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Antonio gives the ball away too easily

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Michail Antonio gave the ball away to Arsenal a total of 26 times during the one-nil defeat against Arsenal according to figures produced by SofaScore.com

The next worst offender was Aaron Cresswell who gave the ball away 16 times followed by Sebastien Haller with 14 lost possessions.

New boy Jarrod Bowen was next giving away the ball 13 times to the opposition with youngster Jeremy Ngakia the last of the double-figures with 10 balls given away.

Skipper Mark Noble gave away nine balls to Arsenal with Pablo Fornals, Angelo Ogbonna and Issa Diop all giving away eight balls each to the oppo.

It should come as no surprise that the player of the match to keep possession was Declan Rice giving away the ball just twice in ninety minutes.

Late substitutes Tomas Soucek and Felipe Anderson who played nine minutes each gave away 4 and 3 balls respectively

While Antonio place and strength is invaluable to the team his finishing lets him down and he loses the ball too easily as shown today.

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I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called Moore Than Just a Podcast A Blogger on West Ham Till I die a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball,

I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh.

Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons!

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8 comments

  • slidingtackle says:

    Yes but how many times does he win it back and force the opposition to lose the ball.

  • Wembley1980 says:

    How long has he been a West Ham player? He’s always been an Athlete before a footballer and his effort is always missed when he’s injured. In one of your other posts you says how impressive our stats were against Arsenal wasn’t that a lot to do with his effort? Take off the centre midfielder who gave the ball away just as much and we probably would’ve got a draw!

  • zahama says:

    I guess that what this statistic depends on is the definition of “giving the ball away” – I would guess that for both Antonio and Cresswell their “give-aways” would include crosses that were cleared – also in the case of Antonio he could “improve” this stat by making a safe backward pass instead of taking on the opposition defender – but then I thought that was what we were criticizing Anderson for doing this season

    Antonio should have scored some of his chances yesterday but I find this post overly negative (by the way I am a Statistician in my day job)

  • Del PE. says:

    As honest as the day is long, cannot question his work ethics but I have been saying for yrs now his skill levels leave a lot to be desired.. Not a centre forward in my eyes.. Reminds me bit of one of my least favourite Hammers over the yrs.. Charlton ColešŸ¤®

  • Simon M says:

    I noticed in the last match against Southampton how lethargic and unhelpful Antonio had become.
    And he just continued the same into today’s match. He doesn’t bother to cut off passes or at least block or obstruct an opponent from building up play from the back.
    The gigantic flop pass from him to Haller and both their easy misses today tells one the story. Not even a “sorry supporters” … too proud or arrogant.
    And saddest of all if Moyes cannot pick this up. Woe betide us. Antonio or Haller should be dropped for their attitude and misses … or at least subbed when they are not producing. Instead, well take Harrod off … again?
    Come on chaps the drop looks very real now. We gotta win, win, win !!!

  • Tony says:

    He may give the ball away. But what performer. All heart……

  • Lee Dobinson says:

    If Antonio had all of the attributes that he’s been accused of lacking in the comments in the articles below this one, he’d be a Ā£100m player, and almost certainly not a West Ham player. So, let’s be grateful for what he does bring to the team, and get behind him for the next few games. I’d rather he were in the team – even without those attributes – than not.

  • George Green says:

    Bit meaningless as you have to have the ball in the first place and WANT to receive it, rather avoid it like Cresswell does.
    Sure Antonio’s control is often poor, but we need players such as Anderson on the pitch who will near enough to receive it.

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