing and the influential Lanzini sidelined with long-term injuries. He's also without Carlos Sanchez for the season, while Wilshere, Carroll (as ever) and Reid have also had serious injuries, while Chicharito contracted glandular fever. Still, a treatment room that's busier than the Stratford station interchange is surely the West Ham Way. 

There are options to replace Yarmolenko. I liked Diangana's confident attitude against Spurs and he's not afraid to try fancy stepovers against international defenders from a top four side. Antonio could be another option, if he ever manages to regain his pace and full fitness, or we could play Anderso behind Arnie in a more central role. While there were signs that Arnautovic and sub Javier Hernandez were linking up well late on against Spurs. West Ham's big problem is not scoring when we get the opportunities, so my own choice would be to give Hernandez a run alongside Arnie with Anderson feeding them— Chicharito might not do much apart from score, but that's not a bad knack to have.

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