West Ham needs to manage star forward's playing time in the upcoming matches
By Rahul Das
Recently, West Ham received a massive injury blow as star forward Niclas Fullkrug picked up an achilles injury while training with the Germany national team for the next group stage match against Netherlands. The Hammers signed Fullkrug in this transfer window after the 31-year-old played a key role for Borussia Dortmund, scoring fifteen goals in the Bundesliga and scoring the winning goal in the UEFA Champions League semi final. However, Fullkrug will miss the next few games for Julen Lopetegui's side in the Premier League after the international break as he his recovering from his injury.
Therefore, West Ham need to avoid any further injuries to any key player in the squad otherwise, it'll be difficult for West Ham to perform well in the Premier League season. Recently, while playing for Ghana in the AFCON qualifiers, Mohammed Kudus played the full ninety minutes in both matches against Niger and Morocco. Now, the 24-year-old has returned to join West Ham after the international break, and will play again this week in the Fulham match.
West Ham needs to manage star forward's playing time in the upcoming matches
Therefore, Kudus is highly likely to get fatigued after playing three matches completely in around a week. If this happened, West Ham will struggle to score more goals this season in the absence of quality forwards Niclas Fullkrug and Mohammed Kudus in the attack. Therefore, manager Julen Lopetegui needs to manage Kudus's playing time in the upcoming matches to get the best out of him throughout this season without getting sidelined with an injury.
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If West Ham start well against Fulham and take an early lead, then, Kudus should be substituted out around the hour mark. Another option can be to bring Kudus as a second half substitute and gradually increase his playing time in the upcoming matches while having him fully fit and in great form. Now, it remains to be seen whether manager Julen Lopetegui makes some changes to the West Ham attack against Fulham after Fullkrug's injury as they want to improve their overall performance in the Premier League to boost their ambitions of finishing inside the top six place in the Premier League this season.
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