West Ham's Premier League campaign preparations ramp up a notch in the penultimate week before the season gets underway as they play two pre-season friendlies in four days.
Up first is a game against Hertha Berlin in Ritzing, Austria on Wednesday evening. The team then flies back to London on Friday to gear up for the Betway Cup match against Athletic Bilbao this Saturday, the Hammers' fifth and final friendly ahead of the new season.
West Ham have won two and lost two of their friendlies so far as manager Manuel Pellegrini evenly distributes minutes given to his senior players before the start of 2019/20.
Sebastien Haller and Pablo Fornals both made their debuts for the club in the 1-0 victory at Fulham last weekend while Arthur Masuaku and Fabian Balbuena got their first run outs of the pre-season after their international duty exploits earlier this summer.
Ryan Fredericks, Mark Noble, Angelo Ogbonna and Winston Reid all missed the game with minor injuries but all four have travelled to Austria for the mini training camp and friendly match.
Manuel Pellegrini has only taken his senior stars to Austria, the youngsters that went to the camp in Switzerland have remained at home and the manager is expected to name a fairly strong lineup as he fine tunes his squad prior to facing Manchester City at London Stadium on August 10.
How do we think the manager could send his team out to start the game on Wednesday?
It's a pretty strong team we have gone despite Pellegrini still wanting to give regular minutes to each of his players.
Roberto should get a run out having not featured against Fulham and coming off the bench against Newcastle in Shanghai. Lukasz Fabianski wil have his workload managed but is a near certain to start against Bilbao this weekend.
Ryan Fredericks' groin strain means he's unlikely to be risked against Hertha so Ben Johnson could get another run out, but Pablo Zabaleta may well deputise in there too. Fabian Balbuena and Issa Diop are likely to be the centre backs again, with Arthur Masuaku starting for the first time in pre-season.
Fornals and Haller will get their second run outs in claret and blue as they continue to get up to speed with their teammates and Felipe Anderson, who has started every game in pre-season, continues on the left.
Mark Noble's dead leg shouldn't be enough to keep him out as he wasn't risked against Fulham.
