West Ham United travel to St James’ Park to take on Newcastle United in the Premier League on Saturday.
Newcastle are currently sitting three places and four points behind West Ham in the Premier League table, so it will be crucial that we don’t lose up on Tyneside.
Hammers boss David Moyes currently has a grand total of eight of his first-team players away on international duty, and he will be praying that they all return to Rush Green as fit as they were when they left.
West Ham are in a really strong position right now, both in the Premier League and Europa League, and we need a full compliment of players if we are to do any damage during the final two months of the 2023/24 campaign.
We’ve had some disappointing league results recently, with back-to-back home draws against Burnley and Aston Villa respectively.
The big problem for Moyes and his players is that they face a really tough run of fixtures now, with games against Newcastle, Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea to come in the next month or so.
Nothing less than a draw will do away at Newcastle this weekend, but if I’m being honest I think we should be going there with the mindset that we need to win.
And with that in mind, the latest news is not very good for us whatsoever…
Potentially colossal West Ham blow ahead of Newcastle clash
The two-week international break is incredibly annoying for anyone who loves club football – especially the one at this time of the year.
The season is at a pivotal stage, and any problems suffered by players whilst away with their respective nations could end up having serious ramifications for their clubs.
Unfortunately for us, it seems like we could be the victim of this…
According to Premier Injuries, Hammers attacker Mohammed Kudus has a 50% chance of being fit in time for our clash with Newcastle on Saturday.
The exceptional 23-year-old withdrew from the Ghana squad last week after suffering a problem with his shoulder.
Signed by Moyes from Ajax in the summer of 2023 for around £38 million (Sky Sports), Kudus has bagged 12 goals and four assists in 34 games for the Hammers so far this season (Transfermarkt).
What an incredible player the powerful Ghanaian winger is, and he has taken the Premier League by storm so far. He’s absolutely vital to everything good that we do as a team.
If West Ham don’t have him available for the Newcastle game, we will really struggle to beat the Toon in my opinion.
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