West Ham tackle Gent in the second leg of their Europa Conference League quarter-final at the London Stadium, with the tie finely poised after a mouth-watering 1-1 draw when they last clashed.
Understandably, for the match in Belgium last week, David Moyes named a much-changed line up as he attempts to balance the club’s European excursion and bid for top-flight survival.
However, the Hammers were perhaps fortunate to escape the Ghlemco Arena without a loss, as the home side absolutely peppered the West Ham goal. Gent had a mammoth 20 shots, in comparison to Moyes’ side’s disappointing two.
The Scottish boss will be keen to avoid a similar repeat tonight, especially in front of their adoring home support. One player who managed a rare start in the previous tie, but produced an anonymous performance was Manuel Lanzini.
Should West Ham drop Lanzini vs Gent?
The 30-year-old has endured a troubled and unproductive campaign, only starting two games outside the Conference League. During the early stages of the competition, albeit against weaker opposition, the Argentine was a regular starter and registered three goal contributions.
But, against a pacey and problematic Gent side last week, he failed to forge any long-lasting impact, and it would be a perplexing decision to start the midfielder in this pivotal encounter.
In the aforementioned match, the attacker started to rest Said Benrahma, but he failed to repay the faith that was shown in him. He failed to record any key passes, accurate crosses, shots on target and only had one successful dribble, as per Sofascore.
The £70k-per-week ace was then hooked after 61 minutes as he was unable to stamp meaningful authority upon proceedings or halt the Belgian onslaught.
The playmaker has previously been described as “non-existent” by Hammers journalist Alan Rzepa, and his season has unravelled into a hugely disappointing and non-impactful few months.
Throughout the campaign, Moyes has barely shown any faith in the former River Plate maestro, who has only started one Premier League game and been an unused substitute on 23 occasions, which included the recent 2-2 draw with Arsenal.
This is a pretty damning condemnation of his manager’s lack of trust when he doesn’t see Lanzini as someone who can help reverse West Ham’s horrendous domestic goal-scoring form that has only seen them score 29 times in 30 league games.
Earlier in this competition, it was an endearing sentiment for Moyes to start the man, who has been at the Irons since 2016, but the former Manchester United boss must find his ruthless self and ditch the Lanzini for this must-win game.