West Ham United get their preseason underway with a friendly against Grasshopper Zurich on Saturday afternoon.

Grasshoppers are already well into their preseason, with the Swiss Super League getting underway next week, just as the Hammers will be jetting off to the United States for the Premier League Summer Series.

Match preview

A big season lies ahead for Graham Potter and West Ham, who endured an underwhelming 2024-25 campaign, finishing 14th with very little to get excited about in the post-David Moyes era.

Potter must utilise preseason to implement his ideas on the pitch, after being thrust in at the deep end midway though last season, and struggling to improve the club’s fortunes much.

This will be their only friendly before jetting off the PL Summer Series, where the Hammers will face Manchester United, Everton and Bournemouth in the States, before a friendly against Lille ahead of the new season.

West Ham begin their campaign against Sunderland, in a fixture many fans will view as must win, so after winning two of their final three league games last season, a continuation of that will be expected. 

First up for Potter’s men are Grasshoppers from Zurich, who have already played two pre-season friendlies, drawing with Vaduz before beating Sion 3-0.

Like the Hammers, the Swiss club will also be looking to improve on their showing from last season, as they only avoided automatic relegation on goal difference, before beating Aarau 4-1 on aggregate in a playoff.

Manager Tomas Oral has now been replaced by Gerald Scheiblehner ahead of the new campaign, which gets underway very early in Switzerland, with Grasshoppers’ first match coming against Luzern next weekend.

The very early start means Grasshoppers will actually play friendlies after their season is underway, against Celta Vigo and German giants Bayern Munich, which should add to their coffers over the summer.

Grasshoppers Club Friendlies form:

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Team News

West Ham made their first signing of the summer this week, bringing El Hadji Malick Diouf in from Slavia Prague, just as Aaron Cresswell departed for Stoke City, after 11 years at the club.

Mohammed Kudus has been the big departure though, so the supporters will hope to see all of that £55m reinvested into the squad for next season.

Crysencio Summerville is the only injury concern hanging over from last season, but after almost two months off, his hamstring issue should be close to clearing up.

Nikolas Muci may well be the man to watch for Grasshoppers, even though he bizarrely spent a lot of time on the bench last season, despite being the club’s top scorer, and netting many important goals late in the season.

Jonathan Asp Jensen has arrived on loan from Bayern and could make his first appearance, hoping to have more of an impact than Nestory Irankunda had last season, when also arriving from the Bavarian club, but to little effect.

Grasshoppers possible starting lineup:

Hammel; Abels, Paskotsi, Giandomenico; Bettkober, Abrashi, Veron, Meyer, Diarrassouba; Muci, Jensen

West Ham United possible starting lineup:

Areola; Wan-Bissaka, Kilman, Mavropanos, Scarles; Irving, Orford, Ward-Prowse; Luis Guilherme, Bowen, Lucas Paqueta

We say: Grasshoppers 0-2 West Ham United

With much of their first-team squad set to be available, West Ham should come out on top, but as is always the case with these early pre-season friendlies, handing out minutes to as many players as possible is the most important aspect.

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Written by
Andrew Delaney

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