David Moyes is expecting to be without several players for West Ham United’s FA Cup fifth-round tie against Southampton on Wednesday evening.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, the manager noted several anticipated absences for the tie at St Mary’s Stadium, as the Irons seek to reach the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time since 2015/16.
The FA Cup match is the second in a string of eight games in 22 days across three different competitions, having kicked off a demanding spell of the season with a solid performance in a 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday.
“The fact is we have a lot of games in the days,” Moyes noted. “We’re going to have to look at what we’ve got.
“We’re much tighter than what we’ve been. We’ve had Vladimír Coufal with a hernia operation. We’ve had Ryan Fredericks with a bit of a groin strain. Before you know it, you start to knock one or two down.
“We’ve got the [Andriy] Yarmolenko [who last week was granted compassionate leave] situation and Angelo Ogbonna out, so before you know it, it starts to build up.
“I can really only take one game at a time, and go into the games and see what I can do for the best for the team and the Club.”
Impressing in that Premier League win over Wolves with a performance full of graft and endeavour, which resulted in the No9 picking up the assist for Tomáš Souček’s second-half winner, was Michail Antonio on his 36th game of the season for Club and country.
Indeed, Antonio has missed just one Premier League game so far this season, with the forward also playing in three out of six UEFA Europa League group-stage games and once – against Leeds United in the third round – in the FA Cup.
Moyes noted: “[We’re rotating him] at the right times. You look through the European games and we didn’t play Mich in all the games – we did in some.
“We’ve tried to manage him in quite a few Cup games this year, because he’s added Jamaica to his workload as well.
“I actually think Mich’s in a far better physical place than he’s been in a long, long time. He’s in even better condition. He’s looking after himself, which maybe comes with a little bit of experience.
“I think he’s doing well on the fitness side, he’s keeping himself strong, and I think we saw an improved Michy Antonio at the weekend as well.”
Another played who impressed with his work-rate and output against Wolves was Pablo Fornals, deployed in a newfound left wing-back role to allow Aaron Cresswell to tuck into the left side of a back three.
Moyes explained: “It was a game as if I felt we had to slightly alter for, partly because of how we were playing and how Wolves were playing. I watched them against Arsenal and I felt that we had to try it.
“I felt Pablo played very well in the role and did a good job for us there. He’s really flexible, Pablo, and he can play in so many different positions.
“We’re without Arthur [Masuaku] and we’ve got a few injuries, which means we’re a little bit short on an out-and-out complete left wing-back, so it’s something where I’m glad he came in and did a really good job for us.”