Jarrod Bowen is West Ham’s top scorer in the Premier League this season and will be looking to add to his four goals when the Hammers face Leeds United in the Premier League on Friday night.
Bowen is David Moyes's first choice option on the right wing having made his £24million move from Hull City 11 months ago. During his time with the Tigers in 2018, Bowen had one of his best days in a gold and black shirt.
The winger scored twice at Elland Road as Hull beat Leeds 2-0, inflicting defeat for just the fourth time that campaign for Marcelo Bielsa’s side.
Bowen took his tally for the season into double figures with the brace in Yorkshire and enhanced his reputation as one of the stand out players in the Championship, often linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur which never materialised.
Almost a year later in 2019, Bowen came up against Bielsa again having tormented the Argentine 12 months and was coming off the back of netting ten goals in his previous nine matches.
The Leeds boss said at the time: “This season we can see a lot of good attackers in every team and in most of the teams, not just those at the top.
“You know how he plays. This is a very good player who unbalances the team. And he scores because he has a good shot.
“Our defensive method does not change. What changes is the level of the attacker, said Bielsa as published by Leeds Live ).
“We don’t underestimate inferior opponents so we prepare ourselves for the worst situation. In this case, he’s a great attacker but we keep working in the same strategy and keep trying to improve this.”
Bowen has arguably reached another level since making his move to the Premier League with West Ham, who brought him to the capital in January 2020 and has become a key player for Moyes in his 5-2-3 formation.
He will come up against a Leeds defence that will show a couple of changes with centre half Robin Koch ruled out with a knee injury and his likely replacement, Diego Llorente, also missing.
Bielsa took the unusual approach of naming his starting eleven for the game at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday. Whether you take that with a pinch of salt or if he is being sincere is up to you.
The Argentine manager said: “That’s to say Rodrigo Moreno’s going to come in for Llorente and the XI is going to be: Meslier, [Stuart] Dallas, Ayling, Cooper, [Ezgjan] Alioski, Phillips, [Mateusz] Klich, Moreno, Raphinha, Bamford and [Jack] Harrison.”
David Moyes will give the latest Hammers team news at his own pre-match press conference, which will take place at 1pm on Thursday afternoon.
