West Ham v Liverpool – Team News

West Ham v Liverpool
Upton Park
Sunday, December 9
KO: 16.00 GMT

Team News

West Ham welcome Yossi Benayoun back into their squad. The former Liverpool midfielder missed the Hammers’ 3-1 win over European Champions Chelsea as he was ineligible to appear against his parent club.

On loan Liverpool striker Andy Carroll could be missing for upto two months on the sidelines but would not have been able to feature against the Reds due to the terms of his loan. Other attacking options Ricardo Vaz Te, Jack Collison and Alou Diarra are all definitely out of this match with injuries.

Meanwhile, Liverpool’s top scorer Luis Suárez is suspended having picked up his fifth yellow card of the season last week against Southampton last week.

Reds’ manager Brendan Rodgers has played young midfielder Jonjo Shelvey in a ‘false 9’ position before and could do so again as a stop-gap with no other senior strikers fit.

Captain Steven Gerrard, left out of the Europa League squad which beat Udinese in Italy, will be restored for the West Ham game as will the rested defender Daniel Agger and Lucas Leiva.

Probable Starting XIs

West Ham: Jaaskelainen; Demel, Reid, Collins, O’Brien; Tomkins, Noble; O’Neil, Nolan, Jarvis; Carlton Cole.

Liverpool: Reina; Johnson, Agger, Skrtel, Enrique; Allen, Gerrard, Lucas; Sterling, Shelvey, Suso.

Notes

West Ham seek to harness the momentum from last weekend’s dramatic win over Chelsea by thwarting a resurgent Liverpool, who have lost only once in their last 10 league games.

The Reds’ attacking options are severely hindered by the absence of star striker Luis Suárez.

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