David Moyes has named a strong starting XI for West Ham United's pre-season friendly against Celtic at Celtic Park this afternoon.
The boss has opted to start with a very experienced team full of first-team players from last season with a handful of younger squad members on the substitutes bench.
Said Benrahma and Lukasz Fabianski have been handed their first starts of pre-season following their summer exploits with Algeria and Poland respectively. Pablo Fornals starts his second match in four days after returning to the club earlier this week after being called up to the Spanish setup prior to Euro 2020.
Fabianski returns in goal having seen Darren Randolph start against Reading on Wednesday evening with the Irishman being named amongst the substitutes alongside veteran goalkeeper David Martin.
Ahead of Fabianski, Moyes has decided to begin the match with a back four made up of Ryan Fredericks at right-back, Aaron Cresswell as the left-back, and Craig Dawson and Angelo Ogbonna partnering up in central defence.
Mark Noble skippers the team and will play alongside Manuel Lanzini who is expected to start the match in a deep-lying playmaker role, a position he excelled in last season against Burnley at Turf Moor.
Jarrod Bowen, Fornals and Benrahma will provide the attacking support for lone striker Michail Antonio who will once again lead the line.
The manager has named a nine-man substitutes bench including former Celtic player Armstrong Oko-Flex who will be hoping to come on and make an impact against the club he represented last season.
Alongside Oko-Flex are Nathan Holland, Keenan Forson, Frederick Alves, Issa Diop, Ben Johnson and Conor Coventry, with the latter two having superb matches against Reading earlier this week.
West Ham XI - Fabianski, Fredericks, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Noble, Fornals, Lanzini, Bowen, Benrahma, Antonio
Substitutes - Darren Randolph, David Martin, Ben Johnson, Issa Diop, Frederick Alves, Keenan Forson, Conor Coventry, Nathan Holland, Armstrong Oko-Flex
