West Ham 2-3 Leeds United - recap: Marcelo Bielsa reaction and player ratings to London Stadium thriller

Welcome to today’s Yorkshire Evening Post matchday blog... we’ll have all the build-up, in-game and post-match updates here throughout the day.

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David Moyes refused to go into detail over West Ham’s player availability for Sunday’s clash against Leeds United.

The Hammers were without Mark Noble, Tomas Soucek and Ryan Fredericks for the midweek Premier League win over Norwich City at the London Stadium.

Long-term absentee Angelo Ogbonna is still sidelined while Said Benrahma is away at the African Cup of Nations with Algeria.

Defender Kurt Zouma - who has been out since early December with a hamstring issue - has returned to training in recent days and is battling to be fit.

“I don’t want to be specific on who has Covid and who is injured but those two [Soucek and Noble] were out and we are hoping we might get one of them back, but I am not saying who,” Moyes told his pre-match press conference.

“We might get one of them back and we also have some niggles, which we picked up from the game [against Norwich].

“We’ve also got some other players who have had Covid as well. So we’re trying to work around it like every other club at the moment. It’s difficult but we’ve got injuries and Covid like all clubs have.”

Marcelo Bielsa expects to be able to count upon a key trio of players returning for injury for Leeds United’s Premier League trip to West Ham United.

Patrick Bamford, Pascal Struijk and Rodrigo could all be available for Bielsa, in a huge boost for the Whites.

Bielsa still has an extensive injury list, however, with Liam Cooper and Kalvin Phillips among the headline absentees while Diego Llorente is suspended.

YEP XI: Meslier; Ayling, Koch, Struijk, Firpo; Forshaw; Dallas; Klich; James, Raphinha; Bamford.

“I think Leeds will be fine. I expect them to have one or two players back by the time the game comes around,” Moyes said ahead of Sunday afternoon’s kick-off.

“They are a really good side, really hard to play against, and have shown that over the last couple of years.

“Everybody likes watching them and knows about their energy and how they play so that makes it really difficult to play against and we have had some really tough games against them over the last year or so.”

“It’s a fight that they deserve, the one that they are taking forward,” Bielsa said.

“It’s a team that has variants for each position and they have adapted to the absences that they have had, they are a team of power offensively and with a very solid structure.”

“It’s good that we play them again, because we have the game against them so recently,” Firpo told BBC Radio Leeds.

“We can see the things that we did we badly and we can correct them, to try and do better in this game.

“West Ham are a really hard team, they are really strong, especially at home. They have good players in defence and good players in attack, so we will try to do our best.

“I think the people can see that in the first half we played really well against them [last weekend]. Maybe we can get more chances than we had, but we played well.

“I think we have to try to take advantage of the last game, our playing out was good, we took the ball into the last third.

“After then, we didn’t take advantage of the situations, so these are the things we have to improve in this next game.”

Pascal Struijk is with the Whites squad this afternoon. Koch, Meslier, Ayling, Dallas, Forshaw, Harrison, Klich, Hjelde, Rodrigo and Firpo have also all arrived. Moore, Bate, Kenneh, Raphinha, McCarron, Jenkins, Gray and Klaesson follow on shortly after.

Official team news will be with us right here at 1pm... we’ll have it with you as soon as it lands.

Patrick Bamford is still missing this afternoon for Leeds United.

Pascal Struijk and Rodrigo, though, return against West Ham which is a major boost for Marcelo Bielsa.

Struijk starts while Rodrigo is fit enough for the bench.

Leeds have made four changes to their starting line-up after last week’s defeat to the Hammers.

Leeds United XI: Meslier, Ayling, Koch, Struijk, Firpo, Dallas, Forshaw, Raphinha, Klich, Harrison, James. Subs: Klaesson, Rodrigo, Bate, Hjelde, McKinstry, Jenkins, Moore, Kenneh, Gray.

West Ham XI: Fabianski, Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Cresswell, Lanzini, Rice, Bowen, Fornals, Vlasic, Antonio. Subs: Yarmolenko, Areola, Fredericks, Masuaku, Johnson, Kral, Okoflex, Alese, Perkins.

“It’s massive. A couple of the teams below us yesterday got results. We’re aware we need to put a run together now.”

Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa to Sky Sports: “We want to correct things that happened in the last game, get behind a bit more in the attack and make it more difficult for them to play out from the back.

“Even if their victory was fair, we were always able to be in the game and we avoided marked differences between us.

“For us every game that we play, the victory is something we can’t go without given how we started the season.

“In the first half of the season we haven’t picked up as many points as we’d have wanted.”

Did you consider asking to postpone this game? “No, no. We don’t have any reasons to ask for it.”