Manuel Pellegrini Confirms Samir Nasri Is Among Extensive List of Absentees for Liverpool Clash
West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini has spoken about the extensive list of injuries facing his side ahead of Liverpool's visit on Monday night, confirming that midfielder Samir Nasri will miss out, while providing updates on a number of other potential absentees.
The Irons currently have six long-term absentees going into the match, with Jack Wilshere, Andriy Yarmolenko, Winston Reid, Fabian Balbuena, Manuel Lanzini and Carlos Sanchez all definitely missing out, while the talismanic Marko Arnautovic and a number of others are in doubt.
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“We are not sure of Arnautovic’s availability,” Pellegrini said, via the West Ham website.
“We need to see how the pain is in his foot, but we are just on Friday and we have 72 hours more if he will be able or not.
“It's more of a question for the doctor. I will see on Saturday, talk with the player, see if he can kick the ball, so I think there are lot of things that within hours can change 100 per cent.
“Fabianski, I think he will be OK. He didn’t work 100 per cent normally on Friday, but I think he will not have any problems on Saturday.
“Aaron Cresswell is improving. We need to test him on Saturday to see if he will be able to play and Samir Nasri needs one week more.”
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The injury crisis facing the club has resulted in an immediate downturn in form, with damaging Premier League defeats to Bournemouth and Wolves sandwiching a shock FA Cup exit at the hands of AFC Wimbledon.
Pellegrini however remains upbeat about West Ham's chances of overcoming the league leaders even with the situation at hand, adding via football.london: "I think we can beat Liverpool of course.
"Every team can beat any team in the Premier League. We need to play with high pace like we have done in home games against big teams.
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"Our last three performances away have not been so good, now we have the option to recover our performance at home against the team who is leading the table, we will do all we can to win it.
"We must improve, lift ourselves if we want to be a competitive team. I hope we improve as soon as we can."
