Predicting West Ham’s “strong” FA Cup squad for Gillingham

David Moyes’ commitment to the FA Cup has been clearly stated, but now it’s time to prove it. The Glaswegian manager is expected to name a strong XI to face Gillingham – here’s our best guess.

How strong is strong? Well, regardless of intent it appears David Moyes will be without a few first-team mainstays due to injury concern following West Ham’s emphatic win over Bournemouth. No more important player is in question than Lukasz Fabianski. The Polish keeper returned against Leicester in a narrow loss but kept a clean sheet against the Cherries.

His hip injury, that required surgery to fix, has a rehab schedule the likely doesn’t allow for him to play two matches in five days. The only issue is that with David Martin also injured it could fall to Roberto to keep goal for the cup match. Would Moyes do this? Hard to say, but I wouldn’t count out a risky Joseph Anang appointment over the known stinker.

Moyes’ team to face Gillingham:

Fabianski

Fredericks – Diop – Balbuena – Masuaku

Lanzini – Rice – Snodgrass – Fornals

Haller – Anderson

Bench: Roberto, Reid, Cresswell, Coventry, Sanchez, Holland, Ajeti

With a solid mix of first-team players and bench players, David Moyes has a team that should dominate early and allows the likes of Nathan Holland, Conor Coventry, and Ajeti to come in late for experience and to see out the win.

The biggest gamble is the use of Fabianski. With the FA Cup being taken very seriously by the Moyes I cannot see him gambling the keeper position even is it goes against Fabianski’s rehab schedule. I also teetered on Ryan Fredericks, an injury-prone player, getting the start over Pablo Zabaleta. If all goes to plan the Hammers should be out in front early and Fredericks can cruise and be subbed if need be.

With no Mark Noble in the team, Robert Snodgrass is the perfect player to step up in central midfield. He has played centrally for Hull City and Aston Villa, albeit in a more attacking role, but his work rate and physicality suit him well in a deeper role. Declan Rice as his partner does free him to step up as well.

Lastly, Manuel Lanzini and Pablo Fornals being used as wide players give the formation fluidity; if the counterattack is on, shift to a 4-2-4 and overload the box. If possession is sustained in a slower buildup, shift to a 4-3-3 with one of the wide players dropping back a bit.

This team, or really any iteration of a West Ham team that doesn’t feature Roberto in goal and Carlos Sanchez in the midfield is good enough to beat Gillingham. There is a lot of positivity around the team after the Moyes appointment and win over Bournemouth, more goals should continue this and push the team on into the second half.