Antonio eyebrow-raiser

Michail Antonio is unlikely to START against Spurs on November 23 which will come as no surprise to him or us after injury.

What is an eyebrow-raiser however is that it will be the TWELFTH time he will have failed to start a game this season.

Now being seen as the natural strike partner to Seb Haller, he has made jut three Premier League appearances this season so far, coming on at half time against Man City and Brighton whilst joining the action after 35 minutes against Watford.

However, although he is set to start on the bench against Spurs it seem likely that when he does arrive on the pitch it will be in a free role.

The manager needs to either provide Haller with a partner or let Antonio loose in a free role to drag defenders’ attention away from Haller thus giving him room in which to operate.

Nobody is better at occupying defenders than Antonio who has often forced oppositions to double up on him such is his style of play.

Antonio is set to make a difference against Spurs hopefully and we understand that he is training well – the fear maybe that he will be rushed back into action too quickly as has happened in the past.

 

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon