The Hammers face big problems against Freiburg on Thursday without any fans and facing a shocking pitch which is going to cause plenty of issues.
They also find themselves in confrontation with a team which – currently eighth in their league – opened their Europa League campaign with a 3-2 win over Olympiacos.
Whichever way you look at this game David Moes has a real selection problem as he can ill afford to take the conditions the team finds itself in too lightly.
It’s a tricky situation with Newcastle arriving on Sunday because this – unlike our opening game in the competition against Serbians TSC – is not one where we dare put out anything other than a stronger side.
According to News, Freiburg are a determined team, well disciplined who like the Hammers base their game, to come extent, on at set pieces
They will be no pushovers as we bid to grab our second win in the competition and the job will be made much harder by the missing Hammers fans due to a UEFA ban.
Unlike the Serbian outfit we beat in the opening game, Moyes will have had plenty of chance to weigh up the Germans who beat Augsburg in their last League game before the Hammers clash with, significantly, a corner providing one and a spot kick the other!
The state of the pitch is another big problem for us with the game against Augsburg showing the difficulties where the teams had to overcome a really nasty surface.
Moyes may need to call up one or two regular for the game and a possible team may look like this: Fabianski; Coufal, Mavropanos, Aguerd, Johnson; Soucek, Alvarez; JWP, Fornals, Kudus, Ings
