West Ham face an injury crisis ahead of their trip to Tottenham after the international break. Defender Winston Reid is touch and go for whether he will make it back, with Reece Oxford, Sam Byrom and Arthur Masuaku definitely out.
That leaves West Ham manager Slaven Bilic facing a tough decision. Mainly, whether he will stick with the 3-5-2 formation that has been successful for them recently, or move to a 4 at the back formation.
The biggest problem is that they face Tottenham. This is the biggest game of the year for West Ham, a game that their fans treat as their cup final, so they will want to get a result at all costs. Bad news for them is that Tottenham Striker Harry Kane is back, and he has a pedigree for scoring in London derbies.
We look at the two options he has in defence for the game.
Three at the back
Should Reid be out, it will be a big risk to play this formation. West Ham are really short on central defenders and no doubt Bilic will be looking at this position in the transfer window. Currently, he has James Collins and Angelo Ogbonna as his two recognised central defenders. Kouyate has played here at times for the East London club, but he is a midfielder by trade.
James Collins has been largely out of favour this season. The 33-year-old is probably nearing the end of his Premier League career and is showing his age, looking very slow and cumbersome. He is probably less suited to a 3 at the back formation which requires the central defenders to be more comfortable on the ball than average as they’re relied upon to start attacks and play the ball into midfield, or to the wide players over greater distances.
Kouyate will be more adept at this aspect of the defensive play, but whether his positioning is good enough to step into the defence for such a big match is under question.
Maybe one last option is that Bilic plays Arbeloa in the right centre half position. The former Real Madrid defender is comfortable on the ball, and good defensively. As seen by Conte at Chelsea playing Full-back Azpilicueta in one of his back three, a full back playing in one of these positions can work well.
Four at the back
Playing a back four would make more sense given the personnel available to the Croat, but he has changed that from early on in the season for a reason. The four at the back defensive structure didn’t work at all well for West Ham early in the season, and it coincided with their poor early season form.
Plus it really helped West Ham when they played Tottenham last season and was a formation that Pochettino’s men struggled to deal with.
However, West Ham could comfortably play a defensive back four of Arbeloa, Ogbonna, Collins, Creswell and have each player playing in positions in which they are comfortable.