Edson Alvarez will not play in West Ham United’s Europa League match against Backa Topola.
West Ham United will be without summer signing Edson Alvarez for Thursday’s Europa League clash with Backa Topola due to suspension.
The 25-year-old midfielder, who joined from Ajax for around £34m last month, has made a promising start to life in East London, helping the Hammers claim three victories in their last four Premier League matches.
However, Alvarez will serve a one-game continental ban when West Ham begin their 2023-24 Europa League group-stage campaign on Thursday after being sent off for former club Ajax in last season’s Europa League playoff-round defeat to Union Berlin in February.
Alvarez is West Ham’s only absentee, though, as manager David Moyes has confirmed that he has a fully-fit squad for the visit of Serbian outfit and Europa League debutants Backa Topola.
“We’ve got everybody available, everybody fit and ready to play,” Moyes said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“Edson Alvarez is suspended. He’s still getting used to the Premier League but he’s fine and fit and healthy.”
Discussing the strengths of his squad, Moyes added: “We’ve probably got more players of a certain quality. It’s great that everybody is fit and everybody wants to show what they can do.
“We’re going to need it. We’re in a tough set of games and we want to play well in all our games, and make a good start to our group, but we won’t be taking anything for granted either.
“I think our injury record has generally been fantastic but the start of last season, we were really short. We had a real problem with centre defenders at the time and that certainly affected us at the start of last season.
“I think we’ve tried to build a stronger whole group,” the Scotsman continued. “The competition is good in the squad. We want to keep that strong and the players are in a confident frame of mind, which comes from victories and playing well.
“We want to try and get more of the ball in games but, if we can’t, we want to make sure we’re really hard to beat in games.”
Thursday’s contest could see West Ham’s new recruit Mohammed Kudus handed his first start for the club following his big-money move from Ajax towards the end of the summer transfer window.
The 23-year-old attacker, who scored 18 goals in all competitions for Ajax last season, scored a hat-trick in his final game for the Dutch giants in a Europa League qualifier against Ludogorets at the end of August, and he has since made two substitute outings for his new club West Ham.
“I like what I see and I think [Kudus] looks a really good player,” said Moyes. “That’s why we brought him and hopefully we can give him a chance to show what he can do in the next couple of weeks.
“We just wanted to give him a bit of time and not expect too much too soon.”
West Ham won all six group games in last season’s Europa Conference League en route to lifting the trophy, and they will now be looking to make a winning start in Group A of this year’s Europa League that also includes Greek giants Olympiacos and German side Freiburg.
